Tankard etch project.

Hi

Back to work tomorrow so busy busy, its going to be an easy Christmas gift year for me as all of the male relatives are getting a personalises beer tankard so I thought I would put together a beginning to end glass etch using a couple of different application and weeding techniques. 

I know most people don't own a cutting machine and are free hand cutters as I used to be but these days with the Chinese imports the prices of cutting machines has hit rock bottom and used machines are regular items on Ebay from your top of the range Rolands down to some obscure Chinese model .

Once setup correctly these will perform the basic template cutting just the same as the most expensive ones, no need for contour cutting or laser optical detection just a basic standard cutter.

It may also be possible for the cost of a few personalised cups or glasses to have a word with your local sign making business for some of their off-cut that are thrown in the bin, I am sure they will be quite happy to reduce there rubbish output.

The first design I am going to make is a Sun Moon Stars for my brother in law who is a big time Astronomer (star gazer) this design is an easy and hard weed so I shall be doing 2 techniques with this one.

The next is a Newcastle United football club logo, this design is a lot more complex, but the thing is; that with a good vector design and cutting machine, complex means nothing as the machine does all of the work.

This is the vector of the design, I found this on one of my vector cd's bought from Ebay of which I have quite a few, a simple design as it only has 3 pulls, the outside suns rays, the full moon and the half moon which leaves the separator and stars untouched.
With this design I decided to put Derek's name around the design and make it the front.

To do this I first centred the image with crossed lines then using the circle tool pressed ctrl and created a circle, holding the control allows the circle to form from the centre out evenly.

Then using the path text tool, wavy line

Place your cursor on your circle and type, the text will follow the line and a bit of practise will be required to get it to go the correct way especially when you type on the bottom line to get it to go in the opposite direction.

Once happy that the text is SPELT correctly you can delete the circle then move each text set to a more desirable place.

This has lots of elements involved and a lot more fiddly.

The thin lines around the design will be pulled these will look good just plain etched or filled with colour 

I have drawn the boxes around the designs, this is normal practise as you would need to have an area around the pattern to mask, if not done now then it would have had to be hand cut once weeded.

I then sent the design to the cutter, for those that haven't seen one in action then a small clip I videoed, this is a noisy machine my other was an expensive machine with a virtually silent stepper motor and cutting rail, you gets whats you pays for.

Once all cut. I have separated and giving a light rub with a pastel to highlight the cut marks I then uses a soft cloth to remove the extra pastel and just leave what's in the cut lines, this is important as if you leave on extra it may get under a piece of the pattern and will stop it sticking.

Now using my tools, Dental pick, Scalpel, Tweezers, Close up reading glasses, plus strong light and bench mounted magnifying glass.

There are 2 ways of weeding your template, the first is probably the most used and is to weed on the workbench, this is ideal for larger elements that will stay on the backing paper but for very small pieces then it is easier to apply to the glass first. It is sometimes required that the two techniques are combined as with the Sun & Stars.

This is bench weeding, the 3 main elements I spoke off have been removed with the lettering left alone and it can now be covered with application tape, I tend to leave a border around my templates as you can see by the white of the backing paper, I find this easier for the removal of the tape once on the work.

For small jobs like this the template is applied to the tape first then cut around, don't throw the left over tape as this is used on smaller jobs or fit onto you template piecemeal.

All air bubbles are removed from the application tape by squeegeeing out and pressing at the same time.
A centre line can be drawn for more accurate application.

Your glass can be marked out, I use the squares on my cutting board to get an accurate front and back line.

The backing paper is then peeled using a very shallow angle to pull and watching all the time for elements of your design coming off with the backing, if this happens then stop and squeegee down again and try pulling from a different angle.

Once pulled then centre on your glass without touching, if you touch at the wrong time you may well lose your template as it wont be any good when pulled off again. Bend in the middle with the 2 outer ends higher then only the marked line part will be close to the glass, just touch the template to the glass and hold there.

Use your squeegee; one side at a time and gently allow the template to fall on the glass pushing any air bubbles at the same time. Once flat rub hard all over so as the glue is stronger on the glass than the glue on the application tape.

Again at a shallow angle remove the tape.

We don't want any air bubbles in our template, not such a problem for a light etch but for anything deeper then you could blow through, if the air bubbles can't be squeezed out then prick with a scalpel then cover hole with masking.

Next is to weed the letters on the glass.

Use a scalpel and tweezers to pickup and pull the small pieces.

Now for the back of the glass, not always easy to think of what to put on so a bit of imagination required.

For the stargazer in the family I made up a limerick.

I repeated the technique above, weeding letters this small are always a problem especially letter 'A' or most all with a separate inner.

For small pieces like this even when there are larger elements in the pattern it is best to leave them untouched until on the glass.

I made this glass yesterday with a leaping fish and the fins where left untouched until on the glass and it made it a whole lot easier to weed.
I used Rub n Buff ebony on this design.

Care should be taken in getting the pattern straight on the glass as the finished look reflects on not only your skill but also the care you put into your work and for the extra few seconds to mark correctly and line up its worth it. What I have done in the past is to have centre lines on the computer image so they are cut with the design for accurate marking, these will be masked before blasting. Forgot this time.

The Newcastle crest was a test piece to illustrate just how fine a line the machine can cut, I could have inverse etched this design by leaving the thin lines and pulling the larger pieces, doing it that way would require the whole box area being blasted to denote the outline. I will do this at some point to show the difference.

I pulled the very thin separation lines which takes a steady hand and a scalpel to get that fine point in to start the pull, take great care and watch every piece.

Because I was blasting only one side of the glass and no spray paint was involved then just the immediate area that may recieve overspray was masked.

I then gave a short blast with my new gun and I love it already, I have the pressure a lot lower at around 40psi and its working fine.

After the blast.

I am very pleased with the finish, just needs someone to want a Newcastle tankard, put on there name and of it goes.

Derek's came out just as good, I fully masked the glass as both side were to be etched.

and into the cabinet.
After blasting.

I have a black piece of vinyl in the glass to bring out the etch.
Very pleased with both tankards they have come out very nice, practise practise, practise.

Paul