My Beer Glass

[Masked Dude]

My brother and I decided to etch some glasses today. Not bad for our first try ever. I cut the stencil, and he took the photo. The beverage is one of his special year-aged beers. It was smooth and delicious.

It says "An Róisín Glas / The Green Rose" which is our name for an upcoming business venture.

[Hominid]

Awesome dude!  I'm gonna have to learn how to do the etch thing.  Drinking, well, I got that one down pat!

[jdurand]

If the beer leaks out through the letters, you etched too deep.

[Hominid]

I'll take that into consideration - Lol!

[Masked Dude]

What you can't see is the "oops" at the bottom of it. But, Homind, when you're ready feel free to ask me. I'm going to play around some more. You can see it better indoors, but we had a lot of fun doing this. I have a cutting plotter, so I made the stencil first in Adobe Illustrator, and then cut it onto vinyl with the plotter. (Sort of like a printer with a blade.)

[Hominid]

Okay, that is way cool.  A cutting plotter? I wish!  I used to run a 4' wide plotter years ago when I was an AutoCad operator.  Fun shit.  So, after afixing the vinyl to the glass, how do you etch?  Sandblasting?  Some kind of chemical thing?

[Masked Dude]

I went the chemical route, using one of those acid creams. Of course, first I pressed out the air bubbles, donned my gloves, use a craft/popsicle stick, smeared the cream on, and let it sit for 15 minutes (moving it around at 5 and 10 minutes). I heard that much longer times don't matter, but I'm going to try longer times next time I do it. I use the stick to scoop up the cream and put it back into the bottle. Final stage is dunking it into a pail of water so I can wash it off and safely dispose of the water/chemical later.

I must admit, made me feel like a kid again.

[jgiffin]

I must admit, made me feel like a kid again.

You mean, like a kid who uses industrial fluorides, cutting plotters, and computer programs to etch a business logo into his barware of choice? I dig your childhood, man.

[DigitalBuddha]

Masked Dude, a definite achievement on the beer glass.

[Masked Dude]

I dig your childhood, man.

I was an enterprising little froggie!

I was one of those kids who went to geek camps with computers (before there were computers in every classroom), chemistry,  physics, etc. I was the first test class for one of those fancy nerdy magnet schools.

In regular school, I used hydrochloric acid to "etch" some things. Not with the blessing of the faculty, mind you. But you give a bored kid full & free access to the science labs and that's what happens. Thankfully I had them fooled so I never got in trouble for any of it.

[Masked Dude]

Masked Dude, a definite achievement on the beer glass.

I plan to do a few Dudeist types, too. I'll be sure to show 'em off here!

[Hominid]

So that's how you etch - hydrochloric acid?  Sounds dangerous!

[Masked Dude]

Oh, no, not anymore. That was just as a kid with a little too much science knowledge. I use the type of fluoride cream that you can find in stores under various trademarks/brands.

[Rev. Nobody]

My brother and I decided to etch some glasses today. Not bad for our first try ever. I cut the stencil, and he took the photo. The beverage is one of his special year-aged beers. It was smooth and delicious.

It says "An Róisín Glas / The Green Rose" which is our name for an upcoming business venture.

Nice job. Looks good, man