Farnsworth Discussion

Picked this up off E-Bay for 12 bucks shipped. Ready to get started!
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Yep, that looks exactly like what I used. If you can, try to pull off that fly mount foam on solid pieces. Its a pain to remove small bits of it, and if you can get it of in one main piece, the glue comes of with it.
 
I've been trying to find out what the 'etching' thing is I keep reading about. Are you making the faceplate? Can you please post details (in dummy momma talk) w/ a list of things I'd need? If I can't order one from someone already made, I need the know how to make it myself. *as a last resort I'll just have to print out piece of card stock paper. Thanks! Should have started this sooner, but my daughter got her's finished, and now I wish I'd ordered doubles of everything. Any info is muchly appreciated!
 
I could never make something like the faceplate myself. I used resources here, and came up with an eps file that engravers use to do brass or plastic etchings. We opted to have the plasti ones done because they do the clean cutouts, and look fine, once you paint the plastic edges (black) brass colored. You really can't tell they are plastic at all, and they are also thicker as well.

Some etching places (places that do trophies and plaques) will also not do something like this bcause they have copyright concerns. others don't care.
 
Gareee said:
I could never make something like the faceplate myself. I used resources here, and came up with an eps file that engravers use to do brass or plastic etchings. We opted to have the plasti ones done because they do the clean cutouts, and look fine, once you paint the plastic edges (black) brass colored. You really can't tell they are plastic at all, and they are also thicker as well.

Some etching places (places that do trophies and plaques) will also not do something like this bcause they have copyright concerns. others don't care.
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I was going to ask you what kind of business you took it to. I live in the middle of 'no & where', so I'm not sure we'd have anything around here that could/would do it. I know what you mean about the CR issue...but we've been lucky, my daughter found a kiosk guy who does stickers/car decals and he made up some Firefly stuff for her...and a local embroidery place did a simple name on a leather jacket for me...no CR problems, but it was for the last Indiana Jones movie (my daughter wore the leather jacket w/ "Mutt" on it! :)

Can you direct me to any pix you may have posted of the finished product? Thanks!
 
senjak said:
Picked most of the remaining supplies this weekend, including a baking pan from a garage sale. Had a bit of a giggle as I read the label for the "Root Away", declaring it a federal crime to use the product in a manner not listed on the packaging.

Since pass one involves etching both sides of the plate, I picked up cheap Glossy photo paper for ink-jets ($10 for 20 sheets) and laser printable overheads (from Kinko's, $0.75 each, and they were willing to sell me 10 of them)

Oh, I'm using a laser printer, the ink-jet paper is suppose to transfer a laser print better than laser paper.

Additionally I picked up a couple of dense wood boards (intended for steps?) at Home Despot to put under the brass plate when I'm ironing the artwork onto the brass.

Also picked up a set of alligator clips with wire from Radio Shack, and some aluminum wire.

And I ordered the last of the dials this afternoon. Ordered 3x what I need, cause there is grinding involved. Wiggle room for messing it up.

Feel like I should fire up the grill and invite a bunch of people over for a grill and etch potluck some weekend.
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Okay, I have NO idea what it is you are doing...but I assuming it is something to do with making your own faceplate for the Farnsworth...I just wish I understood it all!! You wouldn't have pix and/or more detailed instructions would you? Or are they listed somewhere in the murky depths of this uber-long thread? Going into panic mode cuz I'm afraid I'm gonna be down to just printing an image on cardstock because I don't have time to do more than that (Creation LAX is this next weekend!). Luckily my daughter got her's finished...but now I want one! Any help, directions, illustrations, line drawings...all in 'dummy momma speak' would be helpful! Thanks!
 
We took it to the local place that does trophy engraving, as someone else here did. Some places are resonable, and if I borught in finished artwork, they don't charge a fee. (If we hadn't they charged a $25 setup fee, I think, in addition to the actual engraving and material costs.
 
During my first attempt I tookmy plate to a trophy engraving place as well...The results were pretty poor.

I gave them a specific printiout and digital file with the exact text and art...When I got it back they substituted the text with something which they thought looked similar (although in my eyes it was completely wrong) and some of the graphic lines were clearly done by hand, which resulted in shaky looking lines.
 
What is the talk about 'root away' and such? Then I saw mention of 'getting the paper off'...I was just wondering if people are doing the paper/photo transfer thing, and if so, how exactly. I'm going to try to 'read back' in this thread to see if I can just find the stuff myself, but it would help if someone could just let me know here at the end of the thread, it would be so much easier. Thanks all!
 
saxon1014 said:
What is the talk about 'root away' and such? Then I saw mention of 'getting the paper off'...I was just wondering if people are doing the paper/photo transfer thing, and if so, how exactly. I'm going to try to 'read back' in this thread to see if I can just find the stuff myself, but it would help if someone could just let me know here at the end of the thread, it would be so much easier. Thanks all!
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They are talking about etching brass. Root away is a chemical you can use to accomplish this.

A good read on the subject.

Electrolytic Etching of Brass | The Steampunk Workshop

Also, as someone who hasn't participated on the RPF much, if you are really interested in this prop, you might want to take the time to read this thread in its entirety. I know it's long, but there is a ton of info in here that would answer the questions you are asking.
 
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saxon1014 said:
What is the talk about 'root away' and such? Then I saw mention of 'getting the paper off'...I was just wondering if people are doing the paper/photo transfer thing, and if so, how exactly. I'm going to try to 'read back' in this thread to see if I can just find the stuff myself, but it would help if someone could just let me know here at the end of the thread, it would be so much easier. Thanks all!
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Okay, an update with the requested information.

I'm wanting to make a Farnsworth from scratch. The one engraving place I talked to quoted me 350 for two plates. Snort, I can figure out etching cheaper than that.

First off I needed a clean image. I grabbed one of the examples that people had posted in this thread. Sadly it wasn't really as clear as I wanted, so into photoshop I dived. I'm fairly handy with photoshop, so cleaning up the image to match what I wanted (black and white only, no grey) wasn't too hard.

Then I reversed the image (white became black) and mirrored it. (left to right.

Once I had a mask image I was happy with I took it into MS Visio for printing. I made up two images, one that just had the holes so that I can etch away the holes (at least that's my theory at this point) Oh, and I add alignment marks to make sure that I can line up two sheets of masking material.

After working around with several papers and plastics, I settle on printing a mask out onto overhead transparency plastic. I didn't feel like getting 100 sheets, so Kinkos had the best price (75 cents each for 10)

When printing it out, I adjusted the density up, and printed it out at the best resolution.

Styling. Looks really nice.

At the hardware store I'd picked up a couple of short 1/2 inch boards of hard wood, intended to use as stair bits. I'm using those as an Ironing board.

Oh, and I picked up a cheap cake pan at a garage sale for 50 cents. I will use that for cooling and later etching.

And I have a very nice Iron left behind by an ex-gf. Tefelon coated and it heats up fast.

I'm skipping over my unsuccessful attempts at transferring, I managed to bake several layers beyond the ink onto brass. Feh.

Jumping back to the successful attempts, Attach the plastic masks (ensuring that the ink side is facing the brass! Use blue painter's tape to make sure that it won't move around. Attach both sides.

Crank the iron up to max temp, and ready the oven mitts.

Press down while ironing. Stay in one place a long time.

Five minutes of ironing doesn't seem to be enough time.

Ten or more minutes seems to have really good results.

Fifteen or more is stellar! Your mileage may vary.

After you decide "Work is done!" use the oven mitts to put the brass plate and plastic into the water filled pan.

Sizzle. Let cool briefly. Remove plastic and tape.

Dry carefully with a cloth.

Now touch up the mask with oil based sharpies. They are the ones in the glass case at art supply stores. I picked up a thick one and a super fine one. Black should be just fine, but you are welcome to use colored ones.

I had a score this weekend, found a 10 amp battery charger at an estate sale nearby for $12. (doing the happy Claudia dance) Way better than an old train transformer.

I've the root away (really copper sulfate) ready, a pan that's ready and I've been thinking about how not to start fires by melting wires with my etching station.

Oh, and I have a separate building to do etching in from my house.

The above is what I can report on so far, I'll report more on my progress as it occurs.

My goal is to have one or two done for Christmas, as I want to give my niece a Farnsworth.

I've a couple of friends who also want Farnsworths, so I'm likely to make or supervise a number of them getting made.

Hope everything I put above makes sense! I'm very low on sleep after this weekend.

Senjak
 
Gordon Gekko said:
They are talking about etching brass. Root away is a chemical you can use to accomplish this.

A good read on the subject.

Electrolytic Etching of Brass | The Steampunk Workshop

Also, as someone who hasn't participated on the RPF much, if you are really interested in this prop, you might want to take the time to read this thread in its entirety. I know it's long, but there is a ton of info in here that would answer the questions you are asking.
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I started gathering the parts/pieces for the Farnsworth with help from this thread/forum when the show first started. My daughter finally got around to putting it together now that she's done with school and isn't working full time or in any plays (although she is working in an indy film and working the upcoming Warehouse 13 Creation Con). Since we'll be going to LAX for the con, I got a bug to make a second Farnsworth (and yep, I started at the beginning of the thread, and then just decided to skip to the end!). I know that we totally lucked out getting one of the AWESOME faceplates that were offered early on. Now, I just want to do something simple to have it read for this weekend. At this point, I am just trying to get a good graphic to copy onto cardstock paper or something. The problem with this thread/forum is that it's really too much of a good thing!! There are so many great ideas and creative people that when one starts reading, it's like going to a large crowded party and you only get bits and pieces of conversations and you have to puzzle piece them together. I just don't have the time to sit down and read every single message. I'm happy that most of the pieces are listed at the beginning of the thread. I really wish that things like the graphic and how tos for things like the brass etching would be 'bumped up' and made an easy to find post.
My husband tried to print out a graphic I got from a post here, but unfortunately it was not to scale, and the image was not that good. So, I'm back to square one. I am really kicking myself for not getting two of the amazing brass etched/cut face plates from nearly 2 years ago!! I just thought they'd be available 'later'. *ugh* I did order doubles of most everything else tho. My fly box (Wheatley knock off) should be here tomorrow or Weds., so I really need some simple instructions on the brass etching or a good, to scale and ready to copy out graphic. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!!
 
Good job baby girl!! Now we just need to fake a face plate for me! Oh, and you need to help me figure out how to put all the cosplay pix on my new photo gadget...and we need some purple gloves, and some anti static bags, and some labels...and I want a tee shirt!

*ack*

I didn't realize how much we have to do!!! It's gonna be fun though.

For those who care, little ewok is my youngest!

*proud momma grin*
 
Anyone still looking for the little glass cabochon, I got a pack of just 4 on Amazon!

Clear Glass Cabochon Round Bead Crystal Magnify (16mm) 5/8 Inch (4) (New)

From Beadaholique
 
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