Glass Etching is SO EASY (and CHEAP!) (Cricut + Armour Etch)
This video is meant to quickly and easily teach how to etch glass using a chemical etching cream. This is going to be part of a series where I build an LED coaster to show how well LEDs and glass etching go together.
Glass etching is a great hobby to create personalized gifts inexpensively. The glass etch cream I use (Armour Etch) was 15 dollars at Michaels craft store, but I can get 40% off coupons constantly. Also I've seen it listed for 7 dollars on Amazon. I've etched 3 glasses so far with my bottle, and it looks like I can probably do 10-20 more easily!
Note: While I use a cricut for this video, you can also use an MPCNC with a Drag Knife, an X-acto blade, or any other method to cut the vinyl.
If you have any questions please post them in the comments and I'll answer them as they come up! Also I will add tips here as people mention them.
Tip 1 - Hot water will remove the vinyl easier
Tip 2 - Gently moving the etching cream around every 5 minutes will help even out the etch
Backstory: A friend did a complicated glass etch and mentioned how tough it was to cut out the pattern/vinyl. I realized that if this was combined with a Cricut, it'd be a killer combo. And then of course I had to add LEDs to it (followup video coming soon...my parts are on order!). When I shared my work with the Cricut community on facebook, I had a few people ask how it was done, so created this video to help them out.
Biggest tips:
1) Use a glass with flat sides to learn. Curved sides can be tricky to get the vinyl to stick to it well, and you don't want the cream to get under the vinyl
2) Don't listen to the instructions...I waited 10-15 minutes for these etches and they came out MUCH better than my 2 minute etch that the instructions suggested
3) Using a bristle brush helps a ton...my attempts with a sponge brush led to inconsistent results
4) After 5 minutes, I would go 'move around' the etching cream a bit to try to smooth it out and make sure it didn't puddle or goop up. I'm not positive that that affects anything, but I've had great etches since I've done it plus waiting 10 minutes.
Thanks for watching, and if you subscribe I am hoping to have the LED Followup video uploaded shortly!