This post is an archival post from the original Datamancer.net blog, which is no longer online. It was written by Richard Nagy between 2009 and 2012, before he passed away. We have kept it public, unchanged apart from the layout, so the information stays available to as many people as possible.
Here’s some engraving I did recently on the LCD border for The Clacker PC I’m sure any “real” engraver would laugh at this method, but I think it’s a great trick for the hobbyist to add some eye-candy to a piece of polished metal.
(The brass still needs to be repolished in these photos)
All you do is lay a piece of sign vinyl or clear, thick packing tape onto a piece of polished metal, draw out a design, cut it with an Exacto knife, weed out the tape from any areas you want etched, then run over it with a sandblaster (I just use a Harbor Freight handheld sandblaster gun, no cabinet. Grit goes everywhere but it works).
Happy Tinkering,
-~Doc~-