Shopsmith Forums

Just wanted to throw this out there... In the thread about marking drill bits, I'd mentioned that I had an electric etcher that was easily made that I could provide plans for. Someone did express interest in a PM, so I went ahead and made a set of plans up for it.

As I mentioned before, it doesn't engrave the metal (displacing metal, cutting a groove), but burns or arcs the metal, and provides a permanent marking on the surface. I've got sockets and wrenches I marked with one back in the 60's and early 70's that are still clearly legible. If you're interested, it's in the MISC. section of plans.

Enjoy.

Tom
When I was a kid I would use something like this only with a piece of pencil lead as probe. We used a train transformer and could make a white hot arc with which we could weld with. Wasn't pretty but was fun cutting holes and etc.
Thanks for the memories