Custom Photoetch Vendor?

[ajkochev]

Does anyone here offer or know of someone who would make custom photoetch if I was to make provide the file?

I mainly build 1/700 and I'm tired of buying sheets of perforate bar supports and triangles just to have 3/4 of the sheet go unused. Manufacturers only make sheets with multiple sizes and the larger stuff included on the sheet is to big for 1/700. I would like to make a whole sheet(or several) of one size bar and matching size triangles of these that I can use instead.

[Timmy C]

Check out EJ Foeth's Hood threads - he mentions in them the vendor he uses for processing his PE designs.

[EJFoeth]

I did! I used Hauler: http://www.etchworks.eu/. I've had turnaround times of 1 week.

[Charlestonguy]

On the same line, any here in the USA? I have a 1/35 project that would like to have a sheet or two made for.

[Hotspur]

I had a conversation with Tom at Tom's Modelworks several years ago about this when I was super detailing a Titanic. It never got off the ground on my end, but he did say we could work something out. So you might give him a try as well.

[Tracy White]

Tom passed a couple of years ago, but the new owner (Richard Harden) is a nice guy.

[mike mccabe]

I also would recommend Hauler, quick, helpful, very reasonable price

Mike

[Hotspur]

Tom passed a couple of years ago

I did not know that. RIP

[RNfanDan]

I did! I used Hauler: http://www.etchworks.eu/. I've had turnaround times of 1 week.

Fine information, but what are their "minimum" runs? I have patterns saved in Microsoft PNG format for some 1:600 scale custom masters (.png being "cleaner" than noisy .jpg /j-pegs) What format will they accept ? I can no way afford THEIR art team to draw them up...

PM for off board, please?

Thanks!

[ajkochev]

I looked and they accept CorelDraw x3 or Adobe Illustrator 10 or lower. I have 13 but it allows to save in version 10 so I'm going to see what the cost will be once I get my drawing done.

[Tracy White]

CorelDraw x3 or Adobe Illustrator 10

So, .cdr or .ai files.

[EJFoeth]

When you send these files, make sure the line thicknesses and fills are correct AND BLACK! I once sent in a drawing in a very dark grey and the etch was dotted all over. I had to send in Illustrator files in version 8.

[Charlestonguy]

These are newbe question having never work with or making copies for PE sheets before.
Should the drawings sent be in the same size (scale) as the PE sheet?
Do you create the drawing using CorelDraw x3 or Adobe Illustrator or do you convert to that format?

Thanks

[Jon]

I use Corel Draw X3.

Love using this program. Be careful on how thick you make your lines as lines have their own thickness than a boarder is added. I set mine when I draw photo etch so there is no boarder/outline.

I also created a few jigs so you can create railings easily. Have jigs for 2, 3 and 4 railing bar types. Set the grid with very small squares. Each square is the height of the rail. Set the "snap to grid" setting. Save a file for each jig.

Digital calipers is really handy:

[Jon]

Oh, forgot to meantion. I have drawn sheets for manufacturing/sales and did draw them one-to-one scale.

So you can draw some of your elements but I wouldn't lay them out untill you know the size of the sheet to which it will be applied. You have to add attachment arms at the end also. Use as many as you can. Be logical in both what works best to support each part and what is easy to make the part removable.

[AllianceModelWorks]

Don't know their pricing standards, I'll just give our minimum quantity prices you guys can compare.
brass (0 impurity brass, safe to solder, chemical treat, and MOST importantly, more elastic. They allow more repeats of folding and curling)
0.1-0.2mm 3cents per sq cm
0.3-0.5mm 4cents per sq cm
Minimum sheet size 50sq cm, minimum quantity 100 pieces, turn around 3 weeks. Large sheets I can get quantity down to like 30 sheets, but this is why I don't generally offer these services. We etch with machines, and sheet materials roll in at 30cm width.

Some of you already knew, all our etch are vacuum filmed on both sides, high grade mat no scratches dents or dins.

With the min quantity you get 1 micron precision (not our highest standard but nano standards are beyond affordable level of this hobby/industry).
We handle all the protection and connectors (you just draw parts), and I can show you design requirements, how to calculate bendlines, protection relieve, etc, AS LONG AS YOU KNEW HOW TO USE COREL. If you didn't, please talk to the company linked above
We offer 85% thickness-width ratio as a standard, means you can etch lines as thin as 0.1275mm on 0.15mm brass, and it will not come out thicker than 0.1285mm per precision standard.

Lastly, here are some basic requirements for drawings. If you didn't understand what I meant, please refer to last paragraph
1.corel or ai. Corel v7 or above preferred.
2.all objects must be vector and sealed (watertight). Filled colors. Boarders must be colorless and preferably 0 line width.
3.SI units only. 90 degree bends need to be > 1X material thickness (1.25X for 0.1-0.2mm brass gives you straight edges no overlap or extra width).
4.color codes: black for unetched. 50% gray for frontal relieve. red for back relieve, powder blue for etched through.

That's it. Etching is simple and straight forward, devil is in design calculations.

btw, turn around 2-3 weeks. We etch for different industries, most of the time these small orders need to wait for orders required the same type of material, so we can bill all the adjustments with the larger orders.

[ajkochev]

I'm really struggling using Illustrator but it could be my inexperience with the program. The problem is that after I zoom In far enough the ruler starts adding strange numbers and measurements to it and I eventually cannot understand it even after zooming out. Snap to grid also does strange things even when set correctly in preferences.

Does CorelDraw have a demo that would work fully for a month before expireing? Might be able to crank out what I need with something that works before it expires. Wish I could use MS Publisher and just convert it to these formats without any loss or resizing. It is vector based and has always served me well on printing out fine decals for 1/700.

[AllianceModelWorks]

ya illustrator lacked some vector functions, and memory allocation not very good, especially older versions.

dunno if i should say this but you could download cracked version of corel X5 (15) with p2p (torrent, newsletter, etc).

[EJFoeth]

I also do not really like the lack of zoom in Illustrator, so I start all my designs in Autocad (which is very precise) and then fill in all the lines in Illustrator. A bit cumbersome. Autocad isn't able to create filled-in regions good enough for etching templates.

[AllianceModelWorks]

Actually that's what we used before corel. autocad drawings are precise and also vector with absolute coordinates. You can always output into vector and load into corel.
Biggest issue with AI is when you convert curvatures to vector it goes bizzard. Corel is the simplest, with very decent results.