[ARC5] Etching Crystals and WHINK Revisited.

[Dennis Monticelli]

My experience with Whink is decades old and it definitely moved rocks
faster way back then.  Probably the HF dilution is much greater now.

Regardless of concentration, the blank always moves faster initially.  This
is because the old surplus rocks were ground to freq and that left the
surface full of loose or weakly attached quartz.  The etching solution
attacks this first and removes it fairly quickly.  After that loose stuff
is gone, it is much harder to etch the remaining well-ordered crystal
structure.  I often give an old surplus rock a quick dip (like 1 or 2 min)
in diluted HF to clean/stablize the surfaces and restore activity.  The
quick dip usually moves the freq 100 to 400HZ.

Of course temp of solution and agitation have a major effect.  It also
helps to "float" the blank on a bed of needles so the solution can
uniformly etch.  I use a cut up piece of plastic hair brush placed on the
bottom of the solution vessel.

Finally, I don't use Whink.  I use Ammonium Biflouride crystals I dissolve
as needed.

Finally a warning to the casual reader:  Treat any solution containing HF
with great respect.  Use gloves rated for HF, wear eye protection and rinse
everything with lots of water.  I use multiple rinses with my blanks.
Distilled water bath #1, distilled water bath #2, and finally pure alcohol
applied with a swab.  My fingers never touch the blank, only plastic
tweezers.

Dennis AE6C

On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 6:33 AM, David Stinson <arc5 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> After only a year and a half, I finally got around to buying
> the last bottle of WHINK from my local ACE Hardware
> to try etching crystals.
>
> I started with a 3146 KC Marine crystal.   Put about an ounce of WHINK in
> a sealed 2" square plastic container
> and in with the blank. Ken had reported 70 cycles a minute.  I didn't see
> that much.  First hour moved it 2 KC, but nine more hours overnight with
> the lid firmly attached moved it
> only 3 more KC.
> Is this typical or is my bottle of WHINK "old?"
>
> 73 Dave AB5S
>
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