I just did som research on how to etch glass to make it matte. It seems you use hydrofluoric acid.
It is available as a paste, “etch paste” or “etch cream”, in small containers and is used for instance to mark car windows with identifying information. Or glass objects in museums. Or decorations on glass items at home. It is applied and left to work for something like 5-15 minutes. Afterwards the acid is diluted with water and washed away. You should use only plastic containers and gloves to avoid etching other items unintentionally. Like yourself or the sink… :zipper_mouth_face:
It seems to me that this would be a great way to make a flashlight more floody. Other methods could involve frosted plastic sheet or frosted tape.
I think its great for customising your dishes but this stuff is extremely dangerous, I would prefer to buy pre-made frost glass, its dirt cheap anyway.
EDIT: On the other hand… I have an idea : It might be a good thing to use it only on the outer perimeter of the glass so you have a smooth spill while keeping the throw. :nerd_face:
Yes, it was Phaserburn that made me look into other methods of making a flashlight floody. Some flashlights can be bought with frosted lenses, but then I think they have used sandblasting.
Yes, make sure to read the material safety data sheet for Hydrofluoric acid. The stuff’s incredibly dangerous. It’s a contact poison. Spill a small amount of it on your skin and it could easily be fatal … even if you immediately try to wash it off.
I think buying pre-etched glass or using diffusion film is a wiser choice.
I would never ever even consider this stuff. If you get it on your skin it will penetrate through where it starts eating on your bone. You might not even notice it until days later and by then it may be very very difficult to get out of your system. Next to radioactive material this is the stuff that creaps me out the most. Forget it!!!
I disagree, have a try, but keep carefully to the safety guidelines that comes with the stuff. Any of the strong acids, even including HF, will become harmless when dilluted, and you need an awful lot of (any actually) stuff to dissolve you up to the bone , amounts that are not present in a bit of paste.
It could give a nice result, if you try it please post pictures of the frosted lens. (and of the deep wounds exposing bare bone of course :sick: )
EDIT:read a bit more about it, you should perhaps be a bit more careful than I describe above
Yes thats right it’s probably a low concentration but the creapy part is that it penetrates the skin so easily without noticable damage at first. Then days later the symptomes arrive. It could be systemic or ‘just’ pain but it is important to take action quickly after exposure which may have been overlooked.
We had a few million gallons of it in the refinery I worked in. Traces on your skin goes to the bone and begins to form calcium floride. There are painful injections that you get to neutralize it if you come in contact with it.
Caustic chemicals to frost glass? No way. These days, almost all of that kind of work is done by sand blasting or soda blasting. Safe, easy and cheap. Check with a local auto body shop or grave site headstone engraver. Almost all of them use sandblasting and would probably do a flashlight lens for nothing. It will take all of 30 seconds to do.
As an alternative, Harbor freight sells cheap (really cheap) sand and/or soda blasting equipment. They are handy tools to have.
Be sure to check out all the step by step videos on glass etching that are on Youtube. Very easy to do.
There are so many easier ways to etch glass, such as various grits of wet and dry paper, or a cheap diamond stone. My preference would be top add a thin piece of diffusing plastic over or under the lens - removable if you don’t like it. Strong acids are dangerous, best used inside a laboratory hood. Alternatively, find someone local with a sandblasting set. Hydrofluoric is nasty stuff. My two cents worth.
Just for the record, if you etch or diffuse the outer portion of the lens you will be affecting the hot spot. Cover or diffuse the center and you will be affecting the spill.
I think you can get a paste like formulation which will do the same thing. It’s called Armour Etch and contains KF which is the salt of HF and isn’t nearly as dangerous.
Hydrofluoric Acid is far too dangerous to be used outside a chemistry lab, you should have special training, and dilution is not always enough, i had a sample that continued etching itself overnight after being washed in extremely generous amounts of water
It will dissolve bone if any contacts your skin, you can use calcium gluconate gel to hopefully provide sacrificial calcium to protect your body but i would suggest avoiding the acid instead.
, amounts that are not present in a bit of paste.
