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Building the Leads

Now it’s time to turn our attention to making the leads that go from the etching unit to the blade and etching pad. Take a red and a black wire and strip the ends off each. The wires should be around two or so feet to give you room to work. The black lead is pretty easy to make. Just connect one end to the black banana plug and the other end to the alligator clip. Both of these connections should not have to be soldered unless the manufacture has changed their design after the writing of this tutorial.

To make the red lead, solder the red wire to the piece of stainless steel. It would take forever to get the stainless hot enough for the solder to stick to it if you are using your solder iron, so instead use a propane torch to solder this part. Take the stainless and place it on a brick or something. Place some flux in the center and heat it up. When the flux starts to bubble, put some solder into the flame. The solder will immediately melt and form a large bead on the stainless. As the stainless heats up, the bead will start to smooth out. When you see this happen, remove the flame, stick the end of the red wire into the solder, and hold it there until the solder gets hard. It will take a while for the stainless steel and solder to cool. After the stainless has cooled, drill a 1/8” hole through the block, and run the red wire through the hole. Attach the stainless to the wood block with a piece of double sided foam tape on each side of the wire. Connect the red banana plug to the other end of the wire and you are finished building the leads.