I was planning on getting in touch to let you know I finally scratched that itch. I used the old 3D printer I told you you could have a while back. It’s much sturdier for etching without the crazy vibrations from the plotter. If it’s got 2 stepper motors and a tip action, my plotter stack works wonderfully for it. I’m very glad I took the time to build it right years ago as I keep porting it left and right easily and find all the conveniences I gave myself.

For the software, I “cheated” and purchased https://deftware.org/products/holocraft. That’s my way of getting my feet wet, and not investing too much time I don’t have in the first place. I’m not sure how deep I’ll end up, so there’s a good chance it will suffice. There’s also a good chance I wouldn’t be able to do any better anyway. But things tend to lead to other things so who knows. I’m already reworking the tip action a bit to make full use of the 3D printers height steppers, and I’m adding a load cell to be able to accurately set etching pressure.

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t be a stranger should you find yourself in the area, and that the machine is yours if you want to borrow it to try stuff :).