OT: Chemical Etching on glass

If you want to put your name on all your tools, try this setup

Capitalizer-O-Matic They Used On The Text in the Description of The Product.

You have car window thefts where you live?

--------------------------------------- Since hydrofloric acid is the only acid I know of that attacks glass and these glass etching creams clearly state the donot have HF in them (Thank heavens), just wonder what the active ingredient is?

Lew

HF also loves protein. A drop on your hand will eat its way to China ...

And bone

That is one chemical to REALLY stay away from.

Lew Hodgett wrote: ...

...

Most are a mixture w/ ammonium bifluoride.

Look up MSDS for any particular product.

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Insurance companies have very strange policies. My home insurance gave me a reduction for bolting window latches. I changed companies and then removed the bolts, except the ones to my shop.

Melt is right - it also dissolves the bone joints!!

It is absorbed through the skin. So be careful.

We used it in the semiconductor business - to dissolve layers of IC's. It is really nasty stuff - most of the stuff on earth it dissolves!

Mart> "Jay Pique" wrote:

The point is, in order for a thief to sell on a stolen car, requires that its existing identity be hidden. If the VIN is etched on all the glass it is not easily removable and visible to any would be buyer. To replace all the glass in a car is expensive so not worth the effort to a thief.

Doesn't stop a thief stripping your car and selling the parts for spares though >-|

If you know the brand name of the etchant, google that name and "MSDS" and you may find a material safety data sheet that lists the known-hazardous ingredients. Looking them up for a couple of commercial etching creams revealed that they contained sodium fluoride (the same stuff the dentist uses on your teeth) or ammonium fluoride or both. Most fluorides will etch glass--you may even be able to do it with a fluoride toothpaste but it might take a while for the etch to take.

So what the B****y h**l does it do to your teeth!

"J. Clarke" wrote

Forgive me for being paranoid, but if it etches glass, can it be good for you or your teeth?

Decades of clinical experience suggest that it is very good for your teeth. But it can etch porcelain crowns and the like.

Swallow too much of it and it can hurt you but you have to swallow a lot of it. And people who go on about how anything that is toxic in volume is also toxic in small quantities need to consider that air is highly toxic--causes intoxication, convulsions and death if you get too much of it.

Remember, hydrochloric acid will etch steel nicely, but your stomach makes it to digest your food.

It all depends on the concentration applied and the total amount given. As I remember Arsenic and Selenium both serious poison are essential trace elements in the body.

Thiamine, a vitamin B, is good, but when you are covered in its dust from head to foot for 8 hours per day it is bad.