DIY Pint Glass Etching

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Inspired by the carboy etching thread I decided to make some custom etched pint glasses. We're going to be having a month long party for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this summer so we needed pint glasses. Custom individualized pint glasses. Lots of them.

I cleaned out two Dollar Tree stores of their pint glasses. You can order cases from them online and have them delivered to a store but there is a $6 handling fee.

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38 total. The two closed boxes are full of pint glasses. :rockin:

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I printed out the logos I wanted onto transparency sheets. They came out gray rather than black so I printed two of each:

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And taped them together:

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Next I created a holder for the logo and a cut out section of StencilPro Hi-res using a piece of glass from a picture frame, some leftover black velvet, a scrap piece of particle board, and two clamps.
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I assembled it all working in a dim room since The StencilPro material sets in UV light. I then covered it all up with a towel, carried it outside, removed the towel, and exposed it to sunlight for about 20 seconds. Then the stencils go into a bowel of water for ten minutes.

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Then you just rinse them and gently rub on the areas where the sunlight was blocked to remove the material from the stencil mesh giving you a completed logo stencil:

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Details on the StencilPro: StencilPro Instruction PDF
 
Next you just tape the logo on to your glass making sure it's exactly where you want it and that it's sitting tight to the glass. Then brush on the etching cream:

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Put it on thick and move it around every so often for ten minutes. When done scrape excess cream back into the container since it can be reused and rinse off the glass and stencil. Once the stencil is dry you can start the next glass.

Complete glass with logo on one side and a numbered jersey on the other:

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Depending on what's in the glass and the lighting the logo doesn't always show up as well as I'd hoped but they're still pretty cool.

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:mug:


Price break down:

38 pint glasses - $41.61 w/ tax
10 oz Armour Etch - $16.91 shipped from joann.com after 50% off coupon
2 - 8.5x11 sheets of StencilPro Hi-res - $26.40 shipped (I only used one sheet and I made up two stencils of the logo and the jersey.)
Foam brush - $.57 from Lowes
Masking tape - $2 from Lowes

Which comes out to $2.30 per pint glass and I have leftover materials to etch my carboys.
 
That is incredible, I see some glass projects in my future.
 
Very cool. Will probably attempt some iteration of this. Anybody got ideas about what paints would work instead of the acid? It would have to adhere well the glass and stand up to repeated cleanings...
 
I don't know about paints. The nice thing about etching the glass with acid is that it isn't something that will come off in the dishwasher.

Let us know if you find something.
 
I had no idea you could 'silkscreen' the etching material. That is awesome. Does the etching compound damage the stencil? I see myself maying a brewery logo and putting it on a number of glasses and carboys :D
 
Those look great! I like how you have jerseys with numbers. This could be a really cool gift idea too.

And thanks for the step by step.
 
I had no idea you could 'silkscreen' the etching material. That is awesome. Does the etching compound damage the stencil? I see myself making a brewery logo and putting it on a number of glasses and carboys :D

The etching cream doesn't damage the stencil so you can use it over and over. I just made two of the the logo and jersey so I could do more glasses at once.

Craft stores may have the etching cream but I found it was pretty expensive around town. Joann Fabric's around me didn't carry it the stores but they did have it online and there was a 50% off coupon at the time (and I think there usually is) so I just ordered it from them:
Armour Etch at Joann's
 
man that is really cool, nice writeup...now I have to have my wife read it so she can put in terms that I can understand..also I have not had any beer yet so my mind isn't working at full capacity...Monty no work beer well without
 
Not only is it a fantastic idea (and one I'll DEFINITELY be trying), it's also great to see there's fans of PROPER football on these boards!
 
When you finish is the glass rough that is etched? If so, it should be semi-porous and I bet you could soak it in a color dye and have it absorb the color. Or maybe use something that would make it stand out better, like a white paint or something similar? If it is porous, then it should absorb whatever you put on it, but the glass should come clean. Anybody try this?
 
When you finish is the glass rough that is etched? If so, it should be semi-porous and I bet you could soak it in a color dye and have it absorb the color. Or maybe use something that would make it stand out better, like a white paint or something similar? If it is porous, then it should absorb whatever you put on it, but the glass should come clean. Anybody try this?
A friend of my mother in law's gave us a (hideous) set of hand painted wine glasses as a wedding gift (it's the thought, but they "accidentally" broke when we were reorganizing the kitchen) so I asked the inlaw to find out what sort of paint she used.

It's stuff called Delta PermEnamel, and seems rather inexpensive. Looks like it'd work nicely with these stencils, and offers colour choices. I just ordered up some of those Stencil Pro HiRes sheets the OP used, and will see how it works when I get around to doing these (sometime in 2014 at this rate!)
 
A friend of my mother in law's gave us a (hideous) set of hand painted wine glasses as a wedding gift (it's the thought, but they "accidentally" broke when we were reorganizing the kitchen) so I asked the inlaw to find out what sort of paint she used.

It's stuff called Delta PermEnamel, and seems rather inexpensive. Looks like it'd work nicely with these stencils, and offers colour choices. I just ordered up some of those Stencil Pro HiRes sheets the OP used, and will see how it works when I get around to doing these (sometime in 2014 at this rate!)

Leave it to homebrewtalk to put even the hideous taste of an inlaw to good use in the service of homebrew. Nice find.
 
I'm going to try the same thing with these paints: Vitrea 160

EDIT: I'm going to get some of the StencilPro Standard & HiRes in case the pigments in the paint prevent it from working through the screen.
 
I'm going to try the same thing with these paints: Vitrea 160
Good call on those - key word in the description was DISHWASHER SAFE. These might be a much better bet than the Delta stuff.

Huey, if you're around, just so I get it right: when setting up the stencil, the order goes:

Sunlight
|
V

- Glass
- Transparency
- Stencil HiRes (Shiny side against the transparency or the velvet?)
- Velvet
 
Good call on those - key word in the description was DISHWASHER SAFE. These might be a much better bet than the Delta stuff.

Looks like to get dishwasher safe you have to let the paint dry for 24 hours, then bake at 325F for 40 minutes. Seems easy enough :)
 
Huey, if you're around, just so I get it right: when setting up the stencil, the order goes:

Sunlight
|
V

- Glass
- Transparency
- Stencil HiRes (Shiny side against the transparency or the velvet?)
- Velvet

Correct. I didn't really notice a shiny side with my StencilPro sheets and there wasn't a stuck on backing like the instructions showed. If you have a shiny side I would put it down against the velvet. The shiny side should stick better to the glasses.

Stencil Pro glass etching instructions technique #2 is to wet the stencil and stick it to the glass. I tried this and the etching cream bled a bit. I found that the taping method, technique #3, worked better. It seems like the stencil adhesive spray would clog up the mesh stencil after a few uses so I haven't tried it.
 
When you finish is the glass rough that is etched? If so, it should be semi-porous and I bet you could soak it in a color dye and have it absorb the color. Or maybe use something that would make it stand out better, like a white paint or something similar? If it is porous, then it should absorb whatever you put on it, but the glass should come clean. Anybody try this?

It is just slightly rough. I did read that the if you etch plates you should do the underside so that it isn't in contact with food since there is the chance of it staining.

I may have to try a white paint on one to see what happens. Anyone know of one that is made to be absorbed by glass?
 
Can you reuse the stencils after sandblasting? My only experience with sand is blasting for paint removal

I believe there is stencil material that is reusable after sandblasting, but I don't know about the material list on this thread.
 
I wonder if you could use this etching cream to make a dot (or maybe a x) in the bottom of the glass. It would act like the etching in the Sam Adams perfect pint glass.
 
That is awesome! takes me back to highschool art class, we did a lot of glass etching. As far as paint, I'm sure a similar thing could be done. Some label paint is amazing stuff. I tried taking off the painted label on some red stripe bombers I had, so I could but my label on em. After 3 rounds of industrial paint stripper, They still look new! Guess I'm leaving the Red Stripe on, Ya Mon. I will def use this idea, great work, great explanation.
 
What do companies typically use when they silk screen their pint glasses. It seems to me that this could be done pretty easily with the technique discussed here.

This is a great thread
 
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