pikajane
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Hi Imgurians! It's been a minnit eh? Hope you're all doing well this holiday season!
This isn't my first time addressing the subject of Etch A Sketch preservation in video form, but it's the first time I've made attempts to explain how the art erases otherwise, and why I do it! Hopefully this helps get ahead of a few understandable follow-up questions but if you have more I'm all for entertaining your additional queries!
My one regret when making this video is not saying "perfunctory postal punt UPON your porch". Across probably makes more sense though.
Fun art available at https://princessetch.com/ weeeee!
unannouncedguest
I just love the sheer level of autism needed to be this single mindedly into etcher sketch
thotterpop
I first thought u said "psychotic medium" at the end.
boredatworkthatsall
It has been a while! Fetching post as always haha I’ll see myself out.
whatwhenwherewhyhowwho
We understand.. you get famous in a magazine and then forget about us little people that have loved you for an etching long time...
I'm so happy you have found success in this niche space..
pikajane
I could never forget you whatwhenwherewhyhowwho!
QuantumInc
It is kinda like they were designed to NOT do that.
pikajane
It takes a lotta elbow grease to force these drawings against their nature!
Sanivia
aluminum powder... make sure to always leave your mask on and after finishing the project clean all surfaces off dust. shower too, wash clothes. that stuff is so bad for your health.
pikajane
Yeah that aluminum is no joke :( I wear my respirator mask and goggles while cleaning and keep my preservation station sequestered away from any other spaces. Aluminum is the bane of my life! I always shower and change after the cleaning step. The back of the Etch A Sketch claims that the aluminum inside is non-toxic but I know I'm handling it in much higher quantities than the average person.
JonnyTightlips
This kills the Etch-a-sketch.
CouldntCakeLess
The only royalty I respect!
InitHello
Styrofoam is also polystyrene, but foamed up. If you add acetone, it turns into a much smaller gelatinous mass.
pikajane
Well now I wanna pour some acetone into an Etch A Sketch to see what happens
UnaccomplishedWatcherImNotaBot
Being skilled is hot
nintendolunchbox
I just got my emerald award so I'll always give ya an accolade now!
pikajane
Woooooh!
RepetitiveStrainInjury
Note: This kills the Etch A Sketch
pandajack
Do you need to disable the drawing mechanism so it can't be messed up?
pikajane
Yeah! I didn't adequately explain in this video but I also got out the internal mechanics, so the knobs can freely spin when reassembled but there is nothing connected to them anymore.
pandajack
Could I still get an order for Christmas?
pikajane
It depends on the Etch A Sketch size you'd like and the subject matter but chances are very good if you're based in the US! Feel free to drop me a DM or email (easier for sending pics) and you can check out my commission rates on my website (linked in description). My cutoff date is December 1st!
rbudrick
Would a dremel or other similar tools make it easier? Also, obligatory:
pikajane
A Dremel unfortunately melts the plastic frame because even at its lowest speed it's too darn fast! So I've found hand sawing to be the most reliable and clean method. Thanks as always rbud!
rbudrick
No, thank you, PK!! Always great to see yer posts.
But yeah, makes sense. Dont use the cheap harbor freight mini dremels either cuz they are slower, yeah, but dont work almost at all, lol. Smallest resistance, stops spinning.
TanithRosenbaum
You could put a coat of spray-on glue or clear coating paint on the back of the glass to hold everything in place even better. As it is, it's only held my electrostatic forces if I'm not mistaken, and those can be distrubed by strong electroc or magnetic fields.
pikajane
Unfortunately introducing sprays causes unpredictable and unfriendly results to the underside of the glass screen. I've experimented a little bit and it's yielded weird results.
drizztx
Maybe pourable polyurethane resin?
pikajane
I would prefer to keep away from resin due to its toxicity! I use e6000 to reconnect the Etch A Sketch components and that alone has caused headaches for me (literally and figuratively). But mainly I'm worried about pouring a substance on top of the powder, and the potential yellowing over time and air bubbles from the pour.
drizztx
Hmmm... good points. Well, in any case, I love your stuff. Keep it up!
goodbyeitwasfunwhileitlasted
Do you have to use special chemicals to clean out the inside, or is it just soap, water, and time that's required?
pikajane
I keep it simple with Dawn and water. Will probably switch soap brands since Dawn changed their formula and I'm almost out of the old stuff! I've experimented a little bit with chemicals and prefer avoiding headaches any step I can, heh. But seriously though, those chemicals are no joke!
goodbyeitwasfunwhileitlasted
Just a thought, since it doesn't special chemicals, could you put one into one of those smaller dishwashers that are meant to sit on top of your counter? Might save you some effort and time while also not contaminating your actual dishwasher/dishes.
pikajane
Interesting thought! I'm worried it'd get pretty clogged with aluminum but actually love the idea of throwing it in a machine to do the scrubbing for me. I thought about using a sonicator but am similarly concerned about dirtying that up too!
gummyloaf
“This doohickey” is so much better than that clip where taking one apart had a knob dent your ceiling
pikajane
The doohickey is saving my ceiling one small crater at a time (and probably also my computer monitors)
PoorBoyChevelle
BetelgeuseFab here - I keep saying Im going to build a few more and I keep forgetting to! This might be the kick in the butt I need to do that
pikajane
Would love to chat with you about a tiny version for my pocket size! I could send you a small one in the mail. Would be happy to send you goodies as thanks for your awesome work so far!
LordHosk
Question: What about the powder created by the drawing process? Do you do a second cleaning?
pikajane
I set aside the top half of the sawed apart interior box (or the glass if I can lift it from the interior box) and smack the edges and corners repeatedly against concrete to loosen up any stray powder that would otherwise lightly sprinkle the interior of the box when reassembled. I have a full expectation that tiny trace amounts of aluminum will fall over time but it's so minute that I have no concerns about the little bits erasing the drawing.
mrleemur
How do you dispose of the water after cleaning?? I’m guessing it’d be pretty bad to pour it down the sink??
maskedrabbit
You could use it to make thermite instead I guess
pikajane
First I dump any aluminum I can into a small bag in the trash. Then I clean out the rest in water. From there I use some paper towels to skim all the aluminum I can off the surface (from the video you can see a significant portion floats and sits on the top) - then I dump the remaining water down the utility sink.
I've offered to hold onto spare aluminum for others but it's not just aluminum inside, so most have no interest in sifting out the stray beads and plastic shavings from sawing. Alas!
feltenix
Please recycle the aluminum. Refining aluminum ore requires orders of magnitude more power than recycling it. Before AI, I could confidently say the production of aluminum from ore to metal was one of the biggest power draws in most countries that produce it. Even mixed it is better to send off to be recycled.
pikajane
I would absolutely love to hand off the aluminum and polystyrene debris to a recycling center. That's a bit easier said than done I'm afraid. If anyone local to DC or Baltimore has a use for the aluminum I'm more than happy to collect and give it away!
Onlyhereforthelaughs
Super cool, but what is the overhead like? I know they're old tech, but Etch-A-Sketches still can't be cheap.
Deshalope
Looks like they're 8$ at Walmart.
Onlyhereforthelaughs
I guess that's not too bad then.
pikajane
Yeah! It's not super expensive thankfully. The small size is $8 and the large size is around $20. I typically sell commissions for $150+ and $400+ on the large size, so the cost of materials doesn't cut into my overhead much!
Onlyhereforthelaughs
Nice! Glad to hear you are succeeding. :)
When I was making bleached shirts, I was only charging about $30, and the shirts varied from $3-5. (Thrifted vs New), so it could be a 10th or a 6th of my sale price. :\
pikajane
My biggest overhead is in finding quality units - not every canvas is created equal, and I have the misfortune of attempting to reuse otherwise dud units that don't make the cut for commissions for one reason or another. I used to sell my commissions for only $35 - crazy looking back!
lightfoot2
Hm. I always thought the beads would scrub the powder off the display then the powder would re-stick everywhere. Wrong?
Question: What keeps the aluminum powder attached to the glass? Just surface tension? I'd kind of expect it to fall off in a bunch of years. No?
pikajane
The beads keep the powder inside from clumping! The powder stays on the screen partially due to static cling but mainly because it's just gosh darn sticky. I've learned this the hard way - sticks to everything within a 10 foot vanity of my preservation space! The cool news is that the powder doesn't really fall off over time - at least, not in our lifespans. The Smithsonian has a vintage 1960s Etch A Sketch on display and that bad boy still has all the powder stuck to it.
Yakeshinu
Wait, sticky as in "there's something adhesive as well" or more "it's just high mesh Al powder, so think glitter but worse"?
Lutki
The second one probably
LiterallyAnOpossum
I imagine it'd be similar to graphite powder, very fine and lightweight so it sticks to things easily
lightfoot2
Hm. Well, I corrected a minor error in my brain today, thank you!
technicallycorrect
You have expanded your knowledge with more knowledge!