Attempting to create pins

I’ve been wanting to create my own pins for a while, like this. As I have etched copper before while making circuit boards, this version shouldn’t be too difficult. However, it has was more difficult that it seemed at first glance. I did this together one of my friends. We started by copying some random design from the internet (just to test if it was going to work!) and applying a mask to a copper sheet (as I would for a PCB).

The process should be like this:

1. Coat the copper surface with dry film
2. Expose the dry film
3. Develop the dry film using a cleaning soda/water mixture
4. Electo-etch the copper using Copper(II) sulfate
5. (I did not do this yet!) fill the voids with enamel powder and melt it

The result is somewhat promising! but the etching isn’t nearly deep enough, and we’re already losing details because the etching doesn’t go straight down, it also widens the exposed area slowly. other additional attempts didn’t fare much better, as can be seen below:

I still need to experiment with the correct size/shape of the electrodes, and the etching voltage itself, as they matter a lot for the final result. But even if the etching isn’t deep enough for pins, the final result is still nice, as can be seen below:

I am going to attempt this again in the future, hopefully with better results. But even these mediocre results were still fun.