Ponoko’s metal etching service makes custom PCM products from your digital product designs for businesses and agencies.
What can you make photo etching metal? Just about anything your imagination can dream up. Use photo etch metal to create jewelry, lighting, signs, bookmarks, models, desk and office items, art, electronics enclosures, robots, toys, housewares, business gifts and even custom promotional products. Make anywhere from 1 to 100,000 since there are no minimum requirements.
Getting started with metal etching is easy peasy. Simply upload your product design, and select from our range of sheet metal including stainless steel, brass and copper. Then you’ll get an instant online quote for our photo chemical milling to make, package and ship products directly to your door. Give us the green light and you can have your items in as fast as the same day.
Use our design templates to design your products.
Download design templates >
San Francisco engineer uses Ponoko + Kickstarter to bring his laser cut product to market.
Designer Maiko Kuzunishi has earned a worldwide following with her range of beautiful eco-friendly and quirky laser cut clocks.
Engineering student Alexander Sarnowski makes & sells fully functional black powder cannons with laser cut timber.
Illustrator and designer Junichi Tsuneoka combines traditional woodworking techniques with laser cutting.
Dancer Donna Touch makes & sells custom aluminum laser cut feather fans.
Designer Charles Wade juggles graphic design, web development, social media, and his blocky laser cut robots.
Open hardware engineers Nwazet Inc use laser cutting for quick, cost-effective creation of custom electronic enclosures for profitable sale.
Product designer by day, Colin Francis spends his after hours creating laser cut leather goods & housewares.
LA-based design studio Alienology embraces the Ponoko high speed model to move rapidly from idea to product.
Artist and craftsman Brian Chan creates & sells fully functional musical instruments from laser cut bamboo.
Jewelry designer Mariko Carandang uses Ponoko to instantly keep up with growing demand.
Artist Jay Thomson streamlines the bow tie making process by selling acrylic laser cutting design templates.
Metal photo etching, also photo chemical machining or milling (PCM), is a digital making method available online from Ponoko.
It is a subtractive manufacturing process that uses chemicals to cut and engrave flat-sheet metal materials. A photo of your digital design directs the chemical where to cut and engrave the metal sheet in very fine detail.
To cut the metal sheet, the acid eats away all of the metal along the cutting line in your digital design, leaving a 90-degree high-quality cut-edge finish, without burrs or sharp edges.
To engrave the metal sheet, the acid eats away a thin layer of the metal surface along the engraving line or area in your digital design, leaving a subtle surface cavity.
You can photo etch your designs using your very own Personal Factory.
