In the market for a new car battery charger for etching need suggestions

[Valhalleim]

Hey fellas,

I'm in the market for a new way to etch designs and makers mark on my knives. I was looking at car battery charger (manual) but not sure which one. Any recommendations?

Or is this good? https://www.amazon.ca/Schumacher-SE-.../dp/B000AM8BF4

[SteelP]

That looks similar to this harbor fright one at about half the cost:
https://www.harborfreight.com/10250-...art-60653.html

I used my hardbor frieght one to elctro chemically clean cast iron. heres the kicker. These newer battery chargers wont provide current without having some sort of battery hooked up to it. Don't worry, there's a work around. get an old 12v car battery that you dont need or buy a cheap used one and connect it in parallel to the stuff you're doing. Thats what i did with the electrolysis bath, hooked the battery charger up to the battery and then hooked the system i was cleaning in parallel up to the battery/charger set up. The current will pass through the battery and go to whatever you're also using it for. Don't run it on the start amperage or the battery will probably explode after a short time. That 50 Amp setting is for starting and very short use times. This probably ruins what ever battery you hook it up to, maybe not. I had an old car battery that wouldn't hold a charge that I'd use as a load to trick the charger into running the current through it.