hi man,
not sure if this is allowed, so i'm going out on a limb here.. this is the direct link to their etching plates:
http://www.saemann-aetztechnik.de/ae...ber/index.html
thing is, it probably doesn't help the entire page is in german, and german only. you could try running it through translate.google.com - just paste their url in the left box and select the languages. quick reminder - translating german to other languages is sort of ok, translating the other way (via software) is usually pretty horrible (at least to me).
also worth noting there is no online shop as such. you have to write down the parts-#, then grab the pricelist, check for the parts-# & locate it & the price, then write down your order list and email it to them. yea, usability at it's best :P. oh and they don't do orders via credit card either yet.
if you need help, ping me, but in general, translate.google should get you there (ok just tried it myself, translating it to english is not perfect, but it'll do well enough to get the gist of it

)
as for your other questions, someone else more knowledgable needs to step in here as i haven't got a clue about this. i'm still in the planning stages of getting all the parts for a similar setup as described in this incredible tutorial.