Full Version: Painting Heavy Brass
From: Josh (WIZURD) [#1]
6 Mar 2007
To: ALL
Hi all,
I've read discussion on paiting acrylic and wiping the paint with baseball cards and such. If I am using enamel paint on heavy brass signs - large, what is the best way to get paint into the letters and off of the surface before the paint dried? Yesterday we spent 4 hours getting paint off of a 4 x 20 heavy brass plate.
Thanks
EDITED: 7 Mar 2007 by DGL
From: clay (CLAY_J1955) [#2]
7 Mar 2007
To: Josh (WIZURD) [#1] 7 Mar 2007
Try automotive laquer, thin it down with laquer thinner, put it in a syringe and fill the letters. it flows much better than enamel or latex. After you have mastered the technique there is virtually no cleanup and it dries in about 15 minutes.
Note: you cant use laquer on engravable plastics other than phenolic
clay
From: Stunt Engraver (DGL) [#3]
7 Mar 2007
To: Josh (WIZURD) [#1] 7 Mar 2007
When using a card to squeegie excess paint from the surface, it's important to leave as thin a film of paint as possible.
I've switched over to Citrisolve as my solvent of choice, for cleaning paint off the surface of a color-filled object.
It loves making mush out of dried paint. :-)
In fact, the drier the better, because semi-dry paint that comes into sufficient contact with the solvent will become liquid again, making cleanup more difficult.
For large areas of engraving, wrap a clean, lint-free cloth around something flat and rectangular, like a piece of engraving stock and use the solvent on that, to wipe across the surface of the substrate. That will keep the cloth from dipping into the engraved areas.
I've used Clay's syringe-fill method and it works very well. The only caveat is to make sure the paint fills the entire well created by the engraving. Otherwise, any areas along the top of the well, not covered by paint, will be noticeable and the edges of the letters will appear jagged.
EDITED: 7 Mar 2007 by DGL
From: Andrew [#4]
7 Mar 2007
To: Josh (WIZURD) [#1] 7 Mar 2007
Hi Josh
There are pens available for filling large letters (Flo-pens) that will minimise the amount of paint you get on the surface. I have tried many methods as I do this daily on small objects and small plates.
having tried various ways, I tend to use the flood fill method and then use a rubber 'squeegie' that you use for grouting tiles etc to wipe the paint off the surface.
This leaves a thin film of paint on the surface. I then wrap a lint free cloth on a block and put some cellulous thinners on the cloth, and wipe over the surface, or if the plate is small enough, I put some cellulous thinners onto a page of the Yellow pages and wipe the plate on the yellow pages. The yellow pages trick only works where I am using a single colour.
If there is any paint still left, it comes off using a tiny bit of metal polish.
I have only found the cellulous thinners available in specialist decorators stores - I find this excellent
From: laserman (MIKEMAC) [#5]
7 Mar 2007
To: Josh (WIZURD) [#4] 7 Mar 2007
Josh,
What I used to do was slop the paint on and then take an old phone book squirt some lighter fluid onto a section usually covering a full page then after the enamel had dried for about 15 minutes run the plate over the phone book page soaked with lighter fluid. It pretty much removes most of the excess paint in one swipe across the book if you need more just turn the page and wipe again then just let it dry and wipe off the rest of the film.
Now keep in mind I did this over 20 years ago and it worked pretty good back then.