brass finish question

[nicglass1]

hello everyone,

been awhile since i have posted anything, so i thought now would be a good time seeming how i am stumped. how's my quandry.... i recently decided on a rather ambitious project (for me anyway) and that is taking an 11X8 in brass plate and engraving song lyrics ("i need you" by Tim McGraw) on it for my wife. more or less as a last gift from me before i head to iraq. what makes this difficult is one the sheer size of the plate, and my lettering skills are some what... well lets just say bad. i finally decided to just glue the plate to the top of my vice, it holds it well enough but rotating the block and my hand around at the same time in order to keep my hand in the proper position is taking ALOT of getting used to. and now becuase of the errors that has caused i have more than just a few slips to take care of. i can't believe how long it is taking me to letter this entire song, but i am slugging my way through it. i do not know what kind of finish i want to leave on the plate after i am done. i am engraving it a little deeper than i normally would so that i will have some options later on. my main question is if i sand the surface to remove the scratches what would be the best way to make it look even and not LOOK sanded? and is it possible for me to have the cut letters rhodium plated? i only want the letters done so that when the brass starts to tarnish the letters won't and it will leave a nice contrast between the background and the letters. and if it is possible how much would it cost and where can i have it done. i do have a plating set up, but it is for small things such as rings and such. can i plate it myself with the equipment i have? alright well i think that is about all for me, so i will go ahead and just wait for what the brilliant minds of the forum think about it all.

 

[Tira]

You might be able to use a scotch-brite pad or very fine 0000 steel wool or a fine sand paper mounted on a piece of wood in a circular motion. That would give the surface an overall textured look. You will have to be careful not to delve into the cuts you have made or it will take away from the nice bright cuts you put all that work into. Whatever you do - try it on something else first or you may have more problems than a few scratches. Good luck, please post it when it is done, and come home safe!

 

[monk]

SUCH A GREAT GIFT, SHE WILL NEVER SEE A SCRATCH HERE OR THERE. i like the old look of brass after it's been polished 500 times. it takes on a personality of its own. this doesn't occur when the piece gets plated. i'm going to say burnish the scratches ever so lightly. then as tira mentioned,use the scotch brite. i would determine if there was a predominate direction to the scratches and buff just in that direction. buffing in this direction will tend to make the scratches far less noticeable. i'm going out on a limb here : with all the lettering, the scratches will not be seen anyway ! just my guess. btw, electroplating a piece that size - you'll go into cardiac arrest ! good luck to you, may god bless and keep you safe.

 

[Dulltool]

Keep your head down Marine.


Semper Fi

 

[Christine]

I have no answer for your question- only from the bottom of my heart thank you and God Bless you for what you do. We go on with our little problems on our merry little path of life -- while you lay your life on the line for our freedoms. Prayers to you and yours. Come home safe.

 

[Tim Wells]

I would agree with the burnishing but rather than sand in a circular motion, I would go in one direction with a piece of cloth made for this that I will send you if you will PM me your address.

I forget what it's called but Mike Dubber turned me on to it and it isn't nearly as abrasive as scotch brite, doesn't need to be; and it will give a matte finish without deep scratches, leaving your bright cut lettering to steal the show.

When you get this cloth, wrap it around a block of wood, better yet I'll put in there a block of phenolic that is dead flat; this will keep you from dishing out your letters.

Godspeed over in the sand box; been there, done that and don't have any inerest in going back. When I landed at midnight in Daharan airport during the beginning of Desert Storm, it was 134 degrees and 86% humidity! At MIDNIGHT! Had myself enough of that baby powder sand... You sir, have my undying respect and support.

 

[Tim Wells]

Here is a sample lettering plate I did for a jewelry store that was finished just like I described in the previous post. The scratches here and there are from hauling it around in my luggage going to Reno.

 

[FL-Flinter]

Thank You for your service to our country! God Bless and Godspeed! A stubby little hard@$$ DI said it best, "Keeping your head down does not mean your @$$ should be sticking in the air!" Then again, his other favorite saying was, "Follow orders to the letter but if there is no one to give orders, fix bayonets, say a prayer and charge!"

To give it a brushed look, non-woven abrasive pad is the way to go but do NOT try and do a large flat surface like that plate just by hand - use a backer block or you'll gouge the surface in spots and it'll stand out like you painted it hot pink. Don't scrub back and forth either, work in one direction only or you'll leave the tell-tail J marks everywhere you changed direction with the abrasive. If you give it a brushed look with the non-woven abrasive pad, take the time to do a follow-up burnishing with a non-abrasive non-woven pad - you can also use a plain hardwood block too but if you get one speck of anything abrasive in it, you'll put a nasty drag line in. Always burnish in the direction opposite of how you brushed with the abrasive pad (in other words, if you worked left to right when brushing, work right to left when burnishing) what this does is iron out the little cuts made by the abrasive so it doesn't take on a "fuzzy" look when it starts to tarnish.

If you're going to brush finish and want to keep the engraved areas shiny, before you brush & burnish degrease the entire plate with a non-residue chemical solvent making sure you get everything out of the engraved lines then apply a high-quality non-yellowing polyurethane - satin finish will allow the metal to shine through without distorting the color like a gloss finish will. Paint the poly on then squeegee the excess off the surface you want to tarnish with one of the small rubber automotive squeegees normally used for applying scratch filler, wipe the edge of the squeegee after each pass and it'll take 99% of the excess off the upper surface. Once the poly cures completely, then do your surface brush & burnish as normal, just be sure to get all traces of the poly off the surface you want to tarnish.

Oh, pull the non-woven material as tight as possible around the backer block and use very little pressure, otherwise it'll try and conform to the engraved lettering removing the protective polyurethane and rounding off the edges of the engraved letters.

 

[nicglass1]

thank you to everyone for all the great advice, you have no idea how helpful it will be in about a week when i get all my letters and everything cut (yes it is taking that long with all my regular work). i think i am going to try to use a few of the ideas that have been thrown out here. i think using the polyurethane for the cuts so they stay bright, sanding and the getting a matte finish on the overall plate will look REALLY nice if i can get everything to come out right. Flinter, can you tell me exactly which poly to buy? i have no idea which one is better than the other, and i really want my cuts to SHINE through well.

 

[FL-Flinter]

For the polyurethane's I've used Minwax, Behr & Olympic. If I had to pick just one, it would be Behr, it has a lower viscosity than the other two making it easier to get an even coat with. Minwax is the hardest one to get an even coating thickness with and it's got a bad habit of leaving a rough finish when spray applied. Olympic is just a little more viscous than Behr but isn't a major issue, the only gripe I have is that you can't thin it enough for siphon spray application without it wanting to run very easily but if thinned no more than about 5% and run through a gravity or pressure-pot sprayer, it goes on easy.

After thinking about this project today, you can probably save yourself a lot of hassle by using Rustoleum clear spray paint. Only draw-back to this one is that it's only available in gloss but considering this application, it probably won't be an issue because the relatively shallow depth of the lettering should prevent you getting the "mirror glass" look (where the thickness of the coating causes a glazed look like you get with a glass rear reflector mirror). The only downside to using this product is that you'll have to work fast if you want to try and squeegee it off because it does dry very quickly - I'd suggest sanding the excess off after it's fully dry rather than trying to work with it wet. One definite plus is that this is paint that's made to be applied directly to metal whereas the poly's are not intended for metal applications.