painting copper

I've used some copper pipe in a model I've built. It's going to get played with by children, and I need to do something to stop their hands going black, as happens when you handle copper and keep rubbing new oxide off. I picked up a small tin of black enamel model paint in a shop yesterday. Is this suitable for painting onto copper and not too easily rub off, and if so, any surface preparation besides cleaning with steel wool?

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel
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In article , Andrew Gabriel scribeth thus

Perhaps you should let their hands go black and perhaps discover what this model is make of so they in turn can learn how to make one..and how it oxidises etc;)..

Before we in the UK forget how to make anything!....

Reply to
tony sayer

try a yacht varnish over polished copper

modern lacquers will take a lot of handling.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Copper isn't a good colour for this model. Needs to be painted some non-metalic colour, or a dull silver colour (like zinc plating, but I don't think exposed real zinc plating is a good idea on a toy).

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I went to the Painting and Decorating show in November, and one guy was promoting a brand of paint called Bedec:

He said it can be used on virtually anything, and will stay in place as it is flexible. Sounded good. He said it was also good for radiators, as it doesnt go yellow over time. Brewers paint merchants keep it in/can get it in.

Alan.

Reply to
A.Lee

You need to prime the copper. Sadly I don't know of any maker that sells the primer in tiny quantities. I'm guessing that for a model a humbrol sized tin would be sufficient, sadly the stuff I'm thinking of is sold in a minimm size of 250ml.

Anyway, if you want to buy some primer and have lots left over for other jobs then get some International Special Metal Primer. It's good for copper and other non-ferrous metals including galvanised. It's about £5-6 a tin.

After that you can finish it in any colour of enamel that takes your fancy. Degrease thoroughly before priming.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Ordinary gloss paint seems to work prefectly well on clean central heating pipes, so I don't see why model enamel should not work just as well.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

I used to use dull chromimum plating on medical devices. It looks a bit like stainless steel. However, it is not suitable if the base metal is expected to flex much.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Would zinc primer (intended to prevent rusting on car bodies) work, as I have an airosol can of that? Also got regular undercoat for household gloss paint.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

No idea to either of those. I think zinc chromate primer (green) should work, but zinc spray is an unknown for me.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Zinc chromate is one of the few paints you might obtain today that's still toxic. Quite seriously toxic in fact, more than lead.

Copper isn't too hard to paint, certainly easier than brass. For most purposes, just paint it with whatever "household" "enamel" is to hand. For better results, use an etch primer intended for non-ferrous metals, particularly one intended for brass. A third option (which you might already have to hand) would be to prime with a clear methacrylate lacquer. Not as good as an etch primer, but as it's the usual clear lacquer for brass door furniture et al, you might already have some handy.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Plasti-kote "Projekt Paint" adheres quite well to copper. I've used it to paint a short section of CH pipe a chrome colour and there are no signs of peeling/flaking etc.

Reply to
Frank Erskine

I used to silver plate copper many years ago. I can't remember the process now - I may have used a battery. I did not use cyanide!

This may be of use:

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Reply to
Matty F

Silver is easy, unless you want to polish it (i.e. you need a mechanically strong plated layer), in which case you have to be a bit more careful. It's likely though to involve either buying silver nitrate, or else faffing about with conc. nitric acid (a little pokey). One of the best ways of getting base chemistry for small- scale silver plating used to be recycling darkroom chemicals from black & white photographic printing, although not really an option these days.

Nickel and copper are easy to plate too, although not really relevant here!

Chrome and gold are where you start needing to use cyanides.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

A friend restores old motor scooters. He gets the frames and other parts powder coated. Is that an option?

Reply to
<me9

better tell that to all the diecast toy manufactures. Since zinc alloy is what they have always used..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

IME powder coaters only like to do large runs. The only way I managed to get a set of aluminium garden furniture powder coated was to have a chap I knew include it with a truck load he was having done for his business. Mind you, more than a decade later it still looks like new.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

They'll take a lot of handling, but last time I looked at the subject may still contain significant amounts of lead unless marked for interior use only.

Perhaps the situation has changed since then, though. It's some years since I had time to build things for children :-(

Reply to
John MacLeod

I did a test run with just the Revel modeling enamel paint on a piece of copper tube. After it dried, I bent the tube in half, and it doesn't come off. (Just tried again after a couple more days, and it's still firmly stuck.) I can scratch it with a fingernail if I apply quite a bit of pressure. Decided this was good enough, and painted the model, although I changed my mind and used steel colour. Paint had excellent colouring and flowing properties, but you can't go back to repaint after about

30 seconds. I'll post some pictures after it's been delivered as a present (it's a bit geeky).
Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:iequl3$15m$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

...

Sorry for the late reply, ideally you should have primed first with a self etching primer such as the Halfords stuff they sell for car repairs. After that's dry any enamel modelling paint, car spray paint would do the job infact you could have used "Dulex" for all the difference it wold make ... it's the priming that's the key.

Although the paint you've used is likely to last reasonably well.

Reply to
Chris Wilson

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