Fw: Re: Painting aluminum

[N0CDY - Bob Mackie]

I wanted to make one comment to the list members about Brian's
reference to the Hammerite paint. He's right. Although their selection
of colors is not great, the hammered finish comes out absolutely
beautiful! I've done over half a dozen units with it, with and without
undercoat. I use spray paint stripper on the cabinets followed by a
good washing in soap and water. I always bake the cabinet in the oven
at around 200 degrees for an hour or so after painting.

Bob - N0CDY


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Wood" <brianmwood at EMAIL.MSN.COM>
To: <HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: Painting aluminum


> I use a different technique which could work for you if you live in
a large
> enough metro area. I made friends with the owner of a local sheet
metal shop
> that has "Brite-Dip" tanks to etch and anodize aluminum. After
sanding the
> aluminum (which they can do much nicer than I can with one pass
through a
> sanding machine), they run it through the chemical tanks to do a
caustic
> etch (which you are simulating with Lye), followed by a cleaning
process and
> finally alodine coat. If you're nice, they may just do it for free;
it
> doesn't take long (I used to hand dip my homebrew chassis in the
tanks at HP
> back when we actually manufactured stuff). The shop I use can also
do
> silk-screening, so you can take them a photographic master and
they'll silk
> screen it too (but
> they will charge you for that - it's time consuming and uses
resources).
> Inbetween the etching and silk-screening, I take the piece home and
> spray-paint it. I found that a Hammerite finish looks real good --
better
> than the old wrinkle finish. If you're interested in the results,
e-mail me
> and I'll send you a small jpeg of my restored 1966 6146B
transmitter. Tried
> to post it here, but the jpeg was too big for the list.
>
> Brian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Heathkit Owners and Collectors List
> [mailto:HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV]On Behalf Of Fred Holnagel
> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 7:47 PM
> To: HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
> Subject: Painting aluminum
>
>
> The idea of using lye is a good one, however don't make too strong a
> solution!  I tried some on a small part one time and forgot it was
in the
> little plastic pail.  About two hours later I went to check and the
part
> was gone!  Like the previous writer says, it will turn black and
when
> it's fairly uniform rinse it in cold water quick! Fred W7PRV
>
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