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| Copper and Brass polishing |
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Grant
Visitor
| | Posted on Saturday, January 22, 2005 - 12:54 pm: | 
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I have a 1950 Chysler Crown Special with copper water pipes, brass water pump, etc. I want to polish these up, then put some kind of coating on them to keep them shiny. What coating will survive the engine heat? It has a copper intake manifold, too - if there's a way to keep that clean, please let me know. Thank you. |
thomas
Senior Member
Username: thomas
Post Number: 249
Registered: 07-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 27, 2005 - 06:05 pm: |
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Don't think about using the stuff "Diamond Clear" that Eastwood sells (and it's expensive).
It says it's good up to 350deg. but the intakes on my Dunn turned brown. I would say that most intakes that are in metalic communication with the block will get hotter than 350. I also see finger prints showing on my brass intake pipe which does not get hot. The stuff is not really gas proof either. On my first inboard job (the Truscott) I just sprayed all the brass with good silicon and that lasted a long time. I suspect that if I would have just sprayed some solvent on the bright work and re-coated the silicon every 2 years or so, it would still be shiny. (I pretty much cleaned it with "409" type stuff and WD-40 but I never reapplied the silicon) |
richardday
Senior Member
Username: richardday
Post Number: 353
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 28, 2005 - 04:48 pm: |
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Here is the process I use for brass polishing. I have a 3/4 hsp 3600 RPM electric motor in a polishing cabinet that is blower vented to atmosphere. I wear heavy leather gloves as the parts get very hot. I wear a paint spray respirator as the fine dusts even though the cabinet is vented manage to get out and they very toxic. The buffs I use are 10" dia. muslim one is 1/2" wide the other 1-1/2" wide. I buy two pound block of jewelers rouge as it is so much cheaper than the stuff they sell at Sears and similar places. I take the part to be polished down to the smallest practical pieces. This permits getting access to small crevices and such. I use a Dremel tool with a tiny buff to get inside the mouth of a priming cup for example. Once the part has been polished it will have a lot of residue of the binder in the rouge all of the surface. I then take the parts outside and wash them in gasoline letting them dry in the sun for an hour or two. I never touch the parts with bare hands once the polishing starts. If you do a year later you will see where you touched the part. Once the parts are dry from the sun then I wash them in hot water with dish detergent. Then the throughly rinsed parts are set out in the sun to dry. Once thoroughly dry I paint them with clear polyurethane varnish. Three coats and at least two days between coats. No handling of the parts with bare hands until the third coat has thoroughly dried. Rubber mechanics gloves are great for the post polishing operations once they parts have cooled down enough to handle. I will admit the three coats of clear varnish color the brass a little but the alernatives such as lacquer last two years at best and then you start over only this time you have to remove the laquer or Krylon etc. I have parts that have been treat this way for at least 20 years and they look like the day they were polished. I also have a few parts that show a nice fat fingerprint where you really don't want it because without thinking I touched the part before varnishing. Carburetors that are to be used operationally don't get the varnish treatment and they are relativly easy to polish the second time compared to a 50 year tarnish. Gasoline just makes the varnish a mess.
I tried all the other treatments such as polishing cloths, Brasso, Noxon you name it they all are too much work and don't give the high gloss a buff does.
You need a least 3/4 Hsp to keep the wheel 3600 RPM speed up so don't be surprise if you try a 1/4 or 1/2 hsp motor. Mount the double shaft motor against the back wall of the cabinet and that will give you clearance under and on the sides.
Make up small tools to handle small parts, such as nuts, cap screws pipe fittings, An assorment of sizes of nail sets works great for small parts with a hole in them. Put a piece of thick foam rubber under the buffs to catch pieces that the buff grabs. Be careful the buff is very unforgiving it will grab a piece in a heartbeat if you don't have it on the down side of the buff. For nurled items a 6" steel wire wheel .006 AWG works great to dig out the nurls. Don't use it on polished surfaces however. |
poker casino325
Visitor
| | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 07:28 pm: |
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