 ArtMetalsocial networking for the metal arts |
|
Finish for steel wire...
mrglass2626 -
Thursday, May 8, 2008 - 9:35am
acid | metal finishing | Pickle | treating | treatment Hello all, Talking about galvanized steel again, coat-hanger width/gauge, - any ideas on how to clean it up after it has been worked on (soldered) - Looking to remove oxidation and generally clean the metal. Should I use an acid of some sort or is there another way? Don't want to have go over the whole thing with my dremel!! Some sort of brush on acid (or similar) would be ideal - I just don't know what type or where to get it from. Thanks for your help. Hope to post image of first creation soon. MrGlass.  Coat hangers???
warren -
Thursday, May 8, 2008 - 4:03pm
Trying to figure out if you are just using coat hangers as a reference to the size of wire, what about 12 gage or so. warren » reply  Ah photos...how dumb of
mrglass2626 -
Thursday, May 8, 2008 - 4:29pm
Ah yes...photos...how dumb of me:
I have had success using a toothbrush after soldering (I'm using a small torch) dipped in water and scrubbing gets rid of 99% of the blackness - from there a touch up with the Dremel does the job. The wire is about gauge 12 and is galvanized steel - I wear a mask when soldering to avoid any nasty fumes. Should be finished with this project sometime next week. The galvanized steel solders well to itself, the best piece of advise I can give is to clean the surface as much as possible - tends to give a better bond. The quality of the solder points has gone from amateur (at the top of the sculpture) to smooth as silk (nearer the bottom) - as I've worked my way down. So far:
» reply  wow, I think it looks very
Kimberli Matin -
Friday, May 9, 2008 - 5:50am
wow, I think it looks very cool/interesting just the way it is....with a natural finish. Looks very creative. » reply  Yup, I agree with Kimberli-
Rob Sigafoos -
Friday, May 9, 2008 - 8:40am
Yup, I agree with Kimberli- it looks fantastic just the way it is! » reply Thanks - I have all weekend
mrglass2626 -
Friday, May 9, 2008 - 11:26am
Thanks - I have all weekend to work on it. I like the finish the way it is, just wanted to tidy up some amateur joints I did at the beginning. Wish I could make the whole thing out of copper - anybody know of a good place to get straight 12 gauge copper rod? What would you use to solder it and have similar color joints? Thanks for your input. Mr Glass » reply  OK, it looks to me as if you
marilyn -
Friday, May 9, 2008 - 12:38pm
OK, it looks to me as if you are using a tin/lead plumbing type solder which melts at a fairly low tempetature. After scrubbing off flux, what about spray painting it black or even chrome? The hardware store type of spray paints can be fun to play with. marilyn » reply Black would definitely be a
mrglass2626 -
Friday, May 9, 2008 - 1:40pm
Black would definitely be a good look - Some of the parts are moving though and are now fixed in place so they might clog up or not run smoothly if I were to spray the whole thing black. I'd hate to get it finished and then screw it up with the paint-job as I know from experience that spray painting can go wrong very easily. I think i'll stick with the natural look on this one and maybe consider a black look for "device" number 2 - which I am looking forward to starting already! MrGlass » reply |
|
ArtMetal
If you are silver soldering
If you are silver soldering or brazing, the flux has formed a hard borax glass. There are chemicals such as Sparex that is used by jewelers to remove this. Sparex also has a compound that is either Sparex 1 or 2. I don't remember which is which. Soaking in water will also remove it. There is not easy way to clean it up that I can thick of. If it is all dark, perhaps it would be nice to just leave it dark. How about posting some pictures so we can see what you are talking about?
marilyn