Gold inlaying

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steamin10
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Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Gold inlaying

Post by steamin10 »

For removal of excess, you cannot use anything abrasive, or the least bit fluffy. My only attempts at lettering fills and details scratched into knobs and dials and flat work, has been to use a rubber sanding block with butcher paper wrapped on it. Adding small amounts of solvent from a rag on the bench, or a dropper to the paper directly, and then using the paper to wipe or sqeegee your set colorant, only picks off what it can touch and disolve. Some skill and patience is needed, but that is how I did mine. I restored various measures, dials, and some lettering on a gun. Eyepopping when it works. Frustrating in process.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
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PeteH
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Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:49 pm
Location: Tidewater Virginia, USA

Re: Gold inlaying

Post by PeteH »

You might get cleaner results if you wrapped the cloth -- a fairly thin, hard cloth like a piece of bedsheet -- tightly around a flat hardwood block. That way, the pressure would be only on the high spots, and the cloth wouldn't get pushed down into the engraving.
Pete in NJ
chief
Posts: 236
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 5:51 pm

Re: Gold inlaying

Post by chief »

Sorry it took me awhile to get back to this, other things were pressing.

I played around with the method to remove the excess, tried a few different things, but what seems to work best for me is a small block of wood with leather glued to it, then wrapped with clean cloth. I tried various materials, including a fairly hard piece of old bed sheet, but my best results came with a soft, but thin, piece of an old tee shirt dampened with cleaning solution. I also found the viscosity of the inlay material to be fairly critical to getting good fill, but not too much excess to clean up.

I'm still not crazy about the results, if you look at the example you can see small flecks on the anodized surface, these can be removed with a cotton swap dipped in the cleaning solution, but it would be almost impossible with a more complicated inlay, such as a graphic with small interior areas to clean up. Overall I think it's do-able for my purposes with inexpensive lowers for just shooting, not fine guns to be displayed, the purpose was to fill bare aluminum, not achieve art.

Thanks again to everyone who helped out, I appreciate it very much. :D

Terry
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inlay test1a.jpg
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