Acrylic and brass tubes

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BigguyZ

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What solutions are there for seeing brass tubes through acrylics? I know CUSA has specials tubes, but they're expensive- and out of stock. There's a tutorial here about tarnishing them with Blackit, but the website it references is gone and I can't find any place with blackit on Google. Also, making the tubes black would only help with the dark colored acrylics. What about painting the tubes? Would that be viable, or would if affect the tube's adhesion to the blank? What about using a sharpie to make the tube black? Again, would that affect it's adhesion to the blank? What do you all do? One of my designs for the cigar pen get's fairly close to the tube, so I can see this being an issue as I do more and more acrylics.

Thanks!

edit: fixed typo in topic
 
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ed4copies

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Yes, we paint the tubes. Yes, we sharpie the tubes. Yes, we paint the hole to hide the glue marks after painting the tube.

If it works, do it.

Yes CA will smear nearly all types of paint, so the paint will change color and look crappy. Some people think this look is OK, so they continue it. I prefer to try to find better paint/glue combinations.

FWIW[:D][:D]
 

LanceD

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When you have a few hours of spare time sit back and do a search on "painting tubes and blanks", you'll get just about all the information you can handle.
 

arioux

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Originally posted by ed4copies
<br /> I prefer to try to find better paint/glue combinations.

FWIW[:D][:D]

Hi,

Maybe i'm far in the field but anyone have ever think of taking epoxy based paint and use it as the glue?. This stuff is very sticky and dries pretty hard on concrete floor so it could probably do the job. I don't do acrylics so can't try it, but just passing my refexion around[;)]

Alfred
 

ed4copies

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Alfred,

I have tried epoxy glue and it also smears acrylic paint - however, I have NOT tried epoxy based paint. Interesting theory!

Epoxy glue is also messy (in my opinion), so I hate using it.
 

IPD_Mrs

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If you need the tube dark as in brown or even black and it is a brass tube, the click the link below for brass ager. Simply put your tube in the chemical and give it 2 to 3 minutes and it will be almost black. Take it out of the chemical rinse under tap water and let air dry. The longer you leave it in the darker it gets. We use this to age new brass hardware to look like old. An 8oz bottle should last you a long time. Just pour it back in the battle when done and don't let it freeze. We also sell nickel ager which is a VERY strong version of the brass ager. Anyway that is my solution for needing tubes dark. Lighter is still a problem with me. I am figuring a white paint from a hobby store specific to lexon or models. I will let you know once I try it how it works with the CA.

http://www.kennedyhardware.com/M-3-Brass-Ager-p-16293.html
 

gerryr

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I don't bother to paint the tubes anymore, I paint the blank instead. So far I've used Testor's enamel, acrylic artist's paint, fingernail polish and probably some others I can't recall, all with varying degrees of success. Metallic paints don't work very well, nor do pearlized paints, at least not in my experience. I use epoxy to glue the tubes in and it doesn't mess up the paint as long as it is completely dry. You can also mix epoxy and add pigment to the epoxy, doesn't take much. In some cases, I don't use paint at all because I want the brass color to be there, but that's rare.
 

BigguyZ

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I think the brass ager will work for most of the dark colors. But for the light ones, maybe the paint+ epoxy would work... But I'm not a big fan of epoxy, so I'll have to stick with the dark colors for now, I think. What epoxy do you guys use?
 

gerryr

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IF you use the chemical ager, how durable is it? One of the reasons I quite painting the tubes was because the paint scratched very easily. Also, can the nickel ager be used on brass?
 
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