slihtly OT but about boxes anyway...

[Nasse]

How do you describe an intelligent person (brain, egghead in dictionary synonyms)? Well, there was a joke that if a person goes to library even when it is not raining he/she does have some intelligence. I did visit a big library in nearby city yesterday. I had two hours to wait my family so it was good place not to waste any money, just some time. There was that discussion thread about copper plating your stompboxes some time ago, and painting/baking/colouring seems to be popular. I remembered some old books that have some metal treatment recipes. The following is what I did found, somewhat unfiltered. Some dangerous and harmful chemicals are mentioned, and some may be difficult to find. DONT TRY THIS AT HOME, or do it at your own response. Most obviously the results are not worth the trouble, but anyhow I decided to paste in my notes that I did at the library.  


Colouring metal - some untested recipes from few sixties books

Brass, heating method:

When you heat brass, it´s colour changes. Just put it on your stove, watch the colour and when you like it take it quickly off and cool it. Some clear laquer helps color to stay. Call the ambulance if you burned your hands too bad.

With some chemical threatment

Brass -> green

20g (Cu(NO3)2
20g (ZnCl2)
100g water

Apply with soft brush, let dry, do it again, let dry, and so on few times


Brass -> red: Wipe with cloth that has been damped with some raw hydrochloric acid

Brass -> yellow: Wipe with cloth that has been damped with some ammoniac


Copper -> green

25g NiSO4
40g KClO3
200g CuSO4
1000g water

add in a bowl, sink the copper thing in until colour is even and strong enough


Aluminium -> black

apply fresh chicken egg white on newly cleaned aluminium
apply heat slowly, until the colour changes blackish

this may not be very strong against wear and handling but maybe for some decorative purposes...and considering it is not easy to colour aluminium anyway...


There was a a recipe how to make copper brown, blue and black, but I´m not sure about the main chemical needed. I think it can be made by heating mixture of sulphur and washing soda or potassium hydroxide, end result should be water soluble. Or it wil explode and kill you and your family, I dont know...

Neat even matt look to aluminium: Let it swim in a mixture of water and natrium hydroxide (unfortunately I lost how much of each other...very corrosive and harmful to your skin)

Dont forget rubber gloves and eye protectors, and a raincoat...but they dont help much, some chemicals mentioned are very dangerous, and go trough rubber gloves in a fraction of a second...and just mixing them wrong way or too quickly they will xplode to your face...

[puretube]

Neat even matt look to aluminium: Let it swim in a mixture of water and natrium hydroxide (unfortunately I lost how much of each other...very corrosive and harmful to your skin)

...just use the juice just leftover from your last photo-resistive PCB-developing...
(for a start, at least)

at higher concentrations: WATCH out: it gets hot and dampy!!!