Royce asked:- > Does anyone have any suggestions as to "etching" > brass to get a good "tooth" to which the paint or primer could bond ? > Some intricate parts don't lend themselves to mechanical abrading to > achieve "tooth".
Acid bath? Here in England I use a kettle descaler of which the main constituent is Formic Acid - you know, that stuff that killed all those teenagers in the "giant ant" movies of the fifties and sixties. Alternatively, for small parts, putting them in a tumbler with a coarse abrasive powder give a marvellous speckled matt finish which takes paint like a dream. With both methods you need to experiment first with something which doesn't matter to get the right "dose". It's probably too late for you to change now, but long ago I decided only to use nickel silver for platework as it both solders and takes paint better than brass. I matt this with 400 grit wet'n'dry whilst it's still in the flat. My two penny'th, Mike Chaney
