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View Full Version : Textured chrome tape and Gold Tube?



teentitans14
02-20-2007, 08:17 AM
Does anyone know where I can find textured chrome tape? I am also looking for a place to purchase 1.5 inch gold colored pipe?
Thanks,
Tim
P.S.
Great site by the way!

xwingband
02-20-2007, 08:25 AM
Textured tape like the Luke ESB and Anakin ROTS? Graflexshop.com sells the stuff. It's just a 3M product. I bet if you looked hard enough it could be found locally.

Gold colored (brass or bronze I'm assuming)? Any size in mind? The chromed sinktube found here can be sanded down to their brass base.

teentitans14
02-20-2007, 08:32 AM
How would you get the scratch marks off the pipe left from sanding?

xwingband
02-20-2007, 08:36 AM
Sand it with a higher grade sandpaper (up to 2000 grit) then polish it with a metal polish.

Jonitus
02-20-2007, 12:43 PM
This:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b76/sixmilliondollarman/Saber_StyleII_Sleeve.png

is nothing more than a brass sink tube that has been sanded with progressively finer and finer grits of sandpaper from 120 to 2200, then polished up by hand with Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish. Lots of work, but it is worth it.

Marsupial
02-20-2007, 01:57 PM
my local home depot have the brass tubes in stock, non-chromed. you might have luck locally.

Jonitus, did you put a clear coat of lacquer over the polished brass? my brass tube turns to a dull brown in less then a week :(

Jonitus
02-20-2007, 02:19 PM
No, no clear lacquer. I rubbed a good coat of Johnson's Paste Wax on the polished brass. It gives a nice shine and keeps the patina at bay. Not only does brass turn brown as it oxidizes, but your hands get to smelling REALLY bad after you handle it.

xwingband
02-20-2007, 03:01 PM
No, no clear lacquer. I rubbed a good coat of Johnson's Paste Wax on the polished brass. It gives a nice shine and keeps the patina at bay. Not only does brass turn brown as it oxidizes, but your hands get to smelling REALLY bad after you handle it.

Or turning green... I got that from playing my trumpet. I have highly acidic hands that eat the finish faster.

Jedi Ranger
02-20-2007, 06:29 PM
Hey, now THAT looks mighty familiar!!! :wink: :wink: :wink:

This:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b76/sixmilliondollarman/Saber_StyleII_Sleeve.png

is nothing more than a brass sink tube that has been sanded with progressively finer and finer grits of sandpaper from 120 to 2200, then polished up by hand with Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish. Lots of work, but it is worth it.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/Jedi.Ranger/SW_Gear/IMG_0662_cropped_800.jpg

xwingband
02-20-2007, 06:45 PM
Imitation as a form of flattery. Like in my next saber I will use copper. There is a slight nod/influence from Corbin's ancient saber

Jonitus
02-20-2007, 07:46 PM
JediRanger...I do hope you see it as XWing described it - a form of flattery. Your design was most definitely inspirational. Let me say that I hope mine turns out as aesthetically pleasing as yours did.

Jedi Ranger
02-20-2007, 07:51 PM
JediRanger...I do hope you see it as XWing described it - a form of flattery. Your design was most definitely inspirational. Let me say that I hope mine turns out as aesthetically pleasing as yours did.

Oh HECK, yeah I do!! :D :D :D :D :D That's why I had all those (winks) with my comment!

Your's is lookin great, BTW!

teentitans14
02-20-2007, 11:37 PM
Thanks to all who replied. I would like to find a place that sells gold plated pipe like the ones used on lamps. Still no luck finding a place that sells the textured chrome tape.
Tim

vortextwist
02-21-2007, 02:09 PM
yes jedi ranger, that peiece is awsome although I don't trust myself to make something like that. jonitus, great job on that.

LordArgyll
02-21-2007, 02:43 PM
Thanks to all who replied. I would like to find a place that sells gold plated pipe like the ones used on lamps.

Pretty sure that's just plain polished brass tubing, though I guess it could be yellow chrome. You can buy brass tube at onlinemetals.com or as was suggested, strip the chrome off of a brass sink tube. Many folks have had success with that, myself included.

You can get strips of the tape at blast-tech.com

gundamaniac
03-19-2007, 10:28 AM
How thick is the nickel/chrome layer on the sink tube? I'm trying to make an estimate of how much time it would take to sand through to the brass.

Jonitus
03-19-2007, 10:35 AM
The thickness of the nickel plating is just a few microns, so it doesn't take long. What does suck is if you get a tube that was copper plated before being nickel plated...that takes a bit more work. I would estimate that the initial stripping of the nickel from my tube took 15 minutes of vigorous sanding.

gundamaniac
03-19-2007, 10:43 AM
Mk. So it doesn't take as long as I thought to get past the nickel layer. What I assume takes awhile is sanding the tube smooth.

Jonitus
03-19-2007, 10:46 AM
Mk. So it doesn't take as long as I thought to get past the nickel layer. What I assume takes awhile is sanding the tube smooth.


...umm...yeah...

The sleeve I posted a picture of? That finish took about 150 man-hours to achieve.

Patience is a virtue. Not that it helps, but it makes for a neat saying.

gundamaniac
03-19-2007, 10:52 AM
Holy...crap. :shock:

That is a CRAPLOAD of time! A week of straight sanding...holy crap.

Hopefully for a smaller piece, it'll take less time..........even then it'll take a long time with your estimate. :?

Jonitus
03-19-2007, 10:57 AM
Holy...crap. :shock:

That is a CRAPLOAD of time! A week of straight sanding...holy crap.

Hopefully for a smaller piece, it'll take less time..........even then it'll take a long time with your estimate. :?

Don't let the time "I" took to mean that's what it will take you. I have OCD like a mofo...a virtual Monk himself...so I tend to do things over and over and over again.

You could probably get that beautiful of a finish in a couple evenings worth of work, provided you had the paper, the water (with a drop or two of soap), rinsed everything regularly and used consistent pressure on the paper. You can do it.

gundamaniac
03-19-2007, 11:01 AM
Haha, thanks for the encouragement. As soon as I have received all my parts, it's time to get cranking on sanding the portion of the tube I want brass.

gundamaniac
04-02-2007, 09:48 PM
Hm. So tonight I decided to give this thing a go. I used a Dremel with 120 grit paper drums on medium speed; high ate through the layers too quickly and low made the drum skip across the metal...two mistakes I learned the hard way and which left marks on the saber piece. After getting down to the brass layer with the drums, I got to work with 220 grit paper, 320, 400, 800, 1000, then 2000. In about 3 and a half hours from the time I picked up the Dremel to the time I closed up shop 'cuz there wasn't enough daylight to work, I had the brass down to a satisfactory finish. It's not mirror-polished, but pretty damn near it- light brushstroke-like lines can be seen if you tilt the tube at just the right angle, and, as I said, I accidentally scarred the tube a bit when I was learning my way around sanding with a Dremel.

In short, even a saber-noob like me can do this! And I'm one step closer to finally actually finishing a lightsaber project I started :D

supertrogdor
04-03-2007, 07:17 AM
If you don't mind sharing a progress pic, let us see what you have done, most of us like to see works in progress

gundamaniac
04-03-2007, 07:23 AM
I'll have a pic up by tonight if I can get a chance to snap a picture. If not, it'll definitely be up tomorrow morning; last night I tried to take a picture but camera flash + shiny metal surface don't play well together. :?

Dregan
04-03-2007, 12:05 PM
So, here's my thought as to how to cheat on this process like a mofo.

If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know that I am absolutely enamored of my drill press. You could also do this with a lathe or a regular power drill.

Get a chuck large enough to fit your workpiece, or use an inverted chuck (holds the piece from the inside, rather than the outside - I have no clue where to buy one, but you could make one easily, though) from there, you spin your piece on the highest speed setting, and apply the sandpaper and finishing compund in a static motion, letting the drill provide all the motion. If this works, you'll get very even brush strokes, and by varying the pressure and the grit, you could put a mirror finish on a piece.

gundamaniac
04-04-2007, 12:14 AM
Yep. If I had a lathe or some such machinery, I'd stick in the tube and sand/polish it down as you described. But I'm not doing it that way because I don't trust my drill (it's rather old) or the bits to stand up to the pressure I'd be putting on 6-12 inches away from the rotating motor. As such, I'm stuck to doing this by hand =/

And here are pictures:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w57/DarthVaedr/IMG_0177.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w57/DarthVaedr/IMG_0176.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w57/DarthVaedr/IMG_0166.jpg

I essentially took a 1.25" sink tube and sanded part of it. I only need 6 inches of it brass for my handle; the rest will be cut off. In the first picture is a portion of the tube I tested the Dremel sanding drum on and which I didn't sand down with paper. The second picture is of a portion of the tube I sanded down by hand after using the drum, and the third picture is a detail shot of where I stopped sanding. Note the imperfections; I'll be going back with 800 to 2000 grit paper again to try and rid myself of them.

Ryma Mara
04-04-2007, 01:28 AM
well ya could do something like my brother did.

He made a pice from a section of eletrical conduet, discarder section of polyC blade, long bolt, and a smaller bolt to hold it togeather with a couple nuts on the longer bolt to keep it from spinning around the eletricalC and section of blade.

what we do is we stick it in a drill or somesort then we clamp it down in the bladeholder like one normally would with a setscrew, then we go to town under a sink and some wetsand, sand paper.

supertrogdor
04-04-2007, 07:58 AM
Your hand sanding is going well, keep us posted on pics, that should be a pretty and shiny toy when you have finished

Jonitus
04-04-2007, 09:19 AM
You are doing well, padawan.

Marsupial
04-04-2007, 01:28 PM
they do sell 1.5 and 1.25 pipes without chrome at my local home depot...

gundamaniac
04-04-2007, 02:27 PM
Are they copper or brass? I've seen copper tubes at Home Depot, but I haven't had luck finding brass tubes without chrome. And are they already smooth, or do they need further polishing?

Since I've already begun, I may as well finish this tube. Won't get a hcance to work on it til the weekend though =\

Marsupial
04-04-2007, 09:29 PM
I'd say brass...
http://yanlauzon.ifastnet.com/images/starwars/brasssaber/photo5_small.jpg (http://yanlauzon.ifastnet.com/images/starwars/brasssaber/photo5.jpg)

I have copper pipes and they aren't the same.

they come pretty dull, but that's because its oxydized. You could reshine it with no problem, and then add some clear coat for a nice finish, or leave nature make a nice weathered effect.

its really the same piece as the chromed one, without the chrome.

Jay-gon Jinn
04-04-2007, 09:30 PM
I found a 6 inch extension that was all brass, not chromed, at my local hardware store. I cut a two inch piece off from it, polished it a bit, and put it on my "belt-hanger" saber.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/Jay-gon_Jinn/delrin_hilt_brass_tube_2.jpg

elrond.406
04-04-2007, 09:32 PM
Nice, Jaygon 8)

Spencer_P
06-14-2007, 04:07 PM
So, what would be the best thing to coat a brass tube with? Would rustoleum clear coat work?