OK Im kinda new here and have enjoyed reading all the info you guys(and girls) have written up, lots of very good information and I have learned a ton so I figured I would try and give back a little.
Some of you may already know this trick some im sure dont, but i have seen a lot of people polishing bike parts so now add to your work and make it your own.
Etching is simple very cheap and its ok if you dont have any great art skills because you can use vinyl decals of just about any design you want. I did a very quick sample to show one way of doing it
Tools need to do exactily what i did below
good air compressor
harbor freight spot blaster (about 12-14$ catch it on sale)
glass bead
xacto knife with #11 blade
good masking tape
glass bead makes a mess and is very slick on the shop floor wear eye protection and gloves
polish up your part as good as you want it to stay there isnt really a going back after this (demo so i didnt do a great job here)
I masked off my part over lapping very little but making sure the part is totally covered and tape down good
next I drew up some quick flames on the part
took razor blade and trimmed the design out (if doing this on the part like i did use very light pressure just cutting through tape best is to do it off the part then lay down your mask)
next s bead blast the part, you dont need to go wide open on the sprayer if you get to frisky you will eat up what ever your masking material is and what ever is left uncovered will show up and its not really a simple erase and your done fix so practice on scrap before you even think about doing your actual part--pull your masking tape off and there you go---your design is etched in the better your mask is the better it will look on the part thats why i said above vinyl graphics ---also I could have reversed the flames just as easy just pull the mask from the outside of the design blast and you have polished flames kinda depends on what your doing
again this was a quick demo part to show the process if you look at the flame lines they are not perfect and it shows
Finished part
hope this gives someone an idea or two
Some of you may already know this trick some im sure dont, but i have seen a lot of people polishing bike parts so now add to your work and make it your own.
Etching is simple very cheap and its ok if you dont have any great art skills because you can use vinyl decals of just about any design you want. I did a very quick sample to show one way of doing it
Tools need to do exactily what i did below
good air compressor
harbor freight spot blaster (about 12-14$ catch it on sale)
glass bead
xacto knife with #11 blade
good masking tape
glass bead makes a mess and is very slick on the shop floor wear eye protection and gloves
polish up your part as good as you want it to stay there isnt really a going back after this (demo so i didnt do a great job here)
I masked off my part over lapping very little but making sure the part is totally covered and tape down good
next I drew up some quick flames on the part
took razor blade and trimmed the design out (if doing this on the part like i did use very light pressure just cutting through tape best is to do it off the part then lay down your mask)
next s bead blast the part, you dont need to go wide open on the sprayer if you get to frisky you will eat up what ever your masking material is and what ever is left uncovered will show up and its not really a simple erase and your done fix so practice on scrap before you even think about doing your actual part--pull your masking tape off and there you go---your design is etched in the better your mask is the better it will look on the part thats why i said above vinyl graphics ---also I could have reversed the flames just as easy just pull the mask from the outside of the design blast and you have polished flames kinda depends on what your doing
again this was a quick demo part to show the process if you look at the flame lines they are not perfect and it shows
Finished part
hope this gives someone an idea or two
