Early vers Vamo modding, rubber button type.

[robby]

Progressing nicely



Made an interesting discovery. Underneath the chrome plating, there is a layer of copper on top of the brass pipe. If you use one of these below (meant for removing flaky paintwork and rust) and are very careful with it, you can leave the copper there. I am debating with myself whether to take the second bit up and take it down to brass. Any thoughts?

[Toondog]

If you left the copper on am I right in thinking you could plate it with whatever you liked?

[robby]

Feb 2, 2013 16:42:05 GMT Toondog said:

If you left the copper on am I right in thinking you could plate it with whatever you liked?

I would think so yes

[Chefs Flavours Lew]

Could it be taken right down to the brass and left like that? Cause that would look good IMO. What are you going to do with it robby?

[robby]

Feb 2, 2013 22:11:51 GMT Chefs Flavours Lew said:

Could it be taken right down to the brass and left like that? Cause that would look good IMO. What are you going to do with it robby?

I have left the copper apart from the end cap and the top, taken them down to brass, got a couple of other ideas to make it stand out a bit

[greendollar]

Quite fancy doing that with mine Robby , was it difficult pulling the guts out of it and will they be easy to put back in ?
Was planning of giving mine a hydrochloric acid bath to strip the chrome off rather than rubbing it down but I'm not to sure if I'll be able to put it back together .

[robby]

Feb 2, 2013 22:36:16 GMT greendollar said:

Quite fancy doing that with mine Robby , was it difficult pulling the guts out of it and will they be easy to put back in ?
Was planning of giving mine a hydrochloric acid bath to strip the chrome off rather than rubbing it down but I'm not to sure if I'll be able to put it back together .

It`s not as hard as you think to strip it, there`s a vid on here somewhere. Once you get the top off, the bits come out really easily and should go back in the same. Will the acid take the copper off as well as the chrome? I quite like the idea of the two different colours.
Gonna give it half a dozen coats of clearcoat varnish (car stuff) and try and bake it on at the end.

[greendollar]

Obviously you've got to be careful with the acid but with abit of care you should be able to strip it down to the copper or brass .

[robby]

Feb 2, 2013 22:36:16 GMT greendollar said:

Quite fancy doing that with mine Robby , was it difficult pulling the guts out of it and will they be easy to put back in ?
Was planning of giving mine a hydrochloric acid bath to strip the chrome off rather than rubbing it down but I'm not to sure if I'll be able to put it back together .

The strip vid

[Greigster]

Looks good in copper Robby.

[Skwoddy]

Think Id get some old copper clock parts (cogs) and narrow guage copper pipe, couple of nuts and possibly some gauge faces (amperes and such). some epoxy, a little imagination and get a good steampunk affair going.

Something like this but with more details (cogs and such)

[robby]

^^^^^^^^ That looks fantastic Skwoddy, love the oxidation on it. I have a saxaphone around here somewhere mmmmmmmmm lolol




Mine so far. Work in progress of course, need to wet and dry the coating and stick another three on to really build the coating. The brass rings are 22mm olives out of plumbing fittings, you can get them from B and Q. They are soldered on and when everything is tightened up you cant see the joins on the Vamo. I may put another one around the top bit, not sure yet. Not too bad so far

[Balllsy]

Coming along nicely Robby

[Moon]

Like that Robby, the brass looks good against the copper.

[bomberharris]

certainly looks diff