Subject: images on nicklesilver?

From: [email-masked] (Ward Dennis)
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 1996 20:39:56 -0500

hello- 
Just wondering if anyone in this ng could advise me about a project I am
working on.  Is it possible to somehow produce a photographic image onto a
metal surface - specifically nikle silver. I highly doubt whether I could
use photographic developing techniques as there is no "tooth" for it to
grab onto. An apperance of a photographic image on the surface of the
metal is what I am aiming for regardless of the process. Any ideas?. Any
feedback would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
carol

[email-masked]

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From: Elliot Burke <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Dec 1996 06:13:45 -0800

Lawrence Boul wrote:
> >[email-masked] wrote:
> >
> >> hello-

Get some "Liquid Silver" at a photography store (Rockland Colloids).  In
a safety lamp equiped darkroom, you heat the bottle in some hot water to
melt the gelatin, then apply to your surface by dipping, painting,
squeegee, spray, etc.  Let dry for a few hours or put under a little
heat.  You want a film a few thou thick.
One uses an enlarger on this in the usual way, and the usual BW
chemicals.

At the electronic supply companies (one step up from radio shack) you
can buy a can of spray photoresist.  This can be applied to whatever you
want, developed with sodium carbonate solution, and etched.  Again, a
thin film does the trick.

This should do it for scales and markings.

Elliot Burke
HighTide Instruments
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked](Roger Loving)
Date: 8 Dec 1996 16:07:59 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked]
(Andy Dingley) writes: 
>
>The moving finger of [email-masked] (Ward Dennis) having
>written:
>
>>Is it possible to somehow produce a photographic image onto a
>>metal surface - specifically nikle silver. 

>Nickel silver doesn't contain any nickel, but you may be able to get a

    I think you ment to say that nickel silver doesn't contain any     
 SILVER. Nickel silver is basically a brass or a bronze with a small
 percent of nickle...roughly 10 percent....added. As you say, it would 
 be a good base for electroplated silver added. 
                                                        Roger

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From: [email-masked] (Andy Dingley)
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 1996 11:30:05 GMT

>metal surface - specifically nikle silver. 

Many of the early photographic process (daguerreotypes, etc.) used a
silver plate as an emulsion. Photographic reference books on old
processes should describe the chemistry involved. As a general rule,
anything the Victorian era could do as leading edge technology can be
reproduced in a home workshop, although sometimes they had a rather
careless attitude to powerful reagents like concentrated nitric acid !

Nickel silver doesn't contain any nickel, but you may be able to get a
jeweller to electro plate some on for you. A thin coating should be
enough for the photography.

--
Do whales have krillfiles ?

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From: [email-masked] (Alan Shinn)
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 1996 22:41:22 -0800

In article <[email-masked]>,

> feedback would be greatly appreciated.

You will need some photoresist (a plastic sort of stuff that changes
solubility upon exposure to strong light) and a transparency that is in
the form of a half tone (like a newspaper picture ,ie made of dots of
differing sizes. You can have a half tone made at printing type
photography services and the resist can be as primitive as dichromated
asphalt to as modern as the stuff used for printed circuits (probably the
easiest to find).

-- 
Al Shinn   (Tinker)
alshinn@ sirius.com

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From: [email-masked] (Alan Shinn)
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 1996 22:43:50 -0800

> feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Carol:
I forgot to mention the acid to "bite" the metal. I have not tried nickle
silver but I would first try ferric chloride --again from printed circuit
processes.

-- 
Al Shinn   (Tinker)
alshinn@ sirius.com

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From: [email-masked] (Walter Daniels)
Date: 13 Dec 1996 20:11:19 GMT

>feedback would be greatly appreciated.

  One possibility, although not one I have tried, is to sublimate an image 
onto the surface. There are some problems with this. 1)The image will be 
expensive to purchase, unless you already do sublimation printing. 2)It may 
not be very permanent. 3)Details may not be very clear.

  If you want to try a small test piece, send me the image in .pcx format 
(on a PC formatted disk) *to scale* and I will make you a test print. However, 
you will be *heating* the piece to in excess of 300 degrees for about 3-5 
seconds, and applying pressure against the paper and surface.

  Alternatively, you can find a mall type, t-shirt, instant printer and pay 
them tp produce a color test print. Similar concerns about heat and pressure 
still apply, though.

  Let us know how it works out.

>[email-masked]

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From: Mark Winlund <[email-masked]>
Date: 14 Dec 1996 04:10:06 GMT

One point about sublimation.... the transfer occurs to the *coating* on the metal, 
not the metal itself. Any bare metal would have to be coated with polyurethane.

Regards, Mark