Silver Spraying Instructions

General Preparations For General Surfaces

While the particulars and materials used for metallizing any particular substrate may vary from one to another, the general procedure is the same for all materials. One must prepare the surface so that it has a glossy appearance that will accept the silver producing a highly reflective finish.

Each surface is therefore basecoated (if the surface is very porous, e.g wood, it may have to be primed first before basecoating) so as to present a brilliant appearance to the depositing silver. The properly prepared surface has a smooth, dust free, and wrinkle free basecoat, which is properly cured.

If the basecoat is not properly cured, the deposition of the silver will not be clean and uniform. Curing may be accomplished in many cases by allowing the item to air dry overnight. For faster through put, it is necessary to bake the finish for a short period of time at a low temperature. Baking at a low temperature always decreases the length of drying time. Heat sensitive surfaces must be air-dried.

The coatings used for priming, sealing or basecoating should be thinned in accordance to the instructions and sprayed on a dry clean surface.

#1 Sensitizing The Surface

Sensitizer solution is sprayed through the single nozzle spray gun. The piece should be thoroughly covered with sensitizer and then rinsed thoroughly with de-ionized water. The sensitizer solution must wet the surface completely. If there are any water breaks and/or separations, it either indicates the presence of contamination of the basecoat, an incomplete basecoat, or even evidence of incomplete priming. A second spray and rinse can be tried.

Complete sheeting action of the sensitizer is a must before proceeding with the silvering step. Any areas not sheeting water will not silver.

#2 Using The Dual Nozzle Gun

Immediately after the piece has been rinsed, and while it is still wet use the dual nozzle gun over the object.

The two solutions should be coming out of the gun at close to equal volumes. The gun can be calibrated with the knobs in the back of each nozzle. The nozzles should be set so that the streams merge at least four inches from the tips. The settings for the gun can be adjusted using de-ionized water to avoid wasting any silver solutions.

The gun should be positioned so that the piece to be silvered is 3 to 5 inches beyond the merged stream. Start spraying from the bottom of the piece and work up, holding the trigger while facing the piece at a 90-degree angle.

To ensure a uniform silver deposit, spray using smooth movements so that the silver is being chemically deposited – unlike lacquer or paint, which is built up in layers. It is therefore impossible to deposit more silver on an area that has already been sprayed. A back and forth motion will not produce a better finish, and in fact, too much re-spraying can result in a burnt appearance and a waste of the costly silver chemicals.

The metallized pieces are then immediately rinsed again with de-ionized water and blown with clean air to maximise the brilliance. After removing all traces of water using the air blower, the topcoating should be done as soon as possible to maintain the quality of the silver layer.

#3 Topcoat

The topcoat is designed to protect the silver and/or change the metallic appearance into any metallic effect desired such as brass, gold, pewter, copper, bronze, gun metal or any other metallic finish. Dyes or candies can be added to any topcoat to create a variety of finishes.

The metallized piece should still not be handled with bare hands until it has been protected with a topcoat.

The topcoat is sprayed over the dry silver piece being careful on the first pass not to flood the object with a very wet coat. A very wet coat will yield runs and possibly attack through the silver to the basecoat lacquer. It is important to put a mist spray on first and then on the second pass a slightly wetter coat. This yields a more uniform colour.