bn86
New Member
Has anyone managed to DIY this?
If you don’t know, this is a proper metal coating (not paint) made with 95% metal powder + a binder*, referred to as “sprayable liquid metal”, and “cold-spray composite decorative metal coating”. It can make any boring material look and feel like solid metal - iron, bronze, copper, brass, aluminium, gold, whatever. It’s cold to the touch, waterproof, really tough, and even rusts/oxidises and polishes like metal. Kinda like “cold casting”, but sprayed with an HVLP gun instead.
Game changer, right? Except I never see anyone doing it. Apart from interior designers and architects, and big prop shops like Weta Workshop. But what about us? We need this!
It's offered by various different companies as a coating service, who often also sell training courses to allow you to become an authorised applicator, but they’re all suspiciously vague about what the secret “binder” actually is. One big supplier offers three types: “solvent-based binder”, “water-based binder” and “flexible water-based binder.” I suspect one of the options is epoxy resin, but I’d really like to avoid spraying that. The most interesting option I've seen is the flexible binder as it would be perfect for the kind of things we do. A few of the companies I found referred to a polymer binder and a catalyst, if that gives any clues?
*Does anyone know what that magic ingredient might be?
If you don’t know, this is a proper metal coating (not paint) made with 95% metal powder + a binder*, referred to as “sprayable liquid metal”, and “cold-spray composite decorative metal coating”. It can make any boring material look and feel like solid metal - iron, bronze, copper, brass, aluminium, gold, whatever. It’s cold to the touch, waterproof, really tough, and even rusts/oxidises and polishes like metal. Kinda like “cold casting”, but sprayed with an HVLP gun instead.
Game changer, right? Except I never see anyone doing it. Apart from interior designers and architects, and big prop shops like Weta Workshop. But what about us? We need this!
It's offered by various different companies as a coating service, who often also sell training courses to allow you to become an authorised applicator, but they’re all suspiciously vague about what the secret “binder” actually is. One big supplier offers three types: “solvent-based binder”, “water-based binder” and “flexible water-based binder.” I suspect one of the options is epoxy resin, but I’d really like to avoid spraying that. The most interesting option I've seen is the flexible binder as it would be perfect for the kind of things we do. A few of the companies I found referred to a polymer binder and a catalyst, if that gives any clues?
*Does anyone know what that magic ingredient might be?