Polished brass effect on mild or stainless steel? Possible?

[danbrown89]

Hi all,

I’ve been asked to make a shelving unit from 30mm shs however they want a polished brass finish or as close to. Is there something to put on mild steel or stainless steel to achieve this? I’ve asked our powder coasters who have said they couldn’t do anything.
I don’t want to make it from brass.

Thanks

Dan

 

[Morrisman]

Brass plating?

I’d like to get some sort of an ‘aged, old and well used’ look on the metal parts of my hot rod, not sure whether to use clear powder coat, some sort of oil, or what.

 

[rtbcomp]

One of my customers used to do brass plating. He used 3 electrodes in the plating bath, 2 anodes 1 zinc, 1 copper and the cathode (item to be plated).

 

[fizzy]

Anodising?
Apparently not just for aluminium.

 

[Screwdriver]

If the material can survive the treatment, you can get it hot and brush with a brass brush. Would need to be a decent black heat, almost but not quite red hot.

 

[TechnicAl]

paint

 

[hotponyshoes]

Hydro dipping,
We had some stainless thermal mugs custom covered and it's pretty hard wearing. Tough enough for a dash as long as you put the gauges in carefully.
I have got the samples here but they won't phot very well. 'Padded Brass / no.10827' looks pretty much like real aged brass i would say.

 

[daedalusminos]

Get it brass plated (I'm sure they'll change their mind when you tell them how much).

 

[pedrobedro]

Would yellowed zinc passivation take on shs ? It would work on mild steel.

 

[Morrisman]

Try some other powder coaters, you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

The thing with any of the suggested finishes is that the surface finish itself needs to be damn near mirror anyway or any little scratch will show, not so bad with powdercoat as its a lot thicker, but plating and anodising need a very high finish to start with. I had some shelves zinc plated recently with a flap disc Polish on them, 120 grit and you could see it plain as day through the zinc.