# Deep Black Shine - How Please?



## Neomorph (14 Apr 2006)

One part of the living room decorating mods I need to do is a panel to hide the wiring for under my wall mounted Pioneer 435XDE plasma TV. It will probably be a piece of 6mm MDF mounted on battens. 

Now what is there out there that will mimic the deep black shine of the plasma surround? I've seen Chestnut Ebonising Lacquer at Axminster... will this do the trick if I finish over it with Chestnut Acrylic Gloss Lacquer? Also would you have to do any sanding/wire wool in between coats to remove any dust that gets attracted to it while spraying/drying?


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## Alf (14 Apr 2006)

That subject line's got me sitting here unable to think of anything but Kiwi "Parade Ground Gloss" shoe polish... Bet'd work though. :lol:

Cheers, Alf


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## Neomorph (14 Apr 2006)

Alf":72zwhos0 said:


> That subject line's got me sitting here unable to think of anything but Kiwi "Parade Ground Gloss" shoe polish... Bet'd work though. :lol:
> 
> Cheers, Alf



Heh.. I wish I could use my army boot polish skill but I came out in 84 and vowed never to polish another boot again. Mind you I even sorted it out while I was in too... My buddies were excellent at boot polishing so they did mine while I ironed their shirts.  Said I'd never do anymore ironing either as I eventually started ironing for half my damn platoon.

:-s


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## PowerTool (14 Apr 2006)

I ended up doing loads of ironing when in the police some years ago (my boot polishing was quite alright as well :wink: )
Although there were the tales that go around of "shortcuts" that were taken - soap on the inside of trousers to get a good crease,and the time it rained when on parade,making soapy trousers - and some spray that I can't remember on boots to make them shine,but turned blue when it rained  .

And back to the original point - sorry,don't know :lol: 

Andrew


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## Jake (14 Apr 2006)

Why not use black perspex or the like instead?


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## CHJ (14 Apr 2006)

Jake":vpgnbdac said:


> Why not use black perspex or the like instead?



Or clear for that matter painted black on the reverse.
Did a Hi-Fi (well sixties style, as good as I could afford) unit like that and it looked quite good for the era.

A bit of designer masking and you could mimic/complement the plasma bezel.


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## Neomorph (14 Apr 2006)

I had thought of the painting on the reverse of some perspex glazing I have but couldn't figure out how to mount the batten without marking the front. 

Ironically I thought it would be the easiest part of the remodelling. I've created a home automation system that handles loads of things including downloading tv shows from the states which can then be fed to a dedicated server and shown on the plasma which come up clearer than what my cable TV box can show. 

Hmmm... I wonder what it would look like if I mounted the paned with something like this. I think I'll have a go tomorrow at painting up some of that glazing acrylic.

*Edit:* _Eeeek! Just looked at the delivery cost for buying 50 of those cap screws.... delivery comes to twice the cost of the actual price of the screws. I think I'll try somewhere local first. I wonder if my big B&Q local stocks them._


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## Scrit (14 Apr 2006)

Neomorph":1jis5ndk said:


> I had thought of the painting on the reverse of some perspex glazing I have but couldn't figure out how to mount the batten without marking the front.


Make sure that the acrylic is spotlessly clean before painting as every spot of dust will show through! If you went to black acrylic it could easily be mounted using double-sided tape, the foam rubber sort sold for use in cars which REALLY sticks. Can't see why you'd need stainless steel cap screws, though, when black ones and a can of spray lacquer would probably look as good.

As to lacquering MDF - for a small piece it's just too darned invlved. Take my word for it.

Scrit


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## Neomorph (14 Apr 2006)

Cheers for the advice about the perspex Jake, Chas and Scrit... It's ironic that I'm waiting for an order of rottenstone that I need to polish up some other perspex. Where would I buy black perspex from. I've looked around the net and there are a load of manufacturers but no-one selling the stuff. 




Scrit":33khgg07 said:


> Make sure that the acrylic is spotlessly clean before painting as every spot of dust will show through!



The glazing plastic I have still has the peel off coating on so it should be ok. The reason for the stainless steel caps is they should contrast nicely and as all the rest of my kit is brushed aluminium along with silver stands. At the moment though it looks a bit of a dogs dinner where all the wiring for the audio/visual wiring and networking cables go so I want to hide as much as possible. I've actually got two stands to put all the kit in and to give it as much air circulation as possible.

Another prob I've got to sort out is the mounting for the center speaker to sit on. Once I've decided on the material I can figure it out with Sketchup.

Edit: Hmmm... I just had a silly modding idea. I have some blue LEDs fom my media server which I could use to light the panel. Drilling holes away from the visible area and then inserting the LEDs will act like fibre optics and will light the edges. Bah can't you tell I'm an old PC modder at heart (my first comp entry came second in the first over 1000 person games LAN called I10 - You can tell how long ago as they are now on I27 and I10 was the launch of the XBOX with Halo and we all got to play it on plasma TV's and where I vowed to get myself one. )

With the LED's lit up in the living room I can tell at a glance whether the server is up and running (server is hidden in my bedroom). I once spent 20 minutes trying to get my Showcenter box running and didn't realise the server it ran off wasn't online.


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## Neomorph (15 Apr 2006)

Well it's sods law... after my last post saying I couldn't find any I stumbled onto a site that has the smallest size 3mm x 1020mm x 750mm CayColor Acrylic BLACK that would set me back £27.84. It also mentions that I could "Save 20% on Discountable Products by spending another £686.25"... :roll: 

Looks like I'm definatly going with sprayed glazing acrylic after all.

Anyone have an idea as to what spray type I need? Obviously undercoating is out of the question you see lol.


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## engineer one (15 Apr 2006)

if you end up using mdf, then i think the simplest way forward is
to use car spray cans from halfords etc. a number of thin coats of 
primer, particularly on the edges and then the black will dry quite 
quickly and with a decent shine. 

as for the acrylic have you got a sign production company in
reddich, they have coloured products including acrylic and may be 
able to offer offcuts at a cheap price.

another thing they do have is a magnetic plastic which they use to 
put signs on the side of vans etc. it is useful for aligning items
on a CI table etc.

hope that helps too
paul :wink:


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## Scrit (15 Apr 2006)

Neomorph":2yrfdq26 said:


> Cheers for the advice about the perspex Jake, Chas and Scrit... It's ironic that I'm waiting for an order of rottenstone that I need to polish up some other perspex. Where would I buy black perspex from. I've looked around the net and there are a load of manufacturers but no-one selling the stuff.


Cox Plastics, Amari Plastics and in your neck of the woods (well Cannock?) Altuglas......

Incidentally, have you thought about using something like Foamalux or Forex? (foam-centre composite sheet) which is pretty cheap (again a signwriters material), although I don't know if it's the right gloss level. 



Neomorph":2yrfdq26 said:


> Anyone have an idea as to what spray type I need? Obviously undercoating is out of the question you see lol.


As "Perspex" is an acrylic plastic, and acrylic car spray should do the job



engineer one":2yrfdq26 said:


> If you end up using MDF, then i think the simplest way forward is to use car spray cans from halfords etc. a number of thin coats of primer, particularly on the edges and then the black will dry quite
> quickly and with a decent shine.


Just make sure that you seal the MDF properly. I'd use a high build undercoat and flat to 400 grit before overspraying, but then again..... I'd also finish off with a body polisher and Farecla G7 compound. The highest gloss is obtained by spraying with a matt colour coat, then overcoating with 2 or 2 coats of clear high gloss lacquer to get "depth". To get a high gloss finish on MDF takes a ot of work in my experience



engineer one":2yrfdq26 said:


> Another thing they do have is a magnetic plastic which they use to put signs on the side of vans etc. it is useful for aligning items on a CI table etc.


But if you think acrylic is expensive, then wait till they tell you the price of magnetic rubber.....

Scrit


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## Neomorph (15 Apr 2006)

Scrit":21c1xwam said:


> Cox Plastics, Amari Plastics and in your neck of the woods (well Cannock?) Altuglas......Scrit



Want to know something funny... Cannock is precisely 43 minutes drive away from me... how do I know that? Because I was born in Cannock and spent a number of years going between my home in Redditch and mom and dads in Cannock.

Small world innit!

Haven't had a chance to do anything today as I'm having a pain "crisis" as it's called. What pees me off is that it looks a reasonably nice day out as well.  Gonna just hope it clears up later as I have got to take some DVD's back to Blockbuster and I don't want to pay late fees for what I've already watched! :x


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## Terry Smart (18 Apr 2006)

Hi John

Answering your original question, somewhat late (hey, I'm allowed some time off aren't I?), yes, the Ebonising Lacquer followed by Acrylic Gloss Lacquer should be suitable for the project if you decide to go back to your original idea.

Preparation will be important here, and a good MDF Sealer would be strongly recommended.


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## j (18 Apr 2006)

For mounting, could you use some Mirror screws?

I made some mdf speaker brackets for my rear surround speakers a few years ago, had a bit of left over black car paint, didn't go for the high gloss look, but came out quite good. To mount them I found some nice mirror fixings at Homebase. Not the standard stainless steel dome head ones that are quite common, these were flat button head brushed chrome. Look very nice against the black.

HTH
J


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