Silver a wide range of pieces both glass and plastic with Spray Silver

English Transcription of Video:

Hi, thanks for stopping by Angel Gilding. I'm Alix, and today we're going to be using our Pump Spray Kit. Now I'm really excited because this is one of the most versatile kits that we have and it really is the best way to create a production mirror environment in your smaller scale shop. This process is very similar to that that you see with the compressor system and a center handled silver and gun, but it's a really good way to start out. And with this kit you can do not only flat pieces of glass, but you can do a large variety, pretty much any type of piece that you want. You can see in the background here, I've shown some of the examples. Each one of these pieces was done using the pump spray process, and for today, we're going to be using a piece of traditional flat glass, and that's because I just wanted to show you how this really is the same process as what you'll see in a production environment, but on a little smaller scale.

So because I'm using glass, there's one part of the kit that I won't be using and I wanted to point that out and that's my Wetting Agent. Now, Wetting Agent is typically used on pieces that are plastic or base coated because they would repel water. Now glass is very good. Once you get it clean, your water should just be sheeting off of your glass and you wouldn't need the Wetting Agent. So I'm not going to be using that today, but I am going to use pretty much everything else in the kit. And let's go ahead and get started. So like I said, I've got a piece of clean, clear glass here, and before I get started on cleaning or anything else, I'm going to go ahead and measure all of the chemicals. I like to measure all my chemicals, get everything prepped ahead of time so I'm not constrained by time in any part of those steps. So first we'll do our sensitizer. Now the pump spray silver kit comes with our two part spray silver, but the same process works just as well with our three part. It's really up to you. And like I said, today we're going to be using our two part. So I've got my sensitizer here. Now this is very concentrated, so it does come with a syringe, and for today I'm only going to be using half a milliliter of my solution and I'll be putting it here into my spray bottle.

So just pull up on the syringe and then push down to the 0.5 mark and then go ahead and squirt that into the spray bottle. Be sure to always put the cap back on so that you don't get any kind of contamination at that tip. And then that half a milliliter is going to be diluted with 250 milliliters of distilled water. Now it's truly important that you're using distilled water with all of the dilution here.

Reverse osmosis or deionized water works just as well. And we do have some information on our website about testing your water purity, which is a good idea to always do if you're starting with a new water source. So like I said, 250 milliliters. This is my 500 milliliter measuring cylinder. Okay, go ahead and pour that in here. Now you'll notice that I put my chemical directly in my bottle and this cylinder has only been used with distilled water, so I know that it's not contaminated. I'll go ahead and put the top back on and I do like to swirl it around just a little bit, make sure that those chemicals are nicely mixed in. Next I'm going to be using my silver chemicals. So over here you see I've got my pump spray assembly and I'll be filling up my silver reducer. So take my silver reducer and include it in the kit are 3 25 mil cylinders. You can see I've got one here for my wedding agent, and then I've got one for silver and one for reducer. What I've done here is I've marked them with which chemical I use them for and I recommend you do the same. It just avoids any kind of risk of contamination. So for my process, I'm going to be using 15 milliliters of the concentrate.

There we go. And then once again, pouring that directly into my bottle here. And then with that 15 milliliters, I'm going to be using 485 milliliters of distilled water. So I'd like to mark that with my hand here to remember where I'm going to, and I am going to be pouring that into the Silver Reducer bottle. Now this pump spray assembly is something very useful to have and it works the same way as an air compressor system, but it doesn't require any electricity and it's pretty straightforward to use. Pour all my water in the end. Okay, so holding the top here, I'm going to just turn the bottle below. I want to make sure I've got a good tight seal there and then I'm pumping it up. Now this pumping action is what's compressing it in the same way that if you had an air compression system,

So I'm just pressing it down until it's giving me a bit of resistance. You don't want to force that. Now, once those chemicals are diluted, they have a shelf life of up to about a week, but I really recommend that you plan to use them within a couple of days. Now with the sensitizer, you do want to mix fresh daily. So six to eight hours I would recommend for the dilute solution. And any of the sensitizer that you're not using can be stored in the fridge to help prolong its shelf life. So I've already done my silver here, so I've got my silver, my reducer, my sanitizer, those are all ready to go sooner I can get to the cleaning. Now I've got my European sponge here and my glass cleaner. Now one note about cleaning. If you are using this kit on a piece that has been base coated with something other than our Clear Uni-Coat, be sure to check with the manufacturer's instructions because those might not work for cleaning, you'll just have to check with them. But certainly if you are using our Clear Uni-Coat as a base or if you've got a glass piece like this, or if you're silvering directly over plastic, any one of those, you do want to take your time and clean it really well.

Okay, went down the surface. Now cleaning is a really important part of the process, so I do want to take my time and do it very carefully here. Once my glass is wet, I'll go ahead and put a little bit of my glass cleaner. A little bit goes a long way with that. It is concentrated in the circular motions. I want to rub it in cleaning really well paying attention to those edges. So once you feel like you've got that nicely clean, then go ahead and rinse it off. This firsts rinse can be done with tap water.

Okay, now, if my water is sheeting off of a glass, I know that it's nice and clean. If I see any areas where that's not happening, I want to take my time now and clean it again because if the water's not sheeting off of this stuff, then the chemicals won't either and it will affect your ability to get a real even deposit. Now, as you can see here, I'm using my bench kit. Now the bench kit is another kit that we have and it's very useful, very versatile. The pump spray kit is designed to be used at any scale, so you'll have to keep in mind the size of your piece. You'll just want to make sure that you have a tray to catch your waist runoff, and then something to support your piece above that waist, at least a couple inches. So now I've got that rinse with my tap water. I do want to go behind

And rinse with distilled water. So this is my pump spray bottle, and it's important that I rinse off any of that tap water from my surface. Now, one thing to keep in mind is we are working with spray silver. And so what that means is that there will be small particles in the air and you just want to make sure that you're working in a well ventilated area or you have a respirator. So let's keep going here. We've got our glass nicely cleaned. Next step is to sensitize the surface. So I'm going to take my spray bottle and spray over the full surface of my piece, making sure that every area is covered. Now, I have to keep in mind that if my sensitizer isn't on part of my piece, then my silver is not going to adhere to that part either. So really take your time and make sure you've got some good coverage.

And then I'll go ahead and set my timer here for 30 seconds. Okay, so it's been 30 seconds. My sensitizers had its time to develop on the surface and the tip it and then rinse really well. All of the sensitizer that I need has done its work. It's on the glass, so I want to make sure that I'm rinsing off any of the excess because excess sensitizer is going to affect the ability of the silver to deposit really nice and evenly. So I always say when you think you're done rinsing, rinse just a little bit more.

Okay, that should be good. Tip that off. And now I'm going to be using my pump spray assembly. Now, this comes with a stand, but we do also have a pouch that you can use to connect it onto your belt. If you want to have a bit more range of movement, take the wands here and then at one foot above your surface you want to start spraying. I always recommend to start off gently. Don't spray too much. It does take a couple seconds for the silver to first develop. Okay, I'm going to lay down that first layer, watch how my silver's developing on the surface. Now, it might start out looking a little bit splotchy, and I'm seeing that here. That's perfectly normal. You can actually fill that in a little bit with your second pass. But what you want to avoid is what we call silver burn. And what that means is a white, cloudy kind of less reflective surface. So that's why I say take it easy, spray a little bit at a time, and then you can go in and fill in.

You can see that shiny surface has developed the spray. Silver works pretty quickly. And I'm going to do just one more gentle pass. Now, as soon as you have the finish that you like and you're going to want to go ahead and tip it off and then rinse the surface really well. Okay, lemme take a look. Now, one of the good ways to see if you've got a good coating on your silver mirror is to actually hold it up to a light source. So as I'm holding it up here, I can see that the light appear in blue, and that's a sign of a really good mirror. Now, if I had any areas that maybe I hadn't cleaned as well, I could probably see that here and say, I did make a mistake during this process. Say I forgot to run my sensitizer off, or my dilution ratios were off and the mirror wasn't looking proper and the mirror wasn't looking how I wanted it to, then that's where the silver remover comes in.

That's also included in the kit. Silver remover is a two-part solution, and what that does is chemically remove the silver from your piece. So you could always clean it up and start over again. But I'm happy with this. This looks really nice for me. I'm going to go ahead and take this piece and I want to put it over here and tilt it to dry. You always want to tilt it. Now, you can let it naturally air dry or you could put a fan at a low heat if you want it to speed up that process. Now, once your silver is fully dry, you do want to make sure that you protect it from being tarnished. And the way that you do that depends on the type of piece that you have. I've included over here some of the different paints that we have, and any one of those would work just fine with this process. The one you use really depends on the project you have. So if you have any questions on which one to use for your particular project, then by all means, give us a call or email us. Be sure to subscribe to our channel, be notified of future videos, and check out our website, AngelGilding.com. Thank you.