Picked up a Vamo V3 today, boy is it ugly. I aim to fix that.

[Andrew LB]

So my iTaste VV 3.0 stopped working today so I ran down to my local spot Sunset Vapor to get a new VV APV, specifically one that used 18650 batteries since i have quite a few for my modded surefire flashlights and didn't want to buy any more batteries. The owner Bill and a friend of his were working on some very nice and very expensive copper mech mods which I don't know much about so I hung out, tried some new vape, and was quite intrigued when Bill showed me a couple of all copper mods that he had artificially accelerated the patina process giving one of them just a subtle amount where it really looked like the kind of patina that takes years. The other was "patina in the extreme", where it had blues and greens all over the thing and it looked really good. Well, instead of spending too much money on a Seven or Provari, I remembered the other day reading about how the ugly Vamo v3 is made of brass with a chrome plating. As a side job I restore antique furniture so i decided to save a lot of money and grab the Vamo and within an hour of getting home, I completely disassembled it, made a custom mandrel so I can spin the tube via my makita power drill and wet sand it down to bare brass. I then polished things up so it was like a mirror (the more polished the better when artificially antiquing) and this photo is where i'm at.



The brass used is pretty sub-par with hues of both yellow and red brass, but from my experience antiquing drawer pulls, knobs, etc... that bit of red brass usually brings extra color. I've gotta run down to the local supermarket and grab some clear ammonia (never use the sudsy or lemon stuff), so I'll post some more photos in a bit once the brass gets some color going. just exposing brass to ammonia vapor tends to bring greens and browns to the metal. Add some salt directly to the metal and it should see some killer blues, and hopefully red. The higher copper content of the reddish areas should.

be back in a bit. Hopefully this goes smoothly because it's always a craps shoot.

 

[jimbill]

Please post the pics when you get it done.

 

[Andrew LB]

Tarnishing well under way. This jug of ammonia I picked up doesn't seem to be as strong as the stuff i've gotten in the past. The previous stuff would really work over your sinus if you even got the slightest smell of it.



edit/

another thing is that it seems the quality of this brass is definitely poor. Too much zinc, not enough copper. Copper is expensive.

 

[Andrew LB]

It's getting there. I'm a little disappointed with the lines in the body not reacting with the ammonia. It may be because of the surface texture because just before putting the piece into the container with the ammonia, I brushed the body down with a grey scotch-brite pad which is equivalent to XXXX steel wool which gives the ammonia/salt more tiny places for the reaction to take place.

Also, i forgot to mention this earlier. But I did a few things to protect the inside. I first used some tape on the inside to cover the holes for the buttons and screen. I also used a bluing swab (a stick with a regular sized cotton ball on the end for bluing firearm steel) and coated the interior of the tube with a product called "Boeshield". It's a protective spray product made by boeing to prevent corrosion in Jet engines. I usually use it to protect the internals of the firearms i work on since it's not greasy and does well with heat.




I'm considering taking a tiny round file and lightly hitting the grooves where it's shiny and give it another day worth of ammonia before it gets lightly buffed and protected with a bit of Renaissance Wax or I may go with an automotive paint sealant like the stuff the dealer charges $400 for when you buy a car new. Tip: Never pay for that scam. Dealers hype it up and while I agree it's good to use a sealant, the price is the biggest ripoff and the reason why they offer it to you in the finance managers office is because at that point you'll say yes to just about anything so you can get out of there with your new ride. Plus they add it into the price of the car, so you wont notice it. A bottle that can seal the paint on 10 cars costs $25-30. It goes on easier, and wipes easier than any wax. It's all profit for them. http://www.meguiars.com/en/professional/products/m2016-polymer-sealant-16oz/


edit/

actually i'm going to run a test first. I just took a piece of copper pipe, polished it to mirror-like shine, cut it in half and lightly buffed one of them with the grey scotch brite pad, then put them into a container giving them the same ammonia+salt treatment. I'll know in an hour or two at the most whether or not the surface sheen/texture has anything to do with this.

 

[Andrew LB]

Ok.. i figured it out. It seems that due to the recessed nature of those lines, salt was unable to deposit itself there because i had added it from above inside the container. I decided to hang the Vamo v3 sideways and dissolve a bunch of salt in hot water, give it a dip and into the ammonia environment. Things are already looking greener in the lines after only a short time.

here is how the test turned out. Pretty much no difference due to surface sheen.

 

[Davey59]

Looks amazing!

Sooo your mod quite working and you went out and bought another, took it home and immediately disassembled it.

My kind of guy