Missing White Lettering

[mikebidwell]

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Can anyone advise a suitable white paint which I can use to infill the depth of field lines / numbers on a 90mm Tele-Elmarit Lens. I have several areas where the original white paint has gone

 

Regards

 

Mike

[giordano]

If it's a black chrome lens, white gloss enamel from your local model shop will do nicely and you can use acetone to clean the area before painting and to clean up afterwards.

 

If it's a black paint lens, the gloss enamel will still be fine, but I'd avoid acetone.

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[pico]

Yes. It is offered in crayon-like sticks in black, white, red and other colors. It's called a Laquer Stick. You can see it here: Micro-Tools Go to page 6 of the link.

 

The way to use it is to first clean the lettering. I use a q-tip with alcohol - damp, not dripping. (do NOT let it leak to the lens).

 

Then you rub the tip of the Laquer Stick on clean paper to remove the glossy surface (the dried laquer) from the stick, then rub the tip into the lettering, wipe over the lettering with a clean, cotton cloth until all that is left is the laquer in the lettering.

 

You can use the lens right away. It will set hard in a day and probably look like new.

Edited May 20, 2010 by pico

[pico]

Will it?

I found that it didn't set hard very well so I reverted to matte enamel paint.

 

Cheers,

Uwe

 

I am glad you reminded me - the white Lacquer Stik sets up very hard. You can test the Lacquer Stik yourself when you get it - just push a fingernail over the surface. It should be hard and not brittle. (It is necessary to clean off the superficial layer of the tip before each use.)

 

Black is not quite as hard, but it is durable enough that I use it to black-out all white lettering on black bodies.

 

I also black out the white lettering around the lens retention ring in lenses used for aerial photography - something we did with Planar 135mm lenses for research and aerial work. Frankly, I don't know if it ever helped.

 

I never used the other colors.

 

If your experience is not the same, then perhaps there is some manufacturing variance or you used a different brand.

Edited May 22, 2010 by pico

[mikebidwell]

I am glad you reminded me - the white Lacquer Stik sets up very hard. You can test the Lacquer Stik yourself when you get it - just push a fingernail over the surface. It should be hard and not brittle. (It is necessary to clean off the superficial layer of the tip before each use.)

 

Black is not quite as hard, but it is durable enough that I use it to black-out all white lettering on black bodies.

 

I also black out the white lettering around the lens retention ring in lenses used for aerial photography - something we did with Planar 135mm lenses for research and aerial work. Frankly, I don't know if it ever helped.

 

I never used the other colors.

 

If your experience is not the same, then perhaps there is some manufacturing variance or you used a different brand.

 

Hi there many thanks for your help, all I need to do now is find someone here in the UK who stocks white Lacquer Stik's. Can anyone help please, alternately I may have to get it sent from the US if all else fails.

 

Best wishes

 

Mike

[gravastar]

Hi there many thanks for your help, all I need to do now is find someone here in the UK who stocks white Lacquer Stik's. Can anyone help please, alternately I may have to get it sent from the US if all else fails.

Best wishes

Mike

 

Mike,

 

PM me your postal address and I'll cut off some of the Microtools lacquer sticks I have and post them to you. Just let me know the colours you want. (Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, white, black, silver and gold.)

 

Bob.

[mikebidwell]

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Mike,

 

PM me your postal address and I'll cut off some of the Microtools lacquer sticks I have and post them to you. Just let me know the colours you want. (Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, white, black, silver and gold.)

 

Bob.

 

Hi Bob

 

Thank you for your kind offer , I've sent you a PM with my address and details.

 

Many thanks

 

Mike

[mikebidwell]

Good morning all

 

Really this is just an update on my original question about missing 'White Lettering' on my lens.

 

Well thanks to 'Gravastar' who very kindly sent me some samples he had cut from his own lacquer sticks together with complete instructions on how to do it I've been able to successfully fill in the missing bits on the lens.

 

So a big thank you to Bob !!! and apologies for not replying sooner.

 

Best wishes

 

Mike

[thegraduate]

On 5/20/2010 at 9:31 PM, pico said:

Yes. It is offered in crayon-like sticks in black, white, red and other colors. It's called a Laquer Stick. You can see it here: Micro-Tools Go to page 6 of the link.

 

The way to use it is to first clean the lettering. I use a q-tip with alcohol - damp, not dripping. (do NOT let it leak to the lens).

 

Then you rub the tip of the Laquer Stick on clean paper to remove the glossy surface (the dried laquer) from the stick, then rub the tip into the lettering, wipe over the lettering with a clean, cotton cloth until all that is left is the laquer in the lettering.

 

You can use the lens right away. It will set hard in a day and probably look like new.

Thanks for this info... in your experience, does the Laquer-Stik white match or get indiscernibly close to the white of the intact original numerals? 

Regards,

Matt

 

[pgk]

6 hours ago, thegraduate said:

Thanks for this info... in your experience, does the Laquer-Stik white match or get indiscernibly close to the white of the intact original numerals? 

Regards,

Matt

Sadly pico is no longer with us.

[thegraduate]

23 hours ago, pgk said:

Sadly pico is no longer with us.

Sorry about that, thanks for letting me know... 

[wlaidlaw]

The white of the lacquer sticks is quite close to the original colour. They are not particularly easy to use. I tried and failed to get great results. The problem is that when you are wiping off the excess, too much of the paint fill of the engraving tends to get removed. In the end I found I had more success using a very fine pointed lining squirrel hair brush with a magnifying illuminated head band, then refilling the engraving with Humbrol model enamel paint. You need some sort of device to hold your lens steady. I used an old body side lens cap, glued onto a wood cylinder, which I could then hold in a vice. Sadly post-covid, my hands are no longer steady enough to try the second method either, Covid having magnified my arthritic tremor by a considerable margin. 

Wilson