[LewisM]

Cripes, that sounds rude, but believe me, truth is subtler than fiction!

A couple of DIY questions.

1. Epoxy paint. I just resprayed a friend's OTA with epoxy paint. They say fully cured in 24 hours, but that is never long enough for polishing IMHO - handling maybe, not polishing. Would it be wise to wait 3 or 4 days, perhaps a week before attempting to rub back with wet 2000 grit and then compound polishing (by hand)? I don't want to strip and start again!

Previously I have used automotive acrylic, and found I could get a high lustre hand rubbed polish after letting cure for 3 days first (never clear coated, just solid colour then polished) I used 2000 grit (wet) then a clay bar (also wet), followed by ultra-fine grit polishing compound on a flannel cloth, then followed by a "dry" polish with new flannel.

2. I had to mask off some manufacturer decals on his tube. With epoxy, would it be wise to cut through the paint/tape junction with a new scalpel blade first before removing the tape, or will epoxy resist chip-out/peeling?

3. Changing topic - BRASS sheet. I made a micro-focuser tensioner plate out of moderately stiff brass sheet. The bending and planishing of the bends (somewhat lightly) work-hardened the bend junctions, but is there any other way to harden brass sheeting OTHER than work hardening? I have heard that heat and SLOW cool (the opposite to usual metal hardening) theoretically will work with brass, but in practice only work hardening actually re-hardens brass. Anyone know better?