DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible if you break your phone doing this. I am not telling anyone to do this, I am just sharing how I did it. If anyone tries it, post up your results!
Read through all of the steps, and if anything seems too difficult for you, do not try this. There is a good chance you will break something if you aren't completely confident.
Hey guys, I just wanted to share how I dyed my phone black (and people wanted to know lol). This is very dangerous, and this is no task AT ALL for the faint hearted. It is very easy to BREAK your phone doing this. In fact, to do one part you have to technically break the phone (hence why only experts should try this) but it will still work fine. Anyways, check out the pics attached!
MAD Props to xweaponx over at PPCGeeks for being the first (I believe) to try using RIT dye on their phones (the Touch Pro battery door).
Steps:
Pre-Step: Go to the nearest convienience store and pick up some RIT dye. It can be the powder or concentrate stuff, doesn't matter.
1. Take your phone completely apart. Follow this great tutorial here: http://androidforums.com/sprint-htc-hero/22036-sprint-htc-hero-disassembly-diy.html When you get to the trackball, remember which way to put it in, cause if you don't put it in the right way, you will start freaking out cause none of the panel buttons will reach the mainboard and they won't work!
2. Once you get to the end, this is the part where you have to be careful! You need to pull the screen off. This is very VERY dangerous too. You have to use an iPod pry tool or maybe a guitar pick or something plastic and thin. This screen is very tightly glued to the body, so this is going to be hard. GO SLOW. No need to risk breaking your glass screen
3. Once the screen is out, there are two more things you have to do. Use a tiny flathead screwdriver to pop out the earpiece. MAKE SURE: you know which way the earpiece is in, because when you re assemble it, you have to put it in the right way or you will have no sound out of the earpiece which can be very scary haha. Once that is out, take that same screwdriver to actually break off the End and Send buttons (right where they are connected to the body). If you don't feel comfortable doing this, don't try this at all, because if you don't do this step, the buttons will curl and not fit in the holes at all.
4. Now, you're phone should be completely apart. Make sure there is still nothing electronic on the housing of the phone.
5. Nows the fun part! Boil a pot of water. Once it is boiling, turn the heat slightly down to just under a boil, and pour some RIT dye of the color of your choice into the water. Use more dye for a more intense color, less for a more subtle change. Make sure you stir it up well.
6. Now, put the two housing pieces (the facial housing, and the battery cover) into the hot but not boiling water. Stir gently for about 10-20 minutes, checking on the color like an Easter egg.
7. Once your desired color is achieved, take out the pieces, and quickly run them under luke warm water, and gradually make the water colder. Keep rinsing until the rinse off water is completely clear. If you stop too early you might have a color bleeding problem (onto your hands) later. Use something like a paper towel or tissue to sop up the last bit of the dye so you do not have that color bleeding problem later. Let the pieces dry for a while.
8. Once the pieces are completely dry, put the phone back together using the guide I liked in step one (follow in reverse obviously ). Make sure you put the earpiece in the correct way like mentioned above.
9. If you followed everything, you should have a sweet looking original phone!
With all of this said, only do this if you feel like you can. And remember that disclaimer up at the top. Not my fault if you break it! If you do try this, post up your results! I wanna see all the colors anyone tries, or even if you did it black.
great tutorial, thanks! Looks nice
never thought of using dye, Great idea!
morbidpete said:
never thought of using dye, Great idea!
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Got the original idea from xweaponx over at PPCGeeks when he did it to his touch pro battery door. Mad props to him for coming up with this great idea!
a darker, Hunter Green would look really nice as well
coldsweat said:
a darker, Hunter Green would look really nice as well
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I agree! I was also thinking a nice darker blue would look pretty good too. If anyone else wants to try this, I really wanna see what kinda colors they pick
One thing to add: When you're done and they're dry, rub them for a few minutes with a tissue, to get the excess color off so it doesn't stain your hands/face/clothes as you use the phone. learned that the hard way with my TP.
entropism said:
One thing to add: When you're done and they're dry, rub them for a few minutes with a tissue, to get the excess color off so it doesn't stain your hands/face/clothes as you use the phone. learned that the hard way with my TP.
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Thanks, I'll add that into the end of the tutorial!
Thats a great idea! I might try to die mine a dark blue
But how much would the dye cost, and where can I get a 'T-6 Torx' screwdriver
You can get the screwdrivers at any hardware store. A T4, 5 and 6 will have you set for damn near any cell phone out.
The dye is $2/per pack at Walmart, make sure you get the powdered and not the liquid. 1 pack will easily fill a 3 quart pot and dye as many backs as you need.
One thing about dark colors: Do NOT buy them, because your backs will come out nearly black. If you buy the royal blue and let it sit in the dye longer, you'll get navy-ish, kind of dark purple. Same with red to maroon, emerald to forest, etc.
Be VERY careful as the housing WILL curl up on you if you don't pay attention. Use rubber coated tongs and stir the pot lightly and constantly.
entropism said:
You can get the screwdrivers at any hardware store. A T4, 5 and 6 will have you set for damn near any cell phone out.
The dye is $2/per pack at Walmart, make sure you get the powdered and not the liquid. 1 pack will easily fill a 3 quart pot and dye as many backs as you need.
One thing about dark colors: Do NOT buy them, because your backs will come out nearly black. If you buy the royal blue and let it sit in the dye longer, you'll get navy-ish, kind of dark purple. Same with red to maroon, emerald to forest, etc.
Be VERY careful as the housing WILL curl up on you if you don't pay attention. Use rubber coated tongs and stir the pot lightly and constantly.
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How do you prevent this? and i'm assuming this breaks your warranty, because it is pretty clear that the phone was dyed.
lol, yeah, say goodbye to your warranty. As to how you prevent it: keep the heat low, for one. Bring it to a low boil, then put the heat on the very lowest setting you can. You don't want this bubbling at all. Heck, you can do this easily with the water just barely steaming hot. Stir constantly, and pull it out of the water to check the color and to see if it's starting to warp.
mine is black too, all i had to do was buy a $5 gel cover off ebay. looks great and protects my phone. somedays i'm feeling grey so i remove the gel cover and trust gadget guard's full skin and invisible shield's front protection.
yeah i'm picky like that.
lol i did this back in the day to my tp and i had a purple battery cover for a while till i got my hero, tehehe
Hmm, just brainstorming here, but do you with there might be a way to leave part of the phone undyed? Like with a wax crayon or something like that. Wax crayon is probably not realistic but you get my point.
Vrekk, it's possible. I remember in the TP thread, someone was using vinyl adhesive stickers to keep the dye off their phones, leaving it the stock color when they removed it. Looked tacky, IMHO, but it's certainly possible.
entropism said:
You can get the screwdrivers at any hardware store. A T4, 5 and 6 will have you set for damn near any cell phone out.
The dye is $2/per pack at Walmart, make sure you get the powdered and not the liquid. 1 pack will easily fill a 3 quart pot and dye as many backs as you need.
One thing about dark colors: Do NOT buy them, because your backs will come out nearly black. If you buy the royal blue and let it sit in the dye longer, you'll get navy-ish, kind of dark purple. Same with red to maroon, emerald to forest, etc.
Be VERY careful as the housing WILL curl up on you if you don't pay attention. Use rubber coated tongs and stir the pot lightly and constantly.
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You can use the dark colors just fine, you just need to use less dye. The pack is meant for gallons of water, not a 3 quart pot. For example, if you buy the navy blue back, if you put 1/4th of the package in a 3 quart pot, you will get a nice navy (maybe a little lighter) blue.
I literally made dozens of touch pro backs with this method, with pretty much any color you could think of. You can mix and match dyes to get different colors as well. Obviously you only get one shot at it with your phone, so find some old touch pro backs or something and do it with that first.
For best results on removing the "glass" part of the housing, use a hair dryer (on low or medium, high will probably melt your case) to warm up the glue. I just removed one and it took about 15 seconds with no damage, becauase the glue was nice and warm and just came apart.
fyi...it will eventually wear off. it did on my tpro battery door.
zikronix said:
fyi...it will eventually wear off. it did on my tpro battery door.
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My diamond wore off as well, but if i remember correctly it was months later.
You don't even need to remove the "glass". Unless you have scratches on it, it just won't dye, can't adhere to that plastic.
Related
Hi folks, in the past few weeks I slowly tried to pimp my Wizard and this is the outcome
First I took the whole think apart, then I sanded the paint and metall on the front cover off, and painted the whole thinkg as you can see black with car-paint . Yes, there are still a few things that didnt went that well, like on the back the breaking line between the part left free around the camera and the black surface around is not that clear,and I am affraid i took a little bit too much paint (in total around 6-7 layers). I guess this happend during the time the paint dryied. But all in all I think I did not a bad job...
And the Wizard only looks that great cause of zoki's fantastic ROM!
sure looks sweet!
Thanks for the tip, I Think I might do that to mine.
Thanks, if you have any questions, i would be happy to help .
niiiceeeee.. did you sand the thing before paint? there is a similar paint job.. i think it is called the 'white wizard'. very nice too
I think I'll paint mine a litle less bright, I mean your shade of black is like piano black. Maybe I'll paint it Black Dim.
Do I really need to sand it all?
How did you do it, cause mine's got some scratches and stuff...
Hyyy
WOW dude ur wizard is rocking
i wanna do that to mine but i have a couple of questions
can u explain step by step which screws and how to open up the wizard coz im a complete noob
also wat knda paint was it water based or oil based was it spray paint or brush painting and also everything else thanx man
again great foneeeee
one more hting i looked at the pictures and u have the power amera button etc silver but originally on mone they are black how did u get them to be like that
thanx again
for the manual... try here:
http://michael-channon.spaces.live.com/
yeah, i think it also looks great, althougth... nope, i like it
@xusso, and mony114
I thinks depends which parts you want to paint, i wanted to paint the whole Wizard black, exept the buttons, and the circle around the camera as you can see. execpt for those parts, i sanded all other parts.
The sanding was quite easy (althought took some time and patience) exept for the front cover of the cellphone, it is not paint but kind of a metal surface around 0.2 mm think but beneath it is also plastic. Yes, i also sanded this one, but this was a lot of trouble, cause some places of this part are thin and it is dangerous to break them. But i think this is defenitly worth to sand as well.
Around the screen, there is a real mettal grid, this one i didnt and i think you also shouldnt sand. (in my first attempt to paint the Wizard, i left this part out, but afterwards I look in my opinion not so good, so i also painted it).
For the sanding of the plastic parts, i took 220-sand paper, and for the metallic surface on the front cover, i first went with a 100-sand paper over it and finished it off with the 220.
When I finished sanding all the parts i wanted to paint, I put stich over all the places and buttons i didnt wanted to paint black. (altought they also got some paint, it was not so grave, cause with a hard plastic card or screwdriver you can screch (in genearl) the coulor off again).
For painting (spay paint!) I took 'Black Glossy Rallye-Lack'. When you paint it, do it out in the open and for christ sake, take some protecion to cover your mouth!!! I didnt and I can tell you, it is totally not worth no to do. Hours afterwards I still had the bitter taste of lack in my mouth. (not mentioning the healh-danger).
I painted around 5-6 (kind of thin) layers. After every layer wait long enough untill the paint is dry. (I waited around 1 hour). After the last layer I let the parts dry over night for the paint to fully get dry. (it is worth it, otherwise you end up with fingerprints or other nasty stuff sticking on the paint).
et voila when you put i back togheter again dont forget to connect the soundboxes on the side or the keyboard like I did otherwise you have to disassamble the Wizard again .
I hope my small instruction help you further, if u still have any questions i am glad to help...
ps.: can u also post some images when u are finished, I would like to see how others paint their Wizard...
That was a great tutorial, thanks again!
I'll post my pics when I'm done with mine...
Maybe I paint it ...Pink!
So i read at ppcgeeks.com that this was possible so i tried it and i added my own flavor to it and BAM!
Sweet!
Wouldn't that be in accessories though?
nuke1 said:
Sweet!
Wouldn't that be in accessories though?
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i guess but i have a red theme goin on in my fone so idk?! but
if u have a CDMA diamond u can do this juss send me a PM
Why PM? Just tell people how you did it...
I hope I can post the url without ruffling any feathers. Here is the original thread over at PPCGeeks...
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=46487
I did mine with RIT Black liquid dye. Turned out great.
The steps I took were...
1. Place a pot with 2 cups of water in stainless steel or Teflon coated sauce pan on the stove.
2. Make sure burner is on medium low. You want the water to get hot enough so that you see steam lightly rolling off the top. NO HOTTER BECAUSE YOU WILL WARP THE COVER.
3. I used half a bottle of the black dye. Pour the dye into the water and let steep for about 2 min.
4. Place cover into water/dye mixture. Stir about every min. Use something soft to stir...like a rubber spatula or something.
5. Keep the cover in the mixture for 5 - 15 minutes, depending on how dark you want the cover to turn out. The longer you leave it in, the darker it will turn out.
6. When you are ready to take the cover out, make sure you have cold tap water running. Place the cover under the tap water and rub with your ringers for about a minute. I used rubber gloves so as to not dye my fingers (although I didnt notice any dye on the gloves when I was done).
7. Once it is rinsed, dry with a paper towel.
8. Once it is dry, "buff" the cover with a cloth of some type. I used a wash cloth. Some recommend using denim or microfiber. I dont think it really matters, just people showing how ingenious they are. lol
You only have to buff it for a minute when using the liquid dye. And you really only have to buff it to even everything out. I highly recommend the liquid dye as you dont have to worry about splotching from the powder dye. I did my girlfriend's cover as well and she went with purple. I am going to post a link someone posted for mixing the colors and what you can expect. All respect to xweaponx over at ppcgeeks for the idea and initial steps. I recommend doing this. Even if you just go with black, it looks much better and doesnt show wear or dirt like the original cover.
Here is the link for the color matching/mixing.
http://www.ritdye.com/Create+Custom+Color.9.lasso
All in all, this took about 15 min to do. Nothing to it and it turns out looking very professional, as if it came like that. It does not effect the clear plastic cover for the camera. It does not effect the text under that clear piece either. I would recommend using a q-tip to dry the cover on the under side. Some people noticed that their clear piece was cloudy afterward. I suppose this is for one of 2 reasons. 1. they got the water too hot. 2. they didnt clear the bottom side of the clear piece afterward. If anyone has any questions post them here and I will try to help.
Also, you may wanna take a look at the cover about every min at the 5 min mark to make sure you are getting the color you want. It is gonna look darker while in the pot with the liquid pooled on it. Just monitor it to make sure you are getting the right color.
You can get the RIT dye at Walmart, Walgreens, Riteaid, CVS, fabric stores, and craft stores. Just depends on whats available.
clampi said:
So i read at ppcgeeks.com that this was possible so i tried it and i added my own flavor to it and BAM!
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Please do not double post. Your other thread has been deleted.
NotATreoFan said:
Please do not double post. Your other thread has been deleted.
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i did it in the Rapheal section too because i have a Sprint touch Pro i was trying to help them over ther too
Sorry if there's already a "purple stains on my HD2" but I just ordered this one on ebay and apparently the guy's daughter kept a purple case on it.. this is the result.
I don't wanna screw it up trying to clean it with alcohol but does it look like this could come out? or has anyone else used cases that have caused this?
Just get yourself a nice black case and with time the purple might wear down. I would much rather do that than ruin the rubbery finish it has!? But then again..i guess the choice is yours..my guess would be that it was a case with a custom paint job because there is no reason why the finish should have been coming off.
toreone said:
Just get yourself a nice black case and with time the purple might wear down. I would much rather do that than ruin the rubbery finish it has!? But then again..i guess the choice is yours..my guess would be that it was a case with a custom paint job because there is no reason why the finish should have been coming off.
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Yeah, I suspect that color is probably actually "Beijing Pink"...classic mark (no pun intended) of a cheap paint job on a cheap case.
I haven't tried alcohol on this phone so I don't know if it'll affect the finish or not. Sometimes you can get that stuff to come up with a pencil eraser, but only in certain situations. Might be worth a try though.
If you can't take it off with an eraser you'll end up buying a cover. If you use alcohol and can't remove it or damage the finish you're still going to end up putting a cover.
I say you just try the alcohol route. If it doesn't come off then that's fine cuz you were going to slap cover on it anyways. I'd try a mr. clean magic eraser sponge, orange citrus cleaner stuff, goo-gone and alcohol being my last resort. Use Q Tips.
Looks like a bit of moisture got trapped between the phone and the case.
Knowing how tough red stains are to get out, in just about any environment, good luck is all I can say.
i had this same problem with a old nokia i had a blue case on it and it somehow stained the battery cover blue . i tried everything to get it off but i was desperate and said hey let me try some black magic spray on tire shine .left it on there for about five min and it wiped off like butter lol also works good for stickers on car bumpers let me know if this helps .
toreone said:
Just get yourself a nice black case and with time the purple might wear down. I would much rather do that than ruin the rubbery finish it has!? But then again..i guess the choice is yours..my guess would be that it was a case with a custom paint job because there is no reason why the finish should have been coming off.
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Yes it was :/ the seller sent it with the pink/purple case, looks like it was spray painted (very poorly too). I do have a black rubber case that came with my first one, but i can't see it helping anytime soon..
Yeah, I suspect that color is probably actually "Beijing Pink"...classic mark (no pun intended) of a cheap paint job on a cheap case.
I haven't tried alcohol on this phone so I don't know if it'll affect the finish or not. Sometimes you can get that stuff to come up with a pencil eraser, but only in certain situations. Might be worth a try though.
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yeah ill give that a try lol seems safe enough. (and the purple seems to be "soaked' into the finish ..at least thats what it looks like..) thanks!
Looks like a bit of moisture got trapped between the phone and the case.
Knowing how tough red stains are to get out, in just about any environment, good luck is all I can say.
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If you can't take it off with an eraser you'll end up buying a cover. If you use alcohol and can't remove it or damage the finish you're still going to end up putting a cover.
I say you just try the alcohol route. If it doesn't come off then that's fine cuz you were going to slap cover on it anyways. I'd try a mr. clean magic eraser sponge, orange citrus cleaner stuff, goo-gone and alcohol being my last resort. Use Q Tips.
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Thanks alot guys
The eraser didn't seem to work :/ , haven't tried the alcohol yet but I was wonderin if any of you knew about using acetone, nail polish remover, or gunkOff as far as embeded spray paint removal? (like which route is the safest)
Well it's me again.
This time, i had some spare time and thought of making something i wanted to do for some time ago. It's my first time doing this (although i'm familiar with the process since i use it for PCB making) but i thought i should give it a try. And in great recognition of what the XDA community enabled us - the users - to do with our phones, i wanted to brand my phone's battery cover with the XDA logo next to the andoid logo, the thing (os) that xda developers made possible to us. Ah and in the xda spirit, i thought it would be kind of cool to handcraft the design of that battery cover.
Here's the story of today's afternoon for me
...and possibly a guide for you, daring folks around there who just happen to have a spare scratched and ugly looking battery cover like i did
So.. i had this hd2 battery cover, from a dead HD2 that i have (poor fellow died during testing of the cpu bga problems and my tries to find a fix for them). The battery cover was in really bad shape, scratched, the finish was torn out.. looked like... crap.
I saw a topic around here about how to make your battery cover to a chrome-like finish by using some sandpaper and stuff like that. I think the idea is good, but the result is well... too shiny for my taste...and i want a "custom made one". I also wanted to have the xda and android logos onto the battery cover but i could not afford some laser etching on it, i can't even find one shop to do this here were i live in Romania. So here's how i did it.
1. I opted for a brushed metal design. A clear look design is just to shiny for my taste and... well, i guess it scratches more easily. So, using sandpaper, i've begun clearing away the original paint on the battery cover. When i was done with that, i begun sanding in only one direction and in straight line, in order to have a more symmetrical brushed metal look.
After some time sanding and after changing the sandpaper roughness to more finer ones, here's how it looked. Note that this is not the final design.
2. Next i needed some sort of logo - the stuff i'll be putting on the battery cover. I googled around, and got the xda text and android logo. I've edited them to a black&white design (you'll see later why..) and it looked like this.
3. I mirrored the logo, using irfan view and selecting horizontal flip from the image dropdown menu. You'll also see why. Then I've printed the logo onto a glossy a4 paper sheet, like the ones used for foto printing. I've used a laser printer, this is really necessary, inkjet ones won't work for what i'm about to do. You'll also see why
4. I draw some guiding lines for helping me center the image once i place the battery cover over it. Here's how i did.
5. I now placed the battery cover over the sheet of paper, using the lines i already drawn as a template to help me center it. As the image is mirrored, as you may guess, i will be transferring the logo from the paper to the metal surface and once there, it will look normal (not mirrored). More on that later. I also secured the paper to the battery cover with some electrical tape. Don't get upset, you'll also see why.
6. Well, i did use some fair amount of electrical tape to secure that piece of paper to the metallic surface. It needs to be as stretched as possible, not able to move around.
7. I used a smoothing iron (i don't know the exact word in english, aah, that thing you use to smooth out clothes) to heat up and press the piece of paper to the metallic surface. I pressed the iron and move it around the logo zone for about 15 minutes, at maximum temperature. Because the battery cover is not exactly flat, i was careful to follow the contour in order to leave no metal part unheated.
8. I then placed the heated battery cover with the paper on it, under a jet of cold water. I left it under the water for 15 minutes. This is important. The water must be cold, never use hot water.
9. I carefully begun peeling of the paper from the metallic part.
10. I peeled of almost all the paper, one thin layer still remained over the logo area. Don't rush things, place it under a water jet for yet another 5 minutes.
11. Ahh, there it is, the thing starts to look like something, ain't it
12. In the photo above, you can see that the toner from the paper was transferred to the metallic piece. That's why you need a laser printer, because of this property of it's toner. And also that's why you needed to heat it up with the iron. In fact, you're simulating what the laser printer does every time when you print something. Well, you done it on a curved metal piece.
In this last picture you'll also see that the logo isn't exactly 100% black, there are some grey or white spots on it. That's residual paper left over it. If you carefully rub it with your finger or a fine brush, you can actually remove it if you insist. You'll get a pure black logo (or other color if you wish and if you have a color laser printer available). At this stage you could also stop, if you like a black/color logo. You could then apply some lacquer, the spray-able variety to preserve the surface from scratches. I chose another design so i will go on with some other steps from here.
13. If you want something different, you may skip rubbing the logo to remove all the paper. If the logo looks as in the above picture, you're good to go for the next step. Remove the metallic piece from the jet of water and let it dry. If while it's wet you see that the black toner has gone away from some points, you'll need to use a little bit of paint to cover them out (you'll also see why). So if you see points where the toner is gone (after you removed the paper at the 9-10 steps) try to memorize where the areas affected are, then let the piece of metal to dry out for some half hour. After it's dry, you'll probably see that it turned kind of gray or even white-ish. It's no problem, it's normal, but it will be harder now to see those affected areas i was talking about before. That's why you memorized them. Now use a paint marker (one that has real paint in it, not the ones used to write on cd's or similar to those) or if you can't get one, you may also use some fingernail polish. Make some small dots over the affected areas. After you complete this, let the paint/fingernail polish to dry out. Be careful not to spoil the logo YOU WILL HAVE TO START OVER FROM STEP 1 IF YOU GET IT WRONG HERE... and that sucks )
14. After the paint has dried out, place the metallic piece under a water jet again. Cold water. Remove it after 1 minute, recheck for afected areas, if you still find them, you'll have to let the thing dry out again, and cover those parts with paint dots, again.
Here's mine.
and here's once i've done with the painting
After you're done, leave the whole thing to dry out for about 1 hour.
15. Get yourself some ferric chloride. You can get it from electronic components store, radioshack etc. It's used in electronics by hobbyists who want to etch their own pcb's. You'll need this stuff also. About 300ml will do.. The stuff is toxic, you don't want to touch it or spill it over clothes or other things, it will leave out some nasty spots that you can't remove. Use some gloves while handling this stuff. Now pour the ferric chloride into a plastic recipient big enough to fit the battery cover into.
Well i ignored the safety tip, but i'm being careful, i know the stuff, have been working with it for some good years.
16. Now you want to drop the battery cover...into the black stuff . Drop it with the logo side up. NOT DOWN. I really mean it. UP. Carefully swing the plastic recipient, just enough to move the liquid around. Try not to expose the metallic part, you must keep it submerged all the time. If you want to check the progress, be quick, lean the plastic recipient to one side just to expose the metallic piece, look at it, but then quickly lean the recipient back and keep the metallic piece submerged. Prolonged exposure to air in this stage can ruin your progress.
Here's how mine looks after 5 minutes into the ferric chloride. You'll be wanting to keep the metallic plate there for about 15-20 minutes. If you let it longer it will turn to a more darker color. If you let it just for 10 minutes you'll get a light gray. However you can't get an uniform black (or something as dark as an original battery cover) because if you let it this much you risk that the ferric chloride attacks the toner and paint surface, making holes in it or braking it apart.
Like i've said, here's the thing after 5 minutes. I want to let it for another 10-15 minutes.
17.
Once you left it for enough time, lean back the plastic recipient and look at the metallic piece once more. Take note that the color you see now will get a bit lighter once the whole process is finished. If you're satisfied, prepare a big water boll and quickly remove the metallic piece from the ferric chloride and drop it in the water. Be as quick as possible, while being careful not to drop the ferric chloride. Use gloves when doing this. Once the metallic piece is in the water, steer up the water with your hand.
Here's how mine looks now.
Your plate could be lighter or darker at this stage, depending on how much you left it in the ferric chloride. Don't worry if the color is not uniform. Instead, while the plate is still under water, get yourself a kitchen sponge, the one with one abrasive side and with the metallic plate still under water start rubbing it on the direction of the original brushed metal design you made in the start. Rub in only one direction, with the sponge and the plate always under water and continue to do so until the color becomes more uniform. Then use some isopropyl alcohol (also from radioshack - or the place you got the ferric chloride from.. they should also have this) and remove the metallic board from under the water. Now while the thing is still wet (don't let it dry!!!), get another sponge (clean dry one) and pour some isopropyl alcohol on the abrasive part and start rubbing the metallic piece once more, on the same and only direction (not back and forth). Rub in a parallel direction with the original scratches that makes your "brushed" design. The isopropyl alcohol should begin to disolve the toner and the paint. It should also help you to remove residual oxides left since you placed the metallic piece into the ferric chloride.
Here's my progress.
toner is starting to break down
18. aaaand... in the end, if you did it right, you should have something like this :
19. once the surface is of uniform color, wash the whole thing under a jet of hot water with some soap to remove any residues left by the chemical processes.
20. You're done! Now you have your custom made-hand crafted-geeky-logo. The logo itself won't peel off and the surrounding stuff is actually chemically embedded into the metal by a process similar to industrial aluminum anodizing (the same process used to cure aluminum used in unibody designs). Although it is scratch resistant to some degree, you may want to use some spray lacquer to protect your work.
I haven't got any lacquer yet but i'll use some if i can get some quality stuff. Here are some more photos with the thing so far.
(please excuse the photo quality, my camera and it's flash produces a weird looking effect, it seems that the metallic thing is kind of made from small dots, not brushed metal.. damned thing.. guess i'll be needing a new one)
...and a small video (with the same crappy camera)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtuRn02lPgY
Well, all in all, i like the thing. It's my first try at this, although i've done dozens of toner transfers to copper pcb's. I cannot be perfect at first try, probably neither you guys but is a good DIY afternoon fun.
I would also like to thank the xda community for giving me such a good times with my hd2's along with my other htc phones in the past. XDA has become such a successful community because of it's dedicated developers and users. I'm proud to wear the xda letters next to my phone.
PS: i promise i will also add a website link in the next version, if i get a new and more powerful iron, i was afraid this one won't be hot enough to heat the thing properly and transfer smaller text or details
amazing stuff dude!!!
i had lots of fun reading it and seeing the progress along the way and you've explained all the steps really well...the result speaks for itself!
++respect!
you my friend always surprise me, first with thermal solution and than THIS awesome " discovery ", thanks again .
Just like the user above said!
+respect Sir Facdemol!
awweeeeeeeeeeeeesome!!!!!
awesome....but tedious !
Its pretty cool but alot of work
Sent from the land were pigs fly
fantastic. really nicely done!
Love the mod.
thanks for the feedback
the mod took me about 3-4 hours to make. More complex designs are possible, ore similar designs on a mirror like finish. If the HD2 had an aluminum case.. hahah, that would have been fun...
I would vote for you for King of the HD2 hardware!
Very well done. I very well may have to try this. My battery cover is starting to look very bad.
OMG this is amazing! I may need to buy a metal backing for my phone just so I can do this.
this really looks sooo amazing. gread work!
That's bloody impressive! Might have to do this to my HD2
Damn that's awesome
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
Holy crabcakes. That's rad
. . NS4G . . MIUI . .
Is it for sale? (jk)
Really really nice, I like it!
+1 on everything was said!
Amazing. Well done!
Awesome!
Very very cool!
WOW! "applause"
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any unwanted damage you may cause to your device, this is to be a sharing of an idea which happened to work for me and a sort of framework for how you may also accomplish this.
So basically, I despise how terribly fingerprints show on my G4's edge, that's a nit pick. My main complaint is that because it's a glossy plastic, it gets scratched very easily and shows that just as bad, not to mention it's obviously plastic masking as metal and not doing a good job, or more simply put, makes this flagship look cheap. I had a vision of a G4 with a flat black edge, I thought I'd grab a nail file from my bathroom -the giant popsicle stick ones- and use it to gently wear away at the shiny coating. My nail file had two sides, a fine side and a coarser side, I used the fine side exclusively with higher pressure strokes in the beginning to remove the shiny coating, using gentler and broader strokes to smooth, got one of those crazy nail file tools that have multiple sides and are made of two sides with softer layers of material in between, the two sides are also split into different functions, ones usually a buffer and the other is a super fine nail file, fine than the former one.....then I used this same tool to buff and clean up the edges and make sure all is smooth and nice, worked excellently, can also probably use super fine sandpaper and a cloth.
My back plate was off and battery removed, I used the popsicle nail file one side at a time starting with rougher strokes to get rid of the shiny coating -which will distinctly flake away as white little crumbs of plastic- it will take a few passes to completely strip the coating off the edge, you'll notice it lingers like a sort of residue as it contrasts quite distinctly against the revealed plastic, once the coating is nonexistent begin to smooth and finish the side until it is uniform in color and looks completely smooth, you want to keep the direction of the strokes consistent as it will impact the uniformity and smoothness, I went horizontally around the phone if it were laying flat and that gave me great results, give the corners some extra attention but its the same idea, and thanks to the battery back being off I was able to make the finish meet the edge of the battery door by angling the file accordingly, repeat these steps loosely and gently with either the multi-tool-file or extra fine grit sandpaper, use your judgment, buff and finish to your heart's desire. During the entire process be sure to regularly clean off the sandpaper, file and sides of the phone on a cloth of some sort between passes as you will notice the sandpaper glide and will be clogged with material, I was wearing some bumming pants so I just rubbed it off on those, worked wonderfully. Obviously you are removing incredibly small layers of material so guys be careful, you could probably remove quite a bit before anything happens but that can also effec look of things quite badly so try to make it even. I plugged important holes with bits of tissue, only the headphone jack really, the usb port is shallow enough where some air remove any particles.
The file helps especially because of its rigidity and shape, allowing me to have a lot of flexibility when dealing with such a small surface area.
You are putting files and sandpaper near your screen, be careful. I had a very good screen protecter but even then I didn't touch my screen once, you can get at a pretty steep angle like 45 degrees away from being parallel with the screen and still be fine, maybe less, just be wary, it's easy to slip and scratch, I don't think a soft brush would do much but a rough scratch could leave marks.
My IR blaster still works and it received the same treatment, I made no effort to avoid it.
I will post pictures soon, I wish I could use my phone to take a picture of my phone. I'll use someones phone tomorrow to do so.
Feel free to ask me anything if you have a question or I left some vital info out.
:laugh:
okay, waiting for the pics and a more detailed steps before jumping in.
superbonto said:
okay, waiting for the pics and a more detailed steps before jumping in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I don't know how to post the pics cus as a new user I can't use links...
Also, you might consider adding a step of using progressively higher grits of sandpaper, and even going all the way to a rubbing compound to get super fine control over how much matte effect you desire. The matte of 300 grit sandpaper is different than the matte of say 450 grit etc.
KingFatty said:
Also, you might consider adding a step of using progressively higher grits of sandpaper, and even going all the way to a rubbing compound to get super fine control over how much matte effect you desire. The matte of 300 grit sandpaper is different than the matte of say 450 grit etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes absolutely, this is worth considering. I merely outlined how I did it to show that its not really necessary to get specific, I didn't go out of my way to get any of the tools I used and it came out satisfactory. I'll probably add it in once I get pics up and if people feel it's not as accessible as I thought.
mp2195 said:
So, I don't know how to post the pics cus as a new user I can't use links...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
give us the link like www. linkhere.com/blah.img
mp2195 said:
So, I don't know how to post the pics cus as a new user I can't use links...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use https://imgur.com/ to upload the picture and then post the direct link here, I'd love to see some pictures of this.
mp2195 said:
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any unwanted damage you may cause to your device, this is to be a sharing of an idea which happened to work for me and a sort of framework for how you may also accomplish this.
So basically, I despise how terribly fingerprints show on my G4's edge, that's a nit pick. My main complaint is that because it's a glossy plastic, it gets scratched very easily and shows that just as bad, not to mention it's obviously plastic masking as metal and not doing a good job, or more simply put, makes this flagship look cheap. I had a vision of a G4 with a flat black edge, I thought I'd grab a nail file from my bathroom -the giant popsicle stick ones- and use it to gently wear away at the shiny coating. My nail file had two sides, a fine side and a coarser side, I used the fine side exclusively with higher pressure strokes in the beginning to remove the shiny coating, using gentler and broader strokes to smooth, got one of those crazy nail file tools that have multiple sides and are made of two sides with softer layers of material in between, the two sides are also split into different functions, ones usually a buffer and the other is a super fine nail file, fine than the former one.....then I used this same tool to buff and clean up the edges and make sure all is smooth and nice, worked excellently, can also probably use super fine sandpaper and a cloth.
My back plate was off and battery removed, I used the popsicle nail file one side at a time starting with rougher strokes to get rid of the shiny coating -which will distinctly flake away as white little crumbs of plastic- it will take a few passes to completely strip the coating off the edge, you'll notice it lingers like a sort of residue as it contrasts quite distinctly against the revealed plastic, once the coating is nonexistent begin to smooth and finish the side until it is uniform in color and looks completely smooth, you want to keep the direction of the strokes consistent as it will impact the uniformity and smoothness, I went horizontally around the phone if it were laying flat and that gave me great results, give the corners some extra attention but its the same idea, and thanks to the battery back being off I was able to make the finish meet the edge of the battery door by angling the file accordingly, repeat these steps loosely and gently with either the multi-tool-file or extra fine grit sandpaper, use your judgment, buff and finish to your heart's desire. During the entire process be sure to regularly clean off the sandpaper, file and sides of the phone on a cloth of some sort between passes as you will notice the sandpaper glide and will be clogged with material, I was wearing some bumming pants so I just rubbed it off on those, worked wonderfully. Obviously you are removing incredibly small layers of material so guys be careful, you could probably remove quite a bit before anything happens but that can also effec look of things quite badly so try to make it even. I plugged important holes with bits of tissue, only the headphone jack really, the usb port is shallow enough where some air remove any particles.
The file helps especially because of its rigidity and shape, allowing me to have a lot of flexibility when dealing with such a small surface area.
You are putting files and sandpaper near your screen, be careful. I had a very good screen protecter but even then I didn't touch my screen once, you can get at a pretty steep angle like 45 degrees away from being parallel with the screen and still be fine, maybe less, just be wary, it's easy to slip and scratch, I don't think a soft brush would do much but a rough scratch could leave marks.
My IR blaster still works and it received the same treatment, I made no effort to avoid it.
I will post pictures soon, I wish I could use my phone to take a picture of my phone. I'll use someones phone tomorrow to do so.
Feel free to ask me anything if you have a question or I left some vital info out.
:laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just came across this. I will be doing this tonight whn i get home from work. My otter box has scuffed mine pretty good. I like the nail file idea. Its work. Lol make u respect it a little more from the hard work.
make pressure on him so he shares the pics. :/
can the leathe from back cover be removed, am should be getting mine and it might be with leather.. i dont like it. just wondering if someone has taken the leather off the cover.. what it looks like. just plain molded plastic?
raptorddd said:
can the leathe from back cover be removed, am should be getting mine and it might be with leather.. i dont like it. just wondering if someone has taken the leather off the cover.. what it looks like. just plain molded plastic?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont do it! It will look horrendous! You better get a plastic back cover from eBay, I got one so I could use a Spigen Neo Hybid without damaging the leather back cover.
pakitos said:
Dont do it! It will look horrendous! You better get a plastic back cover from eBay, I got one so I could use a Spigen Neo Hybid without damaging the leather back cover.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think leather looks GAY . no offense guys its just my opinion.. so it would be just a molded plastic right.? ill try see some stuff on amazon. what is the variant you have? is it from mexico..
raptorddd said:
i think leather looks GAY . no offense guys its just my opinion.. so it would be just a molded plastic right.? ill try see some stuff on amazon. what is the variant you have? is it from mexico..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not molded plastic but lots of glue and sew points. Mine is from Telcel H815P
pakitos said:
Not molded plastic but lots of glue and sew points. Mine is from Telcel H815P
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless glue cant be removed then itll look ugly... as foe the sewing points , thats a plu you get ventilation there.
this weather up north isnt very friendly... too bad you cant unlock bootloader.. whers the fun ?
Matte G4 Edge https://imgur.com/a/Bzspg
solventh said:
make pressure on him so he shares the pics. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Matte G4 Edge https://imgur.com/a/Bzspg
Thanks. Gold idea. Will try this when my broken test g4 arrives.
Can you pls seit the first post with the pics?
mp2195 said:
Matte G4 Edge https://imgur.com/a/Bzspg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks so much, man :]
Bullnados said:
Thanks. Gold idea. Will try this when my broken test g4 arrives.
Can you pls seit the first post with the pics?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For some stupid reason it won't let me edit my original post, weird. I'll try on my PC when I get a chance.
Perhaps to old?