Plastic Classic Forum

Made this bar top from copper sheet metal, map stencil, and a few chemicals. Ocean is copper patina, and the whole thing is covered in clear lacquer.

Very nicely done. Are you going to post information on the procedure used for this project?

Looks fantastic. What about the rivets around the edges, where did those come from?

Not rivets, they are just #6 brass round head wood screws, but it's hard to see with the small image size.

The copper is mounted on plywood with the brass screws and polyurethane liquid nails holding it down. Procedure is to clean the copper ( I used Wright's copper cream followed by water and acetone), then paint clear lacquer on the part of the stencil that is to remain bright copper.. Next apply chemicals to create patina. There are many choices for this depending on what color of copper patina is desired. I used sprinkled table salt and exposed it to household ammonia vapors until sufficient blue patina was achieved. Three coats of clear lacquer were applied over the entire surface to protect the patina from wearing off, and to smooth the interface between bright copper and patina.

Thanks for the info. Again, it is quite stunning :-)

I like it. It does not look perfectly flat, like the plate might have been part of something bigger. Is that a small notch in the lower right corner?

Yeah it's a notch to allow for a vertical beam where the bar top is to be mounted. It's going in the starboard fore corner of the cabin. There will be rosewood trim around the edges.

The copper came from a 17"x 12' roll of sheet copper I got from a local industrial surplus yard. There were small bends that can be seen if the light hits them right. It's perfectly flat as far as setting glasses on the bar top, but not perfectly optically flat.