Quit Wasting Money On Brasso

[Monkfish]

Here is a little "Technique" for removing printing precisely and cheaply.

All you need is an ordinary pencil eraser. You don't have to apply anything before or after and it doesn't leave scratches or marks. Just rub the print you wish to remove with the eraser, just like you were rubbing out pencil.


Used here.

It's best for removing small print. Anything larger than a minifig head or torso takes some elbow grease.

[Iare Tosevite]

Yeah thats what I plan to use in order to remove Robin mask and leave just eyes. However is control of where to remove printing easy or hard?

[Big C]

[Monkfish]

Yeah thats what I plan to use in order to remove Robin mask and leave just eyes. However is control of where to remove printing easy or hard?

It depends what size eraser you use I guess. If you use the corner of a new one that should be best.

[Solo]

Fun trick to combine with this: use regular, desk drawer, cellophane tape (aka Scotch Tape) to cover up the parts you absolutely do not want to erase. I've done this a few times and it's much better than trying to eyeball your edges.

[Monkfish]

Wow, how didn't I think of that! Cheers for the tip, will be sure to help me out.

[The Jinja Ninja]

I'm The Jinja Ninja, and I support this thread. Mostly 'cos it worked great on this fig :

[Morgan19]

Perfecto! I was getting ready to Brasso off some hockey armor and realized I'd lost my can of Brasso last year. I'll have to give this a shot when I get home tonight, looks like it works very well.

(But finding an eraser in this digital pencil-less age might be even harder, though. )

m19

[Solo]

I've found those white drafting erasers (Magic Rub?) work pretty well, since I had more of those around than actual pencils.

[uubergeek]

my thoughts exactly morgan... lol.... on the plus side i HATE brasso'ing heads, and i need to do about 30+ tonight for some new projects...

also need to clear off some torso's still... for small jobs i think this is much better way to do things, however, i'm wondering for larger jobs if it's as quick? and how many erasers will you have to go through? 1 bottle of brasso for $4 at walmart lasts me for months.... how much do pencil erasers cost?? i haven't bought erasers since back in highschool ... over 14 years ago... lol

[Solo]

Well, like he said, it's not as effective on larger areas... and people tend to have erasers laying around at home, work, or school that can be commandeered for this purpose - instead of going out and buying Brasso. For windscreens I'm pretty sure this is a less effective method.

[Firespray]

Wow regular erasers can do this? I'll have to try this out, thanks for the tip

[Thunder-blade]

I've heard this tip tons of times, yet it never works for me!

When I use erasers, the most they can rub off Lego are sharpies..

[Solo]

You just have to really work at it until you figure out the point that tips the scale. I thought it wasn't working too on my first attempt..

[Jettbacca]

That is a great idea. Thanks Monkfish!

[GIR3691]

I'm tempted to try this on my Dr. Horrible minifig.

[Solo]

Thinkin of taking that stethoscope off the mad scientist torso? I had the same idea...

[legoguy]

I used to use erasers to remove print, but I always found that it left the head or torso looking a little dull on the area that was "erased."

While brasso can be somewhat messy, it leaves the natural shine of the part intact. My OCD will not allow me to use the pencil eraser trick any more.

[Kaminoan]

As I have said before, ANY micro abrassive will work. That is all you are using with the eraser. There is another trick out there, but it is more expensive. I am hessitant to mention it, because I know people will get upset over the cost. Anyway, there is a series of professional grade sand papers that start at 1500 grit and go to 18,000 grit in 9 incremental steps. If you use these in the correct stepping you end up with sub-MICRON scratches. This means, you would be HARD pressed to see these scratches with a microscope. They leave a beautiful shine to the element with no residue.

But as I have mentioned they are expensive, the 9 piece of commercial grade sand paper in a package deal are ~$40.00

If you are still interested drop me a note.

- K

[Andi]

Can we speak about time?
How long do you have to erase the print before it is gone? A couple of seconds? Or several minutes? Or even longer than 10 minutes?
With brasso I need at least 3 minutes continuous rubbing before the print is as good as vanished.