painting LED's

[chrisatpsu]

with there being a big shortage in places for led's of all the same color.

do any of you guys buy clear, then pain them?

if so, what paint do you use?

[typoagain]

There was a big discussion on doing just this over on Lone Star Holidays forum. One of their big contributors, (and I am willing to bet a instructor at the next Academy) is David Moore with Holiday Coro.

I think the article covers mainly glass mini lights, but I would think that the plastic LED bulbs would work even better.

Most people are using DupliColor's "MetalCast" paints or Krylon's XMetals paint. Both are about $9 a can and not that easy to find.j Plus color choices are limited. Locally, I found the best selection at AutoZone. I also found 3 or 4 different colors at my local WalMart. None at Home Depot or Lowe's.

Some folks are not all that happy with the colors they are getting and some love what they end up with. I think that it depends on the color and how heave a coat you put on. I have used the XMetal red to put stripes on glass and loved it.

Here is the link to the LSH thread;  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

David Moore's article is here:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

[chrisatpsu]

thanks for the info,

I bought some boxes of C7 LED's from walmart, and would like to make a string or Red, Green, and Blue...  as i can't find them in individual colors.

[typoagain]

Oh! I hear you need to give these a good deal of time to fully dry. You can handle them after a couple of hours, but if you are going to stick them through coro or something like that, they need to cure for several days of they might scratch.

At least, that is what I have heard-never tried it myself. But I do plan on getting whatever i can in white on clearance this year and painting a bunch of them. I hope it works out fairly well.

[chrisatpsu]

that's fine. these are going to either hang in the air, or be attached along the top or a porch roof.  so i should be ok, as long as i handle them ok.

[tbone321]

Just remember that you will be painting plastic and paints that are ment to paint glass might not work well on plastic.  You also need to make sure that the solvent that is used in the paint wll not damage or destroy the LED.

[chrisatpsu]

they are a led, with a larger plastic (C7 size) cover

[rrowan]

What about a hobby store that sales paint for plastic models. I used to buy a lot of that when I worked on my trains, of course I was using a airbrush to apply the paint but they do sale them in spray cans.

Rick R.

[chrisatpsu]

i'm not sure if Testors paint would hold up outside?

[jnealand]

I wonder if the PVC dye techniques would work?  The only issue could be uniform color since it runs like water, but I just kept brushing my pvc until I got rid of any streaks or lighter spots.  But these are small enough to dip so that could solve the brushing problem.