Liquid Form Brushable Enamels (LCE)

Description

Excellent for use as counter enamel. For optimum coverage sift 80 mesh dry enamel into freshly painted brushable enamel. Tamp down with fingers & dry. Cover front side of piece, dry and fire both sides at the same time. This minimizes warp-age and eliminates a pickling step.

These enamels can also be used as painting colors to achieve water color effect. Water Soluble.

Sold in dry (4 oz, 8 oz, &  5 lb. jar) form; available in the drop down menu.

Liquid Form Enamel
This product is available in dry powder and pre-mixed liquid form. It contains a workable blend of glass, clay, and electrolytes. You need to add only water. Colors can be intermixed when in liquid form to create new shades of color.

Mixing Instructions for Dry Powder:
For small items a simple way to mix is to place a half teaspoon of powder into a plastic spoon. Using an eye dropper add drops of water until the mixture is the consistency of ‘milk’. Apply to copper with a brush. Always make sure the powder and water have been stirred right before application as the glass falls out of suspension in the water very quickly.

For larger quantities mix ¼ cup water to 5 oz. powder. To make a gallon of liquid, mix 14 lbs. of powder to 2 quarts of water. The water to powder ratio may be adjusted up or down if needed for your particular project. If the liquid dries out, you can grind it back smooth in a mortar pestle to re-constitute.

Tips for Using Liquid Form Enamel:
1. Before application, always mix well as the glass quickly falls out of suspension in the water.
2. The water content is extremely important to application firing result you get. Too little water and your result may look like cottage cheese. Too much water and the coating may fire dark with little color.
3. Colors can be intermixed when in liquid form to create new shades of color.
4. Left over liquid form enamel that dries out can be re-constituted and used again. Take dry material and place in a mortar and pestle to break down any dried clumps. Add water and use again.

Firing Instructions:
Make sure enamel product is completely dry before firing. For small pieces (less than 2” in diameter) fire at 1450 degrees F. for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. For larger items (up to 6” in diameter) fire at 1450 degrees F. for 2 to 3 minutes. For much larger work firing times and temperature should be determined for your specific project. Firing times and temperatures are meant as a guide only. You may need to adjust up or down for your own situation/equipment.

More information:
Expanded information on Liquid Form Enamel, spraying techniques and equipment, the crackle effect and more may be found in the Thompson Enamel Workbook (#TEP-001). Other enameling technical information may be found under ‘Enameling Help’.

*It should be noted that Thompson Enamel products are meant to be used for decoration purposes only. Thompson’s liquid enamel products are not meant to be used on food contact surfaces. Thompson Enamels are not formulated for impact or heat resistance.

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Liquid Form Brushable Enamels

This product is available in dry powderand pre-mixed liquid form.  It contains a workable blend of glass, clay and electrolytes and a polymer resin.  You need to add only water.  Colors can be intermixed when in liquid form to create new shades of color.

The product line includes:  LCE-1 Black, LCE-2 Semi-Clear, LCE-3 White, LCE-4 Green, LCE-5 Red, LCE-6 Brown, LCE-7 Blue, LCE-8 Yellow, and LCE-9 Orange.

Counter Enamel

The original idea for Liquid Form Brushable Enamels was to be a brush-on counter enamel.  This is still the main use for this product line.  The back side of metal can be coated with an LCE enamel after removing all oil and grease.  If desired, a light sift of 80 mesh color can be added on top of the wet LCE.  It is dried for 10 minutes in a dryer, under a heat lamp, or on top of the furnace until it creates a hard bisque.  Once cool to touch, the piece can be handled without the back side enamel coming off.  Coat the front side of the piece in any manner you want, dry and fire both sides in the first firing.  This lessens warping and eliminates pickling.  Coating both sides for the first firing is ideal for thin copper such as M-1 Tooling Copper Foil and M-7 Maleable Copper.

Painting Enamel

The Liquid Form Brushable Enamels can also be used as a Painting Enamel.  The LCE enamels are the only painting enamels that can be applied directly onto copper – there is no need to have a pre-fired underlying base coat.  The normal application of LCE enamels will have a larger volume of material being applied to the metal base than with other forms of painting enamel which have small amounts of glass when applying the material to the piece.  An LCE application will have enough glass so that when they are applied directly to metal, they will not burn away in the firing.

Mixing Instructions for Dry Powder:

Place a half teaspoon of powder into a plastic spoon or small container.  Using an eye dropper add drops of water until the mixture is the consistency of ‘milk’.  Apply to clean, grease and oil free copper.  Adjust water content as needed.  If it’s too thin add more powder, if too thick add more water.  Stir right before application.

Firing Instructions:

Make sure enamel product is completely dry before firing.  For small pieces (less than 2” in diameter fire at 1450 degrees F. for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes.  For larger items (up to 6” in diameter fire at 1450 degrees F. for 2 to 3 minutes.  Firing times and temperatures are meant as a guide only.  You may need to adjust up or down for your own situation/equipment.