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Maintaining high finish on copper sprinklers

Q. I have been making copper orbital lawn sprinklers for 11 years and have struggled with maintaining a high gloss for all of these years. I used to hand polish with steel wool, and then apply Mothers polish, then clean with denatured alcohol and apply a Everbrite [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] coating, but still experienced spotting and staining while trying to sell my product at craft shows. I've just started to machine buff the sprinklers and am able to attain a high gloss but the Everbrite seems to dull down. QUESTION: WHAT SHOULD I USE TO MAINTAIN THIS HIGH GLOSS?

Jim Cook
Crafter - Fremont, Michigan
March 11, 2010

A. Hi, Jim. A standard brightener / tarnish preventer for copper is sodium benzotriazole ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] . Try this before the Everbrite and see what you get. You may also try the benzotriazole before a standard brass lacquer.
But Everbrite recommends a different product, Protectaclear from Everbrite [a finishing.com supporting advertiser], for keeping metal shiny, so that's probably the top choice.

Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
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