Soluble hard varnish that sticks tightly to metal?

I know this is a difficult one because I've been looking for months and only found one thing that might work but it will be £200.

I do jewellery repair and especially a lot of metal finishing, so polishing, brushing, sanitising etc and sometimes I need to do this on intricate chains and straps. I have techniques for doing this but they could be better which is why I’m looking for some sort varnish or lacquer that I can masks of polished areas with then apply abrasives to the whole work piece then dissolve the varnish so the polished parts stay polished and brushed parts are brushed.

I can and do use tape but it has its limits and is only so practice and is incredibly time consuming on some items. There are a few products aimed at the industry but they are useless to put it bluntly. They from a loose latex layer.

I really appreciate any suggestions and would like to add I’m not looking for a different way of doing things I’m just asking if anyone knows of a protective coat that can be applied to metal that can then be dissolved in anything that won’t damage the metal. Thanks.

The obvious choice would seem to be Shellac

MichaelG.

I did consider that I was just worried the shellac would gunk all the abrasive dust and brushes together.

Would epoxy paint followed (after polishing) by paint stripper work for this task?

I found Wllko own brand paint stripper to be very effective againgst some Rustoleum twin-pack paint, which was quite abrasion resistant.

Martin.

Conformal Coating ?

Sticks to clean copper PCB. Can be removed with cellulose thinner.

Not sure how it would stand up to being abraded though.

Other stuff that springs to mind is Rustin's Metal Lacquer.

https://cpc.farnell.com/ambersil/6130004030/conformal-coating-acrylic-400ml/dp/SA02317

D.

Edited By Dave Daniels on 03/11/2020 11:12:26

We used to coat aircraft panels with a spray on blue "latex" which protected against scratches during manufacture, and then could be peeled off, but I think you have dismissed that as impracticable.

Cortec product VpCI®-372 ??

How about polystyrene (eg. CD case) or a bit of Lego (colourful ABS) dissolved in acetone to make a paint? Use acetone again to remove.

How hard are you abrading it?

I've heard of nail varnish being used for similar processes, dissolves in acetone.

.

Sorry, John ... I apparently don’t understand your ‘process’

... Could you please explain in more detail?

Shellac is hard and brittle; can be dissolved in Meths, and is the basis of traditional lacquers for metals.

MichaelG.

Lots of good ideas here. I shall try some out. Thanks.