Painting embossed writing on metal

[BobL]

I have a chain saw clutch cover which I am restoring. The cover is grey and the maker's name (STIHL) is embossed in metal on the cover and painted black and I want to restore the paint on both.

I was thinking of spay painting the name first in black and then covering the name with masking tape and cutting around the name with a scalpel and then painting the grey but that seems pretty fiddly.

Any other ideas?

[Big Shed]

Bob, one of the methods used for this was using a relatively hard rubber roller and roll across the embossing with paint applied to the rubber roller. Used on number plates for instance.

This only applies paint to the top of the embossing, don't know how much the embossing is proud of the rest of the surface and whether you want to have the "sides" of the embossing black as well.

[BobL]

Bob, one of the methods used for this was using a relatively hard rubber roller and roll across the embossing with paint applied to the rubber roller. Used on number plates for instance.

This only applies paint to the top of the embossing, don't know how much the embossing is proud of the rest of the surface and whether you want to have the "sides" of the embossing black as well.

Thanks BS,

The writing is proud by about a mm. The paint is on the very top of the emboss.

I will have a scrounge around and see if I can find a hard roller.

[Bob38S]

Possibly a very fiddly way of doing it but it does work - and leaves a good result

if the metal cover is removable and the side with the embossing is reasonably flat - photocopy the side at 100% [some copiers are not always exact and may need some fiddling] - make 2 copies just in case, place copy on top of some clear contact [not the flimsy cheap stuff] and clamp securely to a cutting board, use your scalpel to cut carefully around the letters [fortunately Stihl is not a long word].

You now have a positive and a negative stencil which you can locate onto the side-plate in whichever order you wish to use them - just ensure the previous coat is dry - leave for a couple of days in the sun for the paint to bake harden.

This overcomes the problem of trying to cut around masking tape on the previously painted surface - the scalpel always marks the previous coat.

Just a thought,
Bob

[BobL]

Good ideas Bob.

Here is the item in question.

The name and the vertical stripe on the clutch cover are normally in black. As it turns out some models of the same saw they are not black but grey like the background so for now I'm pretending it's one of those saws!

BTW while we are in the finishing section the home made dogs are finished in potbelly band and baked in the BBQ at 200Cº for an hour. It makes the finish go nice and hard.