Lense Sputtering Need Help

I tried to sputter a mag reflector and it came out like poop, I need some helpful info on the proper process to do this

I first tried it with duplicolor Clearcoat, but it has a special nozzel to simulate an airbrush so it sucked, then I tried it with some Rusteolum clear coat gloss paint and it kinda worked but also flattened out mostly as it dried.

I need a REAL procedure on how to do this. Does this only work with Krylon paint?

Do I lose alot of brightness? I want a near-perfect beam, I am not happy with the stock mag reflectors beam. Im using a spare reflector for practice....

Hmmmmm after the paint dried it looks ALOT better.

I tried it in the Lux III maf and wowa! What a smooth beam!
it's not exactly orange-peel looking, more like a shiny blotchy reflector...

I testd the beams outside and the non-sputtered lense produces a brighter hotspot and has a more pronounced beam when I shine it into the air.

The beam on the sputtered lense is less definated, but nice and smooth in the center vs the sharp ugly center on the non-sputtered lense...

Now I can't decide which one to keep in the light, the non-sputtered lense appears brighter but im not really sure.


No Sputter Sharp

Sputter Sharp

No Sputter Wide

Suptter Wide

No Sputter Sharp

Sputter Sharp

No Sputter Wide

Wide w/ sputter



Is there a way to sputter a lense and retain the brightness?

Pix look like ya sputtered the camera lens too.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gif Sputtering is an art, less talented souls (like me) compensate by using diffusing lenses like acrylite or write-right.

wow, that's a heavy sputtered reflector. To answer some questions, it's best to sputter the reflector vs the lens as output is better that way. I'd say if you sputtered the reflector as good as lambda can, you'd have brighter beam that should still look as good. Notice how the sputt takes the purple haze out of the beam and mixes it up...

hey guy's looking at the lense in the daylight it looks almost PERFECTLY sputtered, it has a very nice orange peel texture to it. The picture I took is very deciving, it came out pretty great. Trouble is when I turn the light on I can see the paint is sorta cloudy, So im thinking that perhaps it is jsut a problem with the paint I am using?

THe sputtered reflector looks WAY better than the non sputtered one, but I think that that slightly cloudy paint may be what is resulting in a loss of light.

Im considering picking up some krylon and sputtering the other reflector I have. I just need to know for sure if im going to loose ALOT of throw and/or brightness.

lambda if your out there I could use some help!

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Justintoxicated said:


lambda if your out there I could use some help!

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If you search on username "lambda" and sputter you will get some useful hits including this one: sputter
Sheesh, why don't people use the search function, he sputtered! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

Justintoxicated,

From the picture it looks like the sputter is a little too thick. But as you say, it's hard to tell from a picture what it really looks like.

Basically to sputter, forget anything you've been told about spray painting. A smooth even coat just gives you a blurry picture of the beam artifacts.

Use Krylon (other stuff might work, I've only used Krylon) and shake for 20 to 30 seconds only. Spray in very short burst from about 14 - 16 inches away. I usually turn the reflector 90 degrees after each burst spray and hit it again until its been rotated all the way around (four sprays).

Dry fast! The faster it dries, the better the finish. Also, the dryer the air, the better the coat. High humidity can cause the Krylon to fog up.

It's sort of a black art, but with a little practice, good results can be acheived.

Good luck!

I think thats where I wen't wrong, I was letting the paint sputter out of the can by only slightly pressing the button, So I do a normal spray and just keep it distanced and a very very light mist right?

Not so light a mist as very quick burst. I hold the can at about a 45 degree angle and aim at the rim of the reflector. Don't lay it heavy, but very thin. Ideal is for the seperate tiny blobs of Kryon sprayed on the reflector to just touch each other as they dry and flatten out.

Well I have only one more reflector and no more spares so this time I need to do it right. Will there be much of a loss in throw or brightness if I do this correctly?

The only decent paint I have is Rustoleum Clear Gloss. Maybe I'll try on a cheap flashlight first.

from the beamshots I've seen, the loss is not that bad. In anycase it will be a lot less of a difference than your pics, as yours looks thick and is cloudy.. I'd just get the same paint Lambda used. No sense in experimenting different paint brands unless that's your goal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

here was my results on a junk flashlight.
Far-Right my first attempt, Straight orange peel affect, but I guess it is too much paint.

The middle is a junk flashlight reflector, I did a much lighter sputter on it. I used Rustoleum Clear GLoss Coat (Thats what I have already)Does this look right lambda? its hard to tell form your picture in the other post The left is the un-sputtered Mag reflector.

Yes, the middle one looks just about right. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Loss of intensity is really relative, as the brightest "blob" of light in the hot spot gets smoothed out with the rest of the hot spot. So, instead of a tiny part of the hot spot being real bright, the entire hot spot become a uniform bright spot...

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lambda said:
Yes, the middle one looks just about right. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Loss of intensity is really relative, as the brightest "blob" of light in the hot spot gets smoothed out with the rest of the hot spot. So, instead of a tiny part of the hot spot being real bright, the entire hot spot become a uniform bright spot...

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Thanks for all your help, im sure I'll get better and better with time.
I attempted this again this morning and it came out ever so slightly thicker than the middle one, just thick enough so the droplets could attach and flaten out, and slightly texture the reflector. This paint really leaves a nice texture, its like the far right reflector only WAY WAY WAY smaller droplets.

I'm not sure how it compaires to krylon, but I have never had really great results with krylon paint myself, krylon is good for people who are impatient typicaly and it is more forgiving.

I'm not noticing much of a drop in brightness but the beam is NEAR perfect. Just a tad less distributed than my heavily sputtered lense but MUCH brighter. I would say this time It came out close to perfect. I'll try to snap a shot tonight. I need some new batteris for my Light, but I can't seem to kill the ones in it, must be something to do with the J voltage bin.

The reflector actualy appears more clear when the paint was slightly thicker (one spot got slightly more paint)

Lambda, the part that recieve a little less paint than the rest still has a minor artifact, but the beam's spot is nice and soft.

The heavily sputtered lense is of course more perfected but MUCH less bright, and the lightly sputtered is near perfect and VERY bright.

I would urge you to try this type of Rustoleum, painters touch, clear gloss smooth finish paint. It seems to be working really well. I don't have any krylon to compare to, but it difinately leaves a slight orange peel affect and honestly I can't see it getting much better than this!

Also the part where that got a little more paint (im not talking about much!)is more clear and brighter than the part with smaller glob-mist like dots. its really hard to explain, but what im saying is that the slightly larger droplets of paint left a brighter and more clear & defined beam than the part with lots of tiny specs. Both left orange peel texture but the larger droplets left a more shiny texture. When I say larger droplets they are in no way NEAR as big as my first attempt, but about 2x as large as my second attempt. The paint flattened out and left a PERFECT texture.

In other words this paint is probably more forgiving than krylon from what you explained. You might want to check it out, I did not expect it to turn out this well The texture is IMO perfect, Leaves a nice sharp beam yet removes the artifacts. Too light of a spray seem to smooth out the beam more than necessary leaving a less defined edge.

I know exactly what my goal will be on my next sputter attempt.

Thanks for all your help and I strongly encourage you to try this paint if you have some spare reflectors, I got it at home depot. Rustoleum is Ok as is IMO, about the same as kylon, but for this application I don't see it getting any better than this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif next tiem i will stick to the 90 degree rotation more, I was just afraid to get the last 90 degree turn like the rest because it already had sputter on it, I should have equaled it out and the beam out be as good as it gets. Still thows the same distance as before and the beam is MUCH better!

This thread made me finally try this technique. I used the only clear spray stuff in a can that I had on hand. It happened to be a clear, urethane conformal coating for circuit boards, "Fine-L-Kote SR". After a few practice reflectors I seem to have gotten "just right". Works great. I was very impressed with the results. Thanks to Lambda for another tool in the modders toolbox. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif