I've designed my own Team Ring

[JAFO]

Well, here it is after dipping it twice last night. I let it dry about 12 hours and then popped it in the oven at 180 degrees for an hour to speed up the curing process.





Now, this stuff takes about four days to fully cure so even though I did heat it in the oven I'm not going to wear it for a few days. So I won't know if it actually sealed the brass until then. Anyway, this stuff is really easy to use - pour it into a container and dip it and then hang to dry. You do need to take a paper towel and wipe the top of the ring a few times while it's hanging upside down to remove the excess liquid so it doesn't form a glob on the top of your ring. The good thing is this stuff truly is invisible and really is self leveling so it costs the ring perfectly. If I hadn't applied it I wouldn't know it's on there.

One thing you want to do before applying this stuff is highly polish the brass. I used a Cape Cod cloth to polish mine, I keep some on hand to polish my watches and they work really well. Plus you don't have to neutralize the ring or apply any solvent after polishing with a Cape Cod - just wash it in soap and water and let dry. Seriously, this could not have been any easier.

[308GUY]

Looks great!

Let us know how the test run goes. Hopefully, you will not end up with a black/green finger!

Where did you get the "everbrite" protectaclear product?

Maybe I missed it, but did you end up sending the ring off to have it "electro plated", or did you just put the clear coat on after the gold plating you had done locally?

Really looks great in your last pic!

[JAFO]

I got the Protectaclear from their website. I got a small container for I think 15 dollars. Here's the site: https://www.everbritecoatings.com/jewel ... page&id=17

And no, I didn't send it off for the electroplating. I wore the ring after I got it back from my jeweler and it still turned my finger black/green so I actually polished off whatever gold was on the ring after he dipped it. The polished brass looks right and doesn't need to be gold plated in my opinion. But if anyone's skin reacts badly to brass then this stuff I dipped mine in might just do the trick.

I still can't get over just how good the ring itself is, right out of the box. It's just light years better than any other one I've had.

[JAFO]

Ok so the ring is officially finished now. Here's a couple quick shots:

[JAFO]

Almost forgot - the Protectaclear did completely seal the brass. I've been wearing it almost all day and no skin reaction whatsoever. So there's no need to order a gold plated ring - if your skin reacts to copper it's probably going to react to brass but all you have to do is seal the ring. Once sealed and cured, you'll never have the annoying black/green ring around your finger nor will your ring ever tarnish. I don't know how long this stuff will last but the great part about that is you can simply re-seal it at any time using the leftover Protectaclear.

Everybody should order one of these rings. They're screen accurate (a little better in my opinion), heavy like you'd expect it to be, and it looks close enough to gold once it's polished up. I'd suggest you order one, get the plastic insert, then if you want it to be just a little bit more authentic looking find a jeweler who makes custom jewelry and have it inlaid with enamel epoxy. I can't stress enough just how great this ring is. So if you've ever wanted one - get it now.

If anybody needs any tips on how to dip the ring just shoot me a PM and I'll be glad to help out.

[308GUY]

Thanks for the great follow-up.

The ring really does look fantastic.

This is by far the best ring you're going to find to emulate what's seen on screen, and the sealing process you outline makes it very practical and cost effective.

Next test will be to see how long the sealant lasts, but as you point out, it can always be re-sealed if need be!

Great report on a great product. Thanx!

[MikeS]

That is an awesome looking ring.

I didn't read all the comments, any idea of the cost overall to have a ring ready to wear?

[JAFO]

That is an awesome looking ring.

I didn't read all the comments, any idea of the cost overall to have a ring ready to wear?

I think I paid 98 bucks for the ring. Then another 40 for the epoxy enamel inlay then 15 bucks for the stuff I sealed it with. It was definitely money well spent for me to finally have a screen accurate Team Ring.

[JAFO]

Look familiar?

[ppmusic]

Many thanks to Tony for the great Team Ring and to JAFO for all his advice. I now have two of Tony's rings, one in polished brass with my own inadequate enameling job, and one that is gold plated with the insert. The gold plated one cost about $93 with shipping; the other was about $20 less. I will soon be applying Protectaclear so that the gold plating won't wear off and the polished brass won't turn my finger greenish black. As JAFO said, if you've been waiting for a high quality and reasonably priced Team Ring (I waited over 30 years!), Tony's is outstanding. I tried posting pictures and haven't succeeded yet.

[MikeS]

Hi ppm, welcome.

Yeah, the ring looks really nice.

About images, JAFO looks to be using a site to upload images and then pastes the link, this usually works best. Some forums require a minimum number of posts as well before certain permissions are allowed, not sure of the policy here. Do you see the "Img" button in the editor, if so, hover over it and you should see some text, clicking it will paste the code in your message at the point of your cursor - see below. Also, have a look at the FAQ - http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/faq.php

JAFO's image host is https://postimage.org/ - there are others. The code for images is...

Code: Select all

[img]  Link_To_Image_Here  [/img]

If you're a MPI fan you will have a nice time around here, lots of nice people full of MPI knowledge

Oh, btw JAFO, thanks for the info, much appreciated.

[ppmusic]

Hi MikeS, thanks very much! The amount of detailed knowledge on this site is fantastic.

On Friday I dipped each ring in Protectaclear after polishing them. I used the top part of two plastic hangars for dipping so as not to get any fingerprints on them and used paper towels to get off the excess liquid. I hung them in a closet for three days. On Monday night I took them down. They both look great, and after several hours of wearing them, no greenish black marks. IMO the gold plated one does look better, but the difference isn't enormous (I'm avoiding the word huge these days).

[308GUY]

Welcome again....I'm a little late to the party, but the sentiment's the same.

Hope you get the image posting thing worked out, would really like to see how your rings turned out.

Yea....they kinda all look the same, but yours are special to you, just as mine are special to me.

Almost like people....they are all sort of the same...but no two are alike!

You won't find anyplace with more info about all things MPI, nor a greater bunch of folks than right here on Magnum Mania.