Is it safe to paint motherboards?

[StrawberryShortCakes]

If yes, is there any kind of specific paint to use? 

I'm hoping to do a black light or glowing in the dark build. 

 

[Haro]

If the paint is not conductive the sure. 

Do I recommend it? No. Unless you absolutely need it.

[StrawberryShortCakes]

16 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

If the paint is not conductive the sure. 

Do I recommend it? No. Unless you absolutely need it.

I know it's not a need but hot pink would look so epic

[Kisai]

3 minutes ago, StrawberryShortCakes said:

If yes, is there any kind of specific paint to use? 

I'm hoping to do a black light or glowing in the dark build. 

 

I wouldn't, as it would affect the electro-conductive properties of the board, and more to the point, the thermal properties.

 

I would probably suggest powder-coat type of painting the metal parts of the Chassis though. You can also do this to metal parts that aren't attached to a PCB. If it's attached to a PCB (eg heat spreaders) make sure that anything you paint doesn't fill in cooling fins, only paint flat/solid metal parts. Don't paint heatsinks since that will affect the cooling properties. Don't paint anything that is a chip. 

 

As for blacklight, blacklight emits UV, so you would probably want to change or coat the plexiglass to actually have a UV filter (eg that purple-blue color blacklights are) which would reduce the brightness of any light that isn't white  or painted with a phosphorescent paint in the chasis.

 

Powder coating is a kind of plastic, which is why you have to be careful what you apply it to:

https://www.technoglowproducts.com/fluorescent-uv-powder/

 

But I probably would recommend avoiding painting anything that gets warm in general. Like paint the inside/outside of the chasis, maybe the cable covers, liquid cooling pipes, plexiglas. But be really careful how far you go with it:

 

This looks cool at first, but you see they actually didn't paint anything on the MB, they used colored liquid cooling to achieve half, the other half is the paint of the chassis. Though if you ask me, this looks like a CG render more than a functional system given that the lights are on but no cables outside the chassis are seen. So it's not representative of a working system.

Here's the actual system:

 

You can see it in the thumbnail. at 5:33 in the video.

 

 

 

[5x5]

2 minutes ago, StrawberryShortCakes said:

I know it's not a need but hot pink would look so epic

Good luck destroying the board. Paint will act as a heat insulator and you will have multiple overheating components on the board.

[StrawberryShortCakes]

11 minutes ago, Kisai said:

I wouldn't, as it would affect the electro-conductive properties of the board, and more to the point, the thermal properties.

 

I would probably suggest powder-coat type of painting the metal parts of the Chassis though. You can also do this to metal parts that aren't attached to a PCB. If it's attached to a PCB (eg heat spreaders) make sure that anything you paint doesn't fill in cooling fins, only paint flat/solid metal parts. Don't paint heatsinks since that will affect the cooling properties. Don't paint anything that is a chip. 

 

As for blacklight, blacklight emits UV, so you would probably want to change or coat the plexiglass to actually have a UV filter (eg that purple-blue color blacklights are) which would reduce the brightness of any light that isn't white  or painted with a phosphorescent paint in the chasis.

 

Powder coating is a kind of plastic, which is why you have to be careful what you apply it to:

https://www.technoglowproducts.com/fluorescent-uv-powder/

 

But I probably would recommend avoiding painting anything that gets warm in general. Like paint the inside/outside of the chasis, maybe the cable covers, liquid cooling pipes, plexiglas. But be really careful how far you go with it:

 

This looks cool at first, but you see they actually didn't paint anything on the MB, they used colored liquid cooling to achieve half, the other half is the paint of the chassis. Though if you ask me, this looks like a CG render more than a functional system given that the lights are on but no cables outside the chassis are seen. So it's not representative of a working system.

Here's the actual system:

 

You can see it in the thumbnail. at 5:33 in the video.

 

 

 

Ooo thanks more research material. 

[Aimi]

Painting already dead boards to use as decorations for a room or some such area would be fine. But I sure as hell wouldn't do anything like that to a board I plan to actually use. You can make do with LEDs and painting components that aren't going to be dealing with electricity or high heat.

[Joseph K]

Acrylic paint shouldn't kill anything and will stick, but always ALWAYS look up the ingredients in the paint you want to use. Any kind of oil paint will cause corrosion. You could still cause huge thermal issues by dunking your mobo tho so be careful where you paint.

[kkpatel87]

14 hours ago, StrawberryShortCakes said:

-snippy-

Or can you create a motherboard cover that is painted. I would highly recommend against painting a motherboard.

[Blue4130]

14 hours ago, Kisai said:

I wouldn't, as it would affect the electro-conductive properties of the board

 

This is so not correct. The traces on a motherboard are not exposed. 

Also, look at any motherboard, there is paint all over it. Logos, diagrams, labels. All paint.

 

Do I think op should paint his board? Probably not, most don't have the skill/equipment to do it cleanly. 

 

Also, ltt did a video where they painted a board. Worked fine if I recall. (though ugly as hell)