Refurbishing CPU print

[feipoa]

I have seen some really nice fake chips which look to have had their surfaces reprinted. I have some rare chips with badly damaged surface printing on them. Does anybody know how the typical collector can refurbish the printing on these ceramic surfaces? Alternately, can somebody recommend a company or individual to send the chips to for print refinishing?

[CPUShack]

Dont

Its ok to clean, but not remark

[feipoa]

Do you know how the fakers do it? Stencil spray paint? I bet they scan in the imagine of the surface they want to replicate, print a stencil, lay it over the surface, and spray paint.

I recently saw this reprint and was really impressed,
http://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27965

If a perfect reproduction is possible, I might consider. I have some chips in such bad condition that almost all the wording is rubbed away.

[CPUShack]

depends on what they are faking, lots cover the old markings in paint, then put new ones on, and rarely do they get them right LOL

[Robev]

The only way to do it correctly would be to screen print it

[feipoa]

Do you have any idea what kind of paint is used on the CPUs, e.g. paint with higher thermal conductivity or high temperature paint?

I know there are some screen printing shops in town. Not sure if this is something they would take on though. I'm not really at that point of attempting anything yet and will probably never be. I would only consider this if the results are perfect and indistinguishable from the original. Of course, trying to fake a chip is just infuriating and beyond my principles.

I collect more for the functionality of the hardware rather than looks, so how pretty the surface is isn't all that meaningful for me, except for a few rare items. For me, a rare and mint visible condition CPU is meaningless to collect if it does not work flawlessly. Working and mint visible condition is, of course, best but may not be worth the risk of the endeavour. I was just wondering if anyone has tried this and what success did they have? What worked, what did not, etc?

[crusty_dog]

the "paint" used for markings was quick drying printing ink.