Paint finishing??????

[poobah]

Boston,

You'll find laquer... auto or otherwise to be real forgiving. You don't need primer on wood, however an automtoive type "sealer" would be good. What the sealer will do for you form a barrier so the wood doesn't soak up too much solvent. You want the solvent to evaporate and not penetrate the wood.

Polyurethane can also be used as a sealer and can be had for less money... let it dry a few days before sanding smooth. You can then follow with laquer or more poly.

Laquer gives you the option of satin finsh (steel wool), shiny (rubbing compund) but its real advantage is in how it can be sanded and reworked if you mess up.

[bostonswoop]

thanks poobah. do you have any examples like ingrast? any projects you painted?

[poobah]

Sorry Boston,

Restored a 100 cars or so when I was in the biz... All before the age of digital. Never that many photos anyway... after 6 to 18 months on a car I usually didn't want to see it again!

I like to see somebody do a faux finish... black and white marble!

[BobEllis]

Another option is my recently discovered favorite, PianoLac It is a water based poly system that is 98% as black as black lacquer and polishes to a harder just as glossy finish. It also does a good satin if you just wet sand it to 2000 grit and wax.

It's a small one man show, and Arthur is very helpful to spray gun newbies. Minimum purchase is about $80, but that's enough to seal, paint and clearcoat 4 sets of 1 cubic foot boxes.

Edit: Poobah, I did a black faux marble for the base of my stands. I'll have to borrow a camera again to show you. I used a home depot marbelizing kit with clear poly on top.

[BobEllis]

found a copy on my son's computer. the faux finish wasn't vey hard to do, black undercoat, sponge paint three flavors of gray, then use a feather to do the veins, clear poly on topcoat

[poobah]

Cool deal Bob!

That's pretty normal lookin' speaker wire there too... ah... sanity!

[BobEllis]

yep - just Parts Express 12 gauge. I've since tucked them into a 1/2" techflex tube, just for appearance sake. They're actively XOed.

[bostonswoop]

that marble finish is very nice and the pianolac is an intresting concept. 80 bucks is fair amount coin tho.
Is there a spot on this forum where people display the finish goods? Little show off spot, so to speak, of there skill and creativty of there finishing prowes?
Just wondering.
Poobah you mostly work in laminates then? Or do you still paint your work just not with a spraygun?
thanks for the replys this kinda info helps alot.

[BobEllis]

System Pictures & Description is the show your stuff thread.

Photographing a high gloss finish so that it looks good is not a skill I possess. My speakers look MUCH better in person than they do in a point and shoot digital picture.

The cab above was finished with automotive spray cans. I spent over $100 for the pair by the time I covered up all my learning curve sand through the finish goofs. I also learned the importance of surface prep the hard way. Even if all goes well, figure 5-6 cans to cover a pair this size with enough for wet sanding to a high gloss. They're 10"w x 17" H x 14" deep, for reference.

Pianolac is an extremely high solids formula that builds quickly, especially with an HVLP gun. I sprayed a lot more than I would now because I took a few coats to figure out how to get a smooth coat with my Harbor Freight touch up gun. 3 coats of black and 9 clear are all that are required for a good finish. Of course you need access to a spray rig for a week - 3 coats a day, sanding with 320 between daily spraying, sand the second to last coat after a day before spraying the last coat.

Edit/hint: If you see MDF fuzz showing up through the paint DO NOT sand. You'll just get more grain rasing, and cost you more paint. Put a few more coats of finish on to cover it up before sanding agian.

[poobah]

Hey Boston,

Actually the speakers I build get covered with vinyl fabric... music amps and such.

But I chimed anyway having breathed through a few thousand gallons of solvent.

I restored a 41 Lincoln once in about '83. The client actually found the very same man who used to paint the steel dashboards for LINCOLN. He had this guy, in his 80's, redo the dash. It was astounding... looked like one piece of mahagany. I don't know how many tries it took to get his touch back... but wow.... just rags, toothbrushes, feathers, 3-4 shades of paint and who knows what.

Go for it Boston... just as long as you have a "sandable" (laquer-ish - polyurethane) paint and you'll come out with a pro look on your first outing (you may use 3 times the paint a pro would though).