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How to paint your cab the OND way.
Ond:
Painting cabs. :timebomb: :lol Nahh. Actually painting your cab is a big part of the build and for us BYOACers the end of the Woodworking. Other than the design and playability of your cab that's what people pay close attention to. Well, that and the artwork….I'm going to cover my approach to painting various finishes right here. Super High Gloss? Smooth low sheen finish? Matt flat, wutcha like?
Is this you: “What primer do I use? Brushes, rollers? Oil base, water base? Rattle cans, spray guns? sand paper, polishes? How many coats? How much should I spend? My brain hurts with all this!”
Well here’s where to get some info on all that. Apart from my personal choice of materials the basics of getting a good painting result are universal. Even if you don’t go with my material recommendations, you can still take away the process.
“Why should I listen to you?” :dunno
Good question! This is just my approach to it and what I've found works pretty well. Over the years I’ve seen these questions (and answers) all the time, over and over.
There’s lots of ways to get a great finish, I’ve made MILES of mistakes to develop some kind of system. I’ve even tried French Polishing….which is insanely hard! There are quite a few members here that really understand paint and painting, so guys, please bear with me. Again, this is just what works for me.
Ond:
Before we get in to the technical details of my approach to painting I want to cover some philosophy (I can’t think of a better word) on the finishing of woodworking projects. One of the main ingredients is just plain old elbow grease, a willingness to put in some effort. Applying paint, once you’ve got the basic technique down doesn’t take that long. It’s what happens before and after application that makes a big difference. Paint application always leaves behind some kind of texture. If you’re striving for a very high gloss finish, then any texture needs to be removed.
A high gloss finish relies on the following areas:
• Patience
• Effort
• Knowledge (paint types, overall process)
• Materials
• Application (painting technique, number of coats, cutback, polishing)
• Tools
I'd add that a dust free environment and suitable weather are important as well. Is the effort and patience worth it? I think so.
Materials & Tools
We use particle boards and plywoods in building and restoring arcade cabinets. Occasionally real solid timber is used. Most timbers are all really porous. They present rough fibrous surfaces which absorb moisture and swell. We also use metals for control panels, coin doors etc. In particular, we use a lot of MDF. These build materials firstly need to be sealed and then smoothed.
I like to use a complimenting range of automotive products to finish my projects because they are non-water based, work well together, work well with the construction materials and (if chosen carefully) are of good quality. The quality of paints and primers is really important. For a long time, I preferred to use rattle cans. Cheap rattle cans are horrible to use, they are inconsistent in their spray patterns, they sputter, leak, clog up etc. Quality automotive touch up paints are much better. I still have the occasional bad rattle can which blows its top seal and leaks everywhere, but mostly they are really good to use. There is only one type of superior rattle can that I know of, model maker paints, the kind used on scale plastic models. These are very good but also hideously expensive.
A fine even mist like spray from start of can to finish and you already have half the battle won.
The other reason I use auto products is because they go well with Bondo. Especially the high build primer or spray putty. We use so much Bondo in this hobby! To fix our stuff ups, to fill holes and cracks. I even make stuff out of it. Automotive High Build Primer goes really well with sanded and smoothed Bondo. This makes sense as it’s essentially car bog as used by panel beaters. My materials and tools list for finishing pretty much any surface is:
• Bondo
• Acetone (cleans up Bondo, resin, paint etc.)
• High Build Primer
• Automotive touch up rattle cans
• Grades of wet and dry (the black stuff) sandpaper from 400 – 2000 grit
• Cork sanding block
• Mechanical orbital sander (Metabo)
• Clean towel rags
• Plastic take away food containers for holding water for wet sanding
Ond:
Application
My surface finishing and preparation for painting goes something like this:
1. Fill holes, cracks etc. with Bondo
2. Dry sand the surface with 180 and then 320 grit sandpaper. Until almost all surface trace of Bondo is gone and MDF is smooth.
3. Spray 1st coat with High Build Primer/Spray Putty.
4. Dry Sand with 320 grit for a uniform smooth surface. Wipe over with damp cloth.
5. Spray 2nd coat with High Build Primer/Spray Putty.
6. Dry Sand with 600 grit. Wipe over with damp cloth.
7. Spray 3rd coat with High Build Primer/Spray Putty.
8. Wet sand with 600 grit. Wipe over with dry cloth.
9. Spray 1st (and usually only) coat of Primer – this is less viscous than high build primer for the fine details.
a. Repeat above step 9. if required.
10. Wet sand (lightly) with 600 grit. Wipe over with dry cloth.
Surface is now paint ready!
Below is an edited version of some video tutorials that I made. This covers all the above steps in detail and more!. It's quite long, 40 mins approx. just skip through it to the area that you want. I haven't changed my approach to finishing and painting in this way since I made this video. It's gotten me consistantly satisfying results over the years.
I hope this is useful anyway. Click HERE to watch. If you have any questions just ask.
:cheers:
Ond
HaRuMaN:
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05SRT4:
Ond with the amount of street cred you have, if you told me to paint my cab with a bowl of milk I would probably try it.
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