wrong roller?

[clickhea]

onto my second coat of primer, iam using  white rollers which are labled as ultra fine for the smoothest finish from home depot.

somthing i noticed tho about these rollers is when the paint is on the roller, the roller sort of resembles a sponge with a million tiny holes all over the place.  and thats pretty much how it goes on the cabinet... its going on very smooth but its sort of making a pattern.. kinda its hard to explain.

is this normal for roller applications? or do i need to find better rollers

[Ginsu Victim]

Any roller will leave a texture. Just thin the paint down with mineral spirits and apply several coats.

[javeryh]

Are you using a foam roller?  I find these help cut down on the "orange peel" effect.

GinsuVictim is right though - any roller will leave a pattern.  The thinner the coat the better (but not too watery or else you will be dealing with runs) and sand in between.  It also depends what type of surface you are painting on.

[clickhea]

yes foam
well i had the first coat of primer sanded down almost to the point where it felt like glass to the touch.

exactly how much paint thinner do i add to how much paint to get decent proportions?

or is it mostly done by trial and error


also should i be thinning primer? or only worry about thinning the real coats

[clickhea]

bump

[Jeff AMN]

Just out of curiosity, are you painting with the cabinet standing up? In some cases I've found that by laying the cab down for painting allows gravity to smooth out the roller pattern a bit.

[Ginsu Victim]

Thanks for the tip. I'm getting ready to paint soon and hadn't thought to lay it down. (Just need a blanket or something under it. The concrete is pretty harsh in the workshop)

[fjl]

I had the same problem as you. I painted with Primer first, sanded it then painted with the color paint. Came out crappy. I had to do a lot of sanding to fix the damage done by the so called "Ultra Smooth" foam roller. I was only doing a Joystick control panel so I opted to spray paint it instead. It came out a whole lot smoother than that foam roller option. I still had to sand it though. Even did some wet sanding.

The only way you will ever get an actual "ultra smooth" finish with one of those rollers is by painting something that already is ultra smooth and wont absorb any of the paint like glass or plastic.

But who paints glass or plastic? 

[clickhea]

heres another question i have

i gave it the first layer of semi gloss black thinned out a bit.

but iam noticing that you can see all the roller marks in the light.. is this normal for the first coat? will the 2nd and 3rd coats fix this? or am i doing somthing in correct.

[fjl]

Maybe your painting wrong?

When I use a roller, I go over the same area many times and slowly while pressing with a little good pressure. If you only go over it once or improperly you will notice the marks left by the roller. It can also be cause by cheap paint.

[clickhea]

well the paint is behr... but i wasnt applying much pressure i was staying light with the roller


should i sand it (lightly) and paint it again.. or try giving it another coat first

[clickhea]

jave... help!

[clickhea]

well i gave it another coat, and it still looks horrible

i guess iam going to sand the entire thing down and buy some flat black.

[fjl]

You sand after every coat.

[phishpac]

I put on two very thick coats of primer.  I sanded it super smooth after that.  Then I applied two coats of semi gloss after that, and it looks real good.  It's not perfectly smooth or anything, but there aren't any roller marks.  You should be rolling in a "v" shape, or anything that will keep you from having a defined up and down movement, as that will make your rolling marks really obvious.

[javeryh]

jave... help!

I really don't know what I can tell you - outside of painting walls in my house, the arcade cabinet was the first thing I ever truly "finished" and all I did was take my time, apply thin coats of paint and sand like crazy.  I took the finish all the way up to 1500 grit and it came out pretty nice.  If you get super close though you can see some imperfections and remnants of "orange peel" but I am very satisfied with what I did.  I used an oil primer to seal the MDF and then latex paint on top.  I finished it with lacquer, rubbing compound and wax.  I used 4" rollers instead of the larger ones - I'm not sure if that would make a difference but I felt like I had better control over it than a normal sized roller I'd use to paint the wall.   Good luck! 

[Ginsu Victim]

I always lose control easier with a 4" roller than a standard size. Hmmm....
I'm to the point of sanding, painting, and applying side-art. Other than that, I just have to finish setting up the computer and put everything in it.
I'm ready to get this thing done! (And move on to the next one....shhhh....don't tell my wife....)

[clickhea]

do i have to sand all the paint off completly? or can i just sand with 220 get it really smooth again and apply maybe an eggshell black

[fjl]

You can do that too.