Sealing wood to spray paint into Vcarve help

[Ton80]

If you are willing to invest some time, I would suggest getting a good quality airbrush. You can use acrylic or even latex paints thinned properly and get a very fine line. I can spray letters MUCH faster than I can using a fine brush. But it takes a bit of practice.... more than say a HVLP sprayer. But once you get the hang of it, it might pay off down the road. I got my practice in from years of making plastic models. With an airbrush, I could paint fine seam lines and rivets with virtually no overspray. And those are much smaller than the dimensions of the letter carves you are making. Maybe someone out there is actually using one for signs and can give you a suggestion as to best airbrush for this purpose. I don't make signs (maybe one or two here or there) so I wouldn't want to steer you wrong, and my airbrush is now almost 20 years old.

I have been toying with the idea of an air-brush for a while.. not just specifically for this purpose but to get some more natural effects. Used an air-brush as a teenager when I was into sketching and wanted to try painting but I never took it too far at the time. It would be a cool skill to have though. This use of an air-brush was suggested to me in a sign-making forum so it might be the right solution for me to keep speeds up and avoid issues associated with products like rustoleum/krylon paints I've tried so far.

[lawrence]

this is the stuff I use

http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/...05/sign_making

It sits on the surface and for many woods, doesn't seep in very much/at all. I still usually seal the pores first with a coat of shellac (which dries very fast here in Tucson) but it does work for me...

Lawrence

[Ton80]

this is the stuff I use

http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/...05/sign_making

It sits on the surface and for many woods, doesn't seep in very much/at all. I still usually seal the pores first with a coat of shellac (which dries very fast here in Tucson) but it does work for me...

Lawrence

Great! Gonna order some today and give it a shot... thanks!
john

[Ton80]

Well the Marsh spray is a winner! I decided to go for speed here and did not pretreat the pine at all before spraying the Marsh stencil ink all over the surface and filling the vcarved areas. A palm sander easily removed the overspray and there was no bleeding which is normally a major problem on pine.

Thanks for the awesome tip, Lawrence. Now I can have great results and not waste time with a paint brush to fill the Vcarve or have to pretreat the surface of the wood.




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[lawrence]

Glad the tip helped! If you seal with a quick coat of shellac or lacquer (both of which dry in about 5 minutes here) the results will be even better-

Lawrence

[unitedcases]

Well the Marsh spray is a winner! I decided to go for speed here and did not pretreat the pine at all before spraying the Marsh stencil ink all over the surface and filling the vcarved areas. A palm sander easily removed the overspray and there was no bleeding which is normally a major problem on pine.

Thanks for the awesome tip, Lawrence. Now I can have great results and not waste time with a paint brush to fill the Vcarve or have to pretreat the surface of the wood.




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What grit sandpaper?

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[lawrence]

one thing I'll add- the marsh's spray ink works VERY well with the concept of covering a board in tape or contact paper and then carving and spraying on the finish- it doesn't "weep" at all under the tape like spray paint does.

Sometimes I sand, but often when I don't use the above technique, I first scrape off the ink. It comes off pretty cleanly with a putty knife.

Lawrence

[badbert]

If you are afraid of stain not penetrating after sealing. Try Gel-stains.

[Ton80]

What grit sandpaper?

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That was an older 120 disc on my Festoolaid orbital.


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[Ton80]

If you are afraid of stain not penetrating after sealing. Try Gel-stains.

That is an option. The Zar stains I have used work really nice and they have a wide range of shades.


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