Painting Enclosures

[BrianJ]

Does anyone have any advice on painting/color finishing hammond 1590BB boxes?  I'm 2 days deep in some experiments with rustoleum aluminum primer and Rustoleum painters touch.  Are there better choices? Spray ons? Sanding?  I'm much better with a soldering iron than a paint brush it seems...


Any help would be greatly apreciated.

[petemoore]

  1,000+ posts on these subjects...
  custom automotive paint products...
  If someone doesn't respond or put links up, searching'll find plenty of them.
  I'd bet there are links to painting threads in the thread 'Pictures', just a few threads down right now....

[theundeadelvis]

I sand using 200 grit (sometimes finer), clean with acetone, prime with self-etcing primer (a must), then paint (Rustoleum and Krylon), bake in toaster oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes, let cool, then add decals, and finally clear with Plastikote Super Lacquer. Hope this helps!

[Joecool85]

250 for 15 minutes?  I do mine at 150 for an hour.

[theundeadelvis]

I have no basis for that. I just pulled that temp and time out of nowhere, but it has worked ok so far. I will try your suggestion next time though.

[Joecool85]

I got mine from smallbearelec.com, its what they recommend on the tweak-o page.

[BrianJ]

That puts me in the right direction.  Thanks, theundeadelvis.  Any particular brand for the primer?  Is it latex, oil based?  Is the rustoleum you use latex or oil based?  Im trying latex (primer and paint) but its not very durable-if it even sticks.  Do you know of any decal material that can be purchased locally (ie: walmart or similar)?  Ive been hunting through old thread for two days now, but with over 37,000 topics...

Thanks again.

[theundeadelvis]

The brand of primer I use is SEM. I get it at my local CarQuest. I use enamel paints. As far as decals go you can get clear mailing label decals at Office Depot and Staples but the decal stock at Small Bear is 10 times better. It's super thin and doesn't show the edges. You can also get iron on transfers (t-shirt transfers) at both office and craft stores. I just posted some pictures under the "Pictures" thread here you can check out. My pedals look like garbage compared to a lot of people here, but you can see what I do with either paint and SB decal stock or no paint at all. The other thing I would recommend is check out Kustom Powder. Joe is a member here and has sent me samples and does great work. Powder coat is far superior to pant. Its super durable and there are amazing colors available. Also check out my post "Craftsman powder coat system" and you can see what DIY powder coating is available. Good luck you're on the right path posting here these people are amazing in thier knowledge!

[8mileshigh]

Baking is just to remove the many solvents in the paint so look up boiling points of all the solvents used in the mixture and bake accordingly.  For example, Toluene has a bp of 111°C and might be the highest boiler of all the solvents in there.  Other solvents like acetone boil off at 57°C etc. Point being,  too high of a temperature may do more damage than good but I can't be 100% sure about it  since I never bake  but I do heat stuff up and watch it decompose for a living and know all compounds have a melting/decomposition point.

Chris

[BrianJ]

Do you guys use aerosol paint, or do I have to buy a spray gun?

[Joecool85]

Puff can works for me   

[theundeadelvis]

I use spray bomb cans as well.

[BrianJ]

Ok.  I went to Lappen's and got duplicolor self etching primer, enamel acrylic color paint, and and anamel acrylic clear paint.  I just applied my 3rd coat of primer (it dries really quick).  When I paint, It says 3 coats 10min apart.  Should I apply those coats then bake? The clear has the same intructions.  Should apply three coats of color and three of clear and bake everything? What does everyone else do? 

Im so close...

[Joecool85]

I normally do 1-2 coats primer (although I should probably do more), 3 coats color, 2 coats clear (sometimes 3 depending on how it looks), then bake it.  Each coat gets 10-15 minutes in between for me.  So it does take a little while.  But if done right its really worth it because they look great.

[BrianJ]

Is the paint cured and handlable after it cools? 

[Joecool85]

After its baked?  Yes.  I normally put my pedal together as soon as it cools    Not a good idea though.  It's probably best to let it set overnight or something just to make sure the paint is fully dry/set.