Painting kids toys - perfect finish?

[soundman]

I've been using paving paint for years as a hard wearing timber finish.

I've been using berger jet dry, but any of the other paving paints will work well.

In general they are opaque pollyeurthanes.

Treat em more or less like you would clear pollyeurthanes.

As you may gather there are intended to be walked on thus are hard wearing.
Jet dry in particular is fast drying.

You will never get a supper high quality finish out of it but as a pretty fair, hard wearing utility finish that can be applied by any mug its great.

I find I cant get a good flat finish out of it off the gun, but rub it out with a bit of 1200W&D or a fine scotch brite and a coat of wax and it can look bretty damn fair.

Another one to consider is Killrust.....it is a single pack epoxy enamel....I've not played with it but I know someone who does.

Both harder wearing than normal household enamel and many of the automotive paints.


cheers

[Arron]

Ok, i thought it was something like that.

I do use Killrust. A very good utility paint. Needs disposable brushes.

Cheers
Arron

[Robson Valley]

Evanism: the pea shelling was just to illustrate the diversity of tumblers as soundman listed.

But back to the paint: The air temperature at the time of application might be a consideration.

I bought a set of extra steel wheels for my car at the wreckers. They spin them all so you get good ones.
I bought some sort of dark blue rust(?) paint so they would all look the same.
The can said to apply above 20C. Well, it wasn't more than 15C and winter was tuning up.
The law here reads that you must drive with genuine winter/snow tread pattern Oct 15 - Apr 15.
So two sets of tires is the go.

What I saw was the very slow evaporation of the solvent in the paint. So slow in fact
that I could watch the brush marks flow together! What I got was a smooth finish
which appeared to have been sprayed.

[soundman]

Good flow out is a favorable atribute of a modern finish.

It takes some pretty clever stuff the get, fast dry, good hold up ( not running) and good flow out all together in the same paint.

There is a lot more than viscosity and drying time involved.

A finish that in intended for brush or roller application may not behave very well at all when sprayed

Some paints you will see the brush marks melt away right in front of your face.
The same paint when sprayed will look fantastic as it goes on....will look great a minute or two after application.....but can have a sneaky run 10 or 15 minutes after you walk away.....particulrly if it has been thinned and laid on a bit thick.


For most paints & finishes temperature and humidity are critical if a perfect finish is to be achieved.

cheers