Meet Ms PacMan #10371

With the paint booth set up. Time to prep the cabinet for painting. All the hardware had been removed long ago, so it was really just masking the cabinet.

attachment.php


attachment.php


The only oddity in the pictures is this one of the side. I went ahead and masked off one of the sides to use as a target for adjusting the HVLP gun.

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200115_210855432.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200115_210855432.jpg
    41.7 KB · Views: 272
  • normal_IMG_20200115_212735115.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200115_212735115.jpg
    40.3 KB · Views: 269
  • normal_IMG_20200115_210835120.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200115_210835120.jpg
    47.8 KB · Views: 276
Paint time!

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


It didn't turn out perfect. I had a nasty time with the top, and ended up with some rather nasty runs.

attachment.php


attachment.php


The corner one will be the bigger pain to sand out. I did get a minor run on one of the sides, but nothing that will be a problem after a quick sand.

The paint finish is a bit rougher than I would like, and expect. There are some places where it is smooth, but it seemed that difference between rough, smooth, and runs was very small. I figure I need to do some further adjustment of the gun and/or thickness of the paint. I'm using a water borne alkyd that actually specifies that it is suitable for spraying. I did actually setup the gun prior to painting and go a good spray pattern, though it may have been a bit light on material. For reference, the paint is Benjamin Moore ADVANCE Interior primer. 14oz of paint was thinned with 2oz of water to give, what I would describe as a honey consistency. The unthinned paint is quite viscous.

If any paint experts want to give a pointer on what to try adjusting first to get a smoother finish, I'm all ears.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200118_202210701.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200118_202210701.jpg
    28.5 KB · Views: 260
  • normal_IMG_20200118_202543799.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200118_202543799.jpg
    34.8 KB · Views: 261
  • normal_IMG_20200118_202341862.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200118_202341862.jpg
    16.1 KB · Views: 258
  • normal_IMG_20200118_202438854.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200118_202438854.jpg
    10.3 KB · Views: 259
  • normal_IMG_20200118_202427976.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200118_202427976.jpg
    14.7 KB · Views: 258
Now that I'm back home, tonight was.... sanding.

This time was sooo much different. All that was needed was a quick pass with 320 grit. Sanded the entire cabinet in about an hour. Sanding produces a super fine powder, the consistency of talc. Definitely requires a respirator.

The result? Wonderful, silky smooth surface. Ready for the next coat.
 
Much learning and much sanding.

Primer is too thick to put through a normal HVLP unthined. Thinning it enough to spray it with a 1.4mm nozzle results in such a thin coat that its not practical. I've got a 2.0mm "primer" gun now too, but I haven't tried it with this primer. I switched over to an airless sprayer and got much better results. It had a slight tendency orange peel, but went on nice otherwise. One coat wasn't enough for good coverage. Unfortunately I made a silly mistake on the second coat and left the feed rate at max. :mad: Got a real nice thick coat, but lots of peel and a number of runs. Lots of sanding followed. :004_scry:

The end result turned out nice though.

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


The darker spots in the above picture is show through of filler. I could have put yet another coat and got better coverage, but the color coat is very opaque so I'm not really worried about it.

I did bulk sanding with 220, then went back over it with 320. You can still see sanding marks under oblique light, but you can't feel anything.

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20200229_103100014.jpg
    IMG_20200229_103100014.jpg
    51.9 KB · Views: 194
  • IMG_20200229_103117566.jpg
    IMG_20200229_103117566.jpg
    38.8 KB · Views: 196
  • IMG_20200229_103128211.jpg
    IMG_20200229_103128211.jpg
    53.4 KB · Views: 196
  • IMG_20200229_103141540.jpg
    IMG_20200229_103141540.jpg
    38.1 KB · Views: 192
  • IMG_20200229_100936070.jpg
    IMG_20200229_100936070.jpg
    26.1 KB · Views: 193
And now it has color!

attachment.php


attachment.php


This was sprayed with an airless gun. It didn't do nearly as good a job as it did with the primer. The color coat is notably thinner than the primer. As a result, even on the lowest flow rate, the coat was too thick. Even worse, it got small bubbles in it.

attachment.php


attachment.php


Looking straight on, the coat looks good, but it's quite unusable unfortunately.

attachment.php


As mentioned, I ordered a primer HVLP gun for shooting thicker paint. Based on other's experience, I should be able to spray the color coat, thinned about 10%. We shall see. In the mean time, MORE SANDING! Removing the bubbles and orange peel... 220, then 320, then I'm actually going to go over it with 600 grit to make sure no sanding marks show though.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20200301_090913788.jpg
    IMG_20200301_090913788.jpg
    24.2 KB · Views: 200
  • IMG_20200301_090857269.jpg
    IMG_20200301_090857269.jpg
    28.4 KB · Views: 199
  • IMG_20200229_111938228.jpg
    IMG_20200229_111938228.jpg
    51.6 KB · Views: 200
  • IMG_20200229_111920994.jpg
    IMG_20200229_111920994.jpg
    50 KB · Views: 202
  • IMG_20200301_090845063.jpg
    IMG_20200301_090845063.jpg
    36.1 KB · Views: 200
As noted, I ordered an HVLP with a 2mm tip. As a preview, it does much better.

So, I sanded down the bubbled paint.
attachment.php


Using the new gun, I sprayed a coat at can strength.
attachment.php


As you can see, it was bit too much texture. It wasn't rough, it just didn't level out enough. Some of that may have been settings on the gun, but I thinned it out 10% and, after sanding off the texture, sprayed another coat.

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


Under strong, oblique light, there is still a little bit of texture, however that seems to be becoming less and less prominent as the paint continues to dry. I doubt it would go away completely , but it wasn't enough to make to try again. I did try some sample pieces with higher levels of thinning, as high as 25%. It does give a slightly smoother finish, but it has a tendency to get little bubbles.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200308_164412256.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200308_164412256.jpg
    33.7 KB · Views: 160
  • normal_IMG_20200310_080525018.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200310_080525018.jpg
    44.9 KB · Views: 164
  • normal_IMG_20200310_134652916.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200310_134652916.jpg
    19 KB · Views: 163
  • normal_IMG_20200311_095523778.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200311_095523778.jpg
    31.4 KB · Views: 163
  • normal_IMG_20200310_173847320.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200310_173847320.jpg
    28.6 KB · Views: 165
The top, back, and front came out great. Unfortunately the side had a couple of problems. They had some spots that didn't have a thick enough coat and were a bit textured, and there were also some places where there were some significant pinholes.

attachment.php


Another round of quick sanding followed by another careful coat of paint and things looked much better.

attachment.php


One of the two side was just about perfect. The other side ended up with a couple of runs. I touched the up before the paint set, but after drying, there was way too much difference in the surface texture, so one less round of sanding and painting on that side.

attachment.php


attachment.php


So a lot of this was me learning both the paint and the HVLP gun. Yes, I violated the first rule of learning to spray paint -- never learn on an important project. In the end it got me a bit of an arm workout due to extra sanding passes. But, in the end, I'm pretty pleased with it. Could I do better? Probably in time, but for now, I've reached the point of diminishing returns, which is saying something as I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200314_104123952.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200314_104123952.jpg
    13.4 KB · Views: 161
  • normal_IMG_20200315_111930423.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200315_111930423.jpg
    21.8 KB · Views: 163
  • normal_IMG_20200314_104128506.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200314_104128506.jpg
    19.7 KB · Views: 164
  • normal_IMG_20200311_202840375.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200311_202840375.jpg
    37.4 KB · Views: 159
With the blue done, I wrapped up the cabinet and layed it back for painting the interior black.

attachment.php


Sprayed the interior in matte black, same paint used for the blue. Yes, I can get the paint in a matte black base.
attachment.php


In the above picture, the paint is starting to dry and you can see the difference in glossiness as it dries.

At the top of the cabinet, where the black meets blue, I let the spray feather into the blue, which is what my cabinet originally had. I didn't do quite as good a job as the original, but I think it looks better than the sharp line you get if you just mask it off.

attachment.php


The stencils are laid out on the dining room table to take any curl out of them. This evening, I'm going to do a test piece to see what the paint does when you remove the stencils after varying drying times. I'm going to do four sets of masks and remove one at 10 minutes, one at 30 minutes, one at an hour, and one at 12+ hours.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200315_133944281.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200315_133944281.jpg
    48.7 KB · Views: 160
  • normal_IMG_20200315_145145396.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200315_145145396.jpg
    47.4 KB · Views: 160
  • normal_IMG_20200315_145207599.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200315_145207599.jpg
    51.3 KB · Views: 160
I set up a stencil test board. The intent is to spray it with yellow and then remove the strips at varying times to see how the paint behaves at various levels of drying.

attachment.php


The notches we cut to provide testing of sharp angles and fine detail in a stencil.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200315_191028390.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200315_191028390.jpg
    38.4 KB · Views: 151
The results.

attachment.php


A few comments about the above. First, the painters tape I was using didn't stand up to direct application of paint. It bubbled up a bunch and there was lots of bleed under. Second, the run on the far right... I ran out of paint in the gun before doing that strip. I added some more paint and thinned it in the gun -- not very accurate at all.

Now for the close ups. This is working left to right. Clicking on the image will get you a blown up version.

Stencil removed after 10 minutes.


Stencil removed after 30 minutes.


Stencil removed after 60 minutes.


Stencil removes after 24 hours.


As you increase in time, the edges become much sharper and pronounced, as you would expect. Even after 24 hours, there wasn't any sign of problems with the yellow layer peeling up or otherwise having problems when the stencil is removed.

When removed after 10 minutes, the edges are softest. Some detail is actually lost due to the paint leveling. This can be seen in the slight rounding of the obtuse angles in the stencil. This is also the hardest to remove cleanly as the paint is still quite fluid. While the test stencil was designed to be easy to remove, removing a cabinet sized stencil, cleanly, would be trying at best.

When removed after 30 minutes, there is still significant softening of the edges as the paint levels. This paint has a significant open time and isn't dry to the touch for around three hours. The loss of detail isn't nearly as much as the 10 minute test. Edges are more pronounced when felt, but still significantly smoothed.

When removed after 60 minutes, the edges are rounded off, but not nearly as smoothed as the shorter test times. The loss of fine detail is minimal, though it is there if you look closely.

When removed after 24 hours, the edges are sharp and raised, as you might expect. No loss of sharp detail at all. As noted before, there wasn't any problem with the paint behavior when removing the stencil. However, the edges feel sharp and distinct to the finger.

Based on this test, I'll probably remove the stencils around 60 minutes after painting. This has several benefits. The paint is drier and it won't be quite so touchy and messy trying to remove the stencil. I'll have time to do multiple light coats to get better coverage with less chances of runs, as compared to one heavier coat. Good even coverage will be important. As you can see in the full picture of the board, variation in coverage leads to variations of color as this is a light color over dark.

I'm going to do some more tests with different thinning and gun settings to see if I can get a more uniform atomization and still keep the paint wet enough that is levels well.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200316_211937891.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200316_211937891.jpg
    42.6 KB · Views: 150
  • normal_IMG_20200316_211943503.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200316_211943503.jpg
    23.5 KB · Views: 148
  • normal_IMG_20200316_211948648.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200316_211948648.jpg
    22.6 KB · Views: 147
  • normal_IMG_20200316_211956818.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200316_211956818.jpg
    25.5 KB · Views: 147
  • normal_IMG_20200316_211953150.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200316_211953150.jpg
    22.3 KB · Views: 148
I did some more paint testing, going all the way to 20% thinned. I laid down a wonderful, fine spray, but was thin enough that it would run horribly.

attachment.php


You can see the run in the above image. That didn't actually occur during the painting. It happened after I set the piece aside to dry. I came back out an hour or so later and the run was there, and if you look closely, you can see a variation in color from top to bottom. The whole layer had succumb to the effects of gravity.

attachment.php


It's a shame since it really does lay down a fine coat. You can even get a decent blend from color to color.

If you have something with enough texture to hold the paint, it does great. I used a piece of pink foam sheet as a test.

attachment.php


I did some tests with gun settings too. In general, with 10% thinned paint, I found that a wide fan, needing a high paint flow rate, needed 15-20psi. It tended to get lots of bubbles in the finish at any higher pressure. A much narrower fan and lower flow rate did better with 25-30psi. Much better atomization, at the cost of slightly more paint wasted due to the higher air pressure. With my gun, at its narrowest setting with a very light paint flow rate, I could get a quarter sized spot that looked like it could have come from an airbrush.

Anyway, there are much better experts on HVLP guns than me, so onward we go.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200320_090429068.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200320_090429068.jpg
    16.3 KB · Views: 172
  • normal_IMG_20200320_090522502.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200320_090522502.jpg
    11.7 KB · Views: 172
  • normal_IMG_20200320_090604981.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200320_090604981.jpg
    41 KB · Views: 167
I did do a little touch up on the black to blue transition at the top of the cabinet after I took the masking off. Since this is an alkyd resin paint, though dry, it's not cured. A damp paper towel took of some of the spray at the transition. I didn't take a picture, but you could see the masking line very clearly after I removed the tape. After clean up, it looked much smoother.

attachment.php


attachment.php


For reference, this is what it originally looked like.

attachment.php


Oh, did I mention this is an alkyd resin paint and that while it's dry, it's not cured?

attachment.php


I had masked the rest of the cabinet when doing the black and several places the tape had left a texture in the paint surface. This wasn't adhesive residue. It was an imprint of the actual paint texture. I was able to remove the worst of it by buffing with a damp cloth. Had to be careful not to take off much paint though, so I couldn't get it out fully. You can't really see it except under bright light, but it's annoying.

Unfortunately, this goes beyond annoying.

attachment.php


Nowhere have I had any sign of adhesion problems, but when I pulled the tape at the bottom left of the cabinet a section of finish tore out. I have to assume there was some sort of contamination under the primer, or a very weak spot in the wood lamination, or something. It pulled off cleanly and shows bare wood. I have some ideas how I'm going to repair it, but I'll need to do a bunch of testing. I am going to repair it, rather than repainting that side.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200321_135830268.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200321_135830268.jpg
    32.4 KB · Views: 166
  • normal_IMG_20200321_135810965.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200321_135810965.jpg
    41.2 KB · Views: 167
  • normal_IMG_20200321_134645611.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200321_134645611.jpg
    33.4 KB · Views: 164
  • normal_IMG_20200321_134655581.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200321_134655581.jpg
    42.3 KB · Views: 164
  • DSC_2444-1.jpg
    DSC_2444-1.jpg
    84.6 KB · Views: 166
Last edited:
Most stressful thing I have done to this point.

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


Even with care, I ended up either tearing or creasing the film in a couple of places. Tears were easy enough to address. After careful alignment, I put a bit of cellophane tape over the joint to ensure no paint got in. Creases were a bit harder and I'm pretty sure I'll have a few spots where I have bleed under, either because of a crease that I couldn't get rid of, or a spot where the film wouldn't stay laid down. Nothing big though.

I had the hardest time removing the film from the carrier and I think that was part of my problem. in some of the narrower sections, I likely managed to stretch the film a little while pulling the backing off. I'm sure the fact that the stencils have been sitting for almost nine months. They arrive mid last summer and then other life responsibilities pulled me away for over six months and so they sat rolled up in the box. :(
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200321_183127410.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200321_183127410.jpg
    42.7 KB · Views: 160
  • normal_IMG_20200321_183113490.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200321_183113490.jpg
    40.9 KB · Views: 160
  • normal_IMG_20200321_183103324.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200321_183103324.jpg
    58.8 KB · Views: 162
Applying stencils was rapidly replaced, as the most stressful thing done, by painting the yellow. It wasn't a complete disaster, but really darn close.

Getting an even layer, thick enough to not let the blue show through is tricky, to say the least, even doing multiple thin coats doesn't really do much to help. Some of this is a side effect of the long open time of this paint. Even a thin coat doesn't set much in 10-15 minutes. As a result, it is really easy to get runs, if not careful.

I actually ended up removing the first attempt on the front and one side and re-spraying. While the long open time make some things hard, it does make it fairly forgiving. It took a lot a paper towels, but I could completely take the paint off and with a light spray of water, clean things back to the blue.

One side turned out pretty decent.
attachment.php


The other side turned out reasonably ok.
attachment.php


Unfortunately, even after the redo, the front was a disaster.
attachment.php


Let's play "spot the runs", not to mention the show through of the blue around where her shoes/legs are. I do have some ideas for fixing it at least. I'm letting the existing coat dry thoroughly for now. Since I can get such a fine spray from the gun, I think I can mask the edges of areas that need it and put another layer down. Any overspray or bleed under can be wiped off. I cleaned up most of the bleed under on the sides that way. I've also considered using an actual airbrush for finer control.

Still pondering and I haven't actually be back to look at it since it's dried to see how it looks now. Very disappointing. But, I am at the limits of my current skills, and this is the first time I've done this -- hence the limited skills -- so live and learn. We all start somewhere.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200322_214407998.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200322_214407998.jpg
    49.2 KB · Views: 165
  • normal_IMG_20200322_214425431.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200322_214425431.jpg
    63.1 KB · Views: 163
  • normal_IMG_20200322_214453973.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200322_214453973.jpg
    52.7 KB · Views: 162
Yesterday, I started tackling the horrible state of the yellow paint job on the front of the cabinet. After standing and staring at it for probably 15 minutes, pondering what approach I wanted to take, I decided to re-stencil and paint a second coat.

To re-stencil, I covered the front with Press'n Seal plastic film. For those that don't know what it is, it's a low tack, self adhesive plastic film for sealing food containers. If you have a roll of airbrush stencil film, that would work as well. The key is that you want an incredibly thin and easy to cut film. The adhesive on Press'n Seal is a bit on the light side, but if you are careful, it will do the job.

attachment.php


Note that Press'n Seal does not adhere at the very edge of the sheet well. Could be stretch from smoothing it on. Could be this is towards the end of the roll. I just went over the the edges with normal masking tape to ensure that it wouldn't pull up.

I took an X-Acto knife with a brand new #11 blade and traced the edge of the yellow. Light pressure is all that is needed to cut through the Press'n Seal. Even light pressure will leave a knife mark on the part, but since I'm painting over, I'm not super worried about it. The edge of the new paint layer will fill in any knife marks. Note here, it's key that any mistakes are into the yellow and not the blue. That way, the new paint covers any mistakes.

The rest of these will show some closer shots of crappy areas of the paint, so you can see a "before".

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200328_130403017.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_130403017.jpg
    41 KB · Views: 148
  • normal_IMG_20200328_132324210.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_132324210.jpg
    37 KB · Views: 150
  • normal_IMG_20200328_140227165.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_140227165.jpg
    45.6 KB · Views: 150
  • normal_IMG_20200328_140233070.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_140233070.jpg
    42.1 KB · Views: 148
  • normal_IMG_20200328_140252036.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_140252036.jpg
    43.7 KB · Views: 149
All trimmed and ready to paint.

attachment.php


I only trimmed out Ms Pacman and the banner line around the coin door. The ghosts "hands", right near Ms Pac were just too fine to cut out with Ms Pac cut out as well. I'm going to come back and do the ghosts as a second pass.

Now for the "after" pictures...

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


If you look closely, You can see where then runs on Ms Pac were, especially in her bow. There are a few places where I got a little bleed, but I came around with a wooden barbeque skewer wrapped in paper towel and cleaned them up. The sharp end will do very fine points, but can mar the surface. The blunt end did a very good job around the larger sections. When you get up close, the edges aren't quite as sharp as they would be with a good clean, single pass but overall it looks sooooo much better that I'm not going to complain... much, :p
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200328_140349912.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_140349912.jpg
    62.6 KB · Views: 155
  • normal_IMG_20200328_172858872.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_172858872.jpg
    40.1 KB · Views: 155
  • normal_IMG_20200328_172904544.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_172904544.jpg
    37.2 KB · Views: 155
  • normal_IMG_20200328_172911029.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_172911029.jpg
    34.4 KB · Views: 155
  • normal_IMG_20200328_172933536.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200328_172933536.jpg
    55 KB · Views: 153
All trimmed and ready to paint.

attachment.php


I only trimmed out Ms Pacman and the banner line around the coin door. The ghosts "hands", right near Ms Pac were just too fine to cut out with Ms Pac cut out as well. I'm going to come back and do the ghosts as a second pass.

Now for the "after" pictures...

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


If you look closely, You can see where then runs on Ms Pac were, especially in her bow. There are a few places where I got a little bleed, but I came around with a wooden barbeque skewer wrapped in paper towel and cleaned them up. The sharp end will do very fine points, but can mar the surface. The blunt end did a very good job around the larger sections. When you get up close, the edges aren't quite as sharp as they would be with a good clean, single pass but overall it looks sooooo much better that I'm not going to complain... much, :p

not bad, atleast u did better than me when I tried painting my car lol
 
I went through and re-stenciled both sides. I sanded down a couple of the worst runs and put another coat of paint on.

attachment.php


attachment.php


In doing the sides, I found that a slightly damp Q-tip will do clean up very well. The paint starts to set up in about 15 minutes and because there is already a bit of a ridge to the first coat, the Q-tip will follow the outline very well, if you are careful and go slow. I was able to correct all the bleed, and even a couple of places where the Press-n-Seal lifted while I was painting.

The sides are far from perfect, but compared to what they looked like before, I'm happy.
 

Attachments

  • normal_IMG_20200408_202833_2.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200408_202833_2.jpg
    73.9 KB · Views: 123
  • normal_IMG_20200408_202914_2.jpg
    normal_IMG_20200408_202914_2.jpg
    65.6 KB · Views: 123
I had never wanted to read this thread because I'm usually like "meh, I don't have time for that", but damn it was interesting

You should sell those coils(the ones that are close to the original inductance)
 
Back
Top Bottom