Tube Painting Weirdness

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Tn-Steve

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I was going to do a Tortose Shell cigar today, so last night I roughed up the tubes, wiped them down with DNA, then gave them a spray of good old wal-mart brand black paint. Today they looked good, but I recalled a recommendation to tint the epoxy for blanks also. Since this blank was very translucent, I figured that if the paint scratched off going into the blank, this would cover me.

No problem, mixed up the epoxy like usual, and poured a little bit of "Testors" brand black paint into the mix. Epoxy set up just fine, good deep black color. Life is good! (?)

Soon as I started to polish up the blank I saw a problem. I was getting a bright Brass Line thru the center of the pen. It was like I had never painted the tube at all. I SUSPECT that the solvent in the testors enamel may have taken off the spray paint. I know that particular brand of spray is very susceptable to lifting, you have to recoat in 4 hours or wait 48 to keep it from bubbling up.

I'm probably not going to finish the pen out.... It doesn't meet my own standards, so I'll write this off as a learning experence.

Anybody else have anything like this occur?

Post Edit: I went ahead and turned off the blank, and yea, there wasn't a speck of black paint left on the tube. The tinted epoxy wasn't enough to make up for it. I'll experiment further and report back with what I find.


Steve​
 
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NewLondon88

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I have a tortoise shell cigar in my pocket as a 'work pen' for the same
reason.

I think I would tint the epoxy OR paint the tube, but not both. If you're using
epoxy, I think you can drill just a little larger and use the epoxy as a gap
filler. I say "I think" because I haven't done it yet ..
 

babyblues

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Try painting the tube and then painting the inside of the blank too. It's easy with a spray can. Just spray down into the hole from one end, then flip it over and spray from the other end.
 

OKLAHOMAN

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Baby Blues is on the right track, spray both the tube and the inside of the blank with the same paint or use the testors on both but not spray and testors. Now whichever you used to paint the tubes and blank is what you use to tint the epoxy. Clear as mud...right?
 

GouletPens

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The best paint I've found for painting tubes is this stuff called appliance epoxy. It takes a while to dry, but it is the toughest paint you'll ever see and won't scratch off. I guess you could try painting it on the inside of the tube too, though I've never tried that before.
 

GouletPens

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If I'm not mistaken, the Testors paint use a thinner that is some kind of DNA or acetone...not sure which. If the bottle sits for a while, you can see the pigment separate out from the medium (which I'm assuming is dna or something like that). That's probably what causes the problem. You could try tinting your glue with mixol or transtint, which are conentrated dyes. That would fix that problem.
 

Tn-Steve

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Nod... Paint the inside of the BLANK!!!! That's the thing I was trying to remember that was highly recommended, and couldn't think of. (Head-Smacking Smiley Goes Here).

I suspect that a lot of my problems came from mixing 2 incompatable types of paint, especially since one hadn't had time to fully cure. If the thinner for testors isn't Acetone it's a kissing cousin to it. I think I'll try one using the paint on the inside of the blank, along with the tube, and see how that works. Next time it will be the same type paint on both sides however.

Good ideas all of ya, thanks,

Steve
 
S

spiritwoodturner

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The best paint I've found for painting tubes is this stuff called appliance epoxy. It takes a while to dry, but it is the toughest paint you'll ever see and won't scratch off. I guess you could try painting it on the inside of the tube too, though I've never tried that before.

Brian, what brand do you use? I may try some of it. RustOLeum?

Thanks,
Dale
 

MesquiteMan

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Why don't you get some brass ager from MLK woodworking. Then the tubes will be a very dark gray and if something happens to the paint on the inside of the blank, say you scratch it while pushing in the tubes, you will not see bright brass. Just a suggestion.
 

OKLAHOMAN

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I don't know which one Brian uses but as to Appliance paint he's right, and the one that works for me has been Rustoleum.
 
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spiritwoodturner

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That's a good tip, fellas. I've had mixed results with primer. I did just order some chameleon tubes, but they're pretty limited. I'm headin' to HD Monday for some of the Epoxy.

Dale
 
S

spiritwoodturner

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Why don't you get some brass ager from MLK woodworking. Then the tubes will be a very dark gray and if something happens to the paint on the inside of the blank, say you scratch it while pushing in the tubes, you will not see bright brass. Just a suggestion.

Just ordered some. Thanks, Curtis! I'll post my results.

Dale
 
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Post Edit: I went ahead and turned off the blank, and yea, there wasn't a speck of black paint left on the tube. The tinted epoxy wasn't enough to make up for it. I'll experiment further and report back with what I find.


Steve​
Steve, Since you are using Testors to tint the expoxy, why not use testors to paint the tube...Then you don't have conflicting solvents in your paints.
The few time's I've painted tubes, that's what I used.
 

Tn-Steve

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Steve, Since you are using Testors to tint the expoxy, why not use testors to paint the tube...Then you don't have conflicting solvents in your paints.
The few time's I've painted tubes, that's what I used.

That's not a bad idea, what happened is that I went on the fly without thinking about how things were going to work. I think that I'll go just with the Testors from now on, only comes in about a gazillion colors, price is right, and I won't have the issues that comes with mixing and matching paints. (For those of you with some grey in your muzzles, back when I did model rockets and wood and tissue planes, I once put dope over paint. I think I had the same reaction here)

Thanks for all the advice, now I can discover a NEW way to cause myself problems.

Steve
Who isn't leaving the computer today until he gets the web-shop up and running.
 

workinforwood

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I have experienced this problem too. Something I noticed is that if there is a bit of overspray inside the tube, then the shaft on the barrel trimmer is extra tight inside the tube. Because of that, the shaft and the tube get extra hot. the heat causes the epoxy to soften up, which then allows the tube to spin inside the blank, which in turn causes the paint inside to fail. It matters not if only the tube, only the inside of the blank, or if both are painted..if the tube spins even a tiny bit, it will cause damage to the paint. It is very easy to spin a tube in a blank just a few turns and not even have noticed, and within a few seconds, the tube can re-cool and will not move again, but the damage is done. That, is what I think happened to you. Happens to me once in awhile. I scrape inside the tube to remove any overspray, and shoot a shot of pam cooking spray in the tube or on the shaft of the barrel trimmer to prevent this from happening.
 

GouletPens

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Brian, what brand do you use? I may try some of it. RustOLeum?

Thanks,
Dale
Yup, that's the stuff. It's basically the same paint that comes on the chameleon tubes, far as I can tell. You should be able to get it at any hardware store. I also used it to paint my range hood and it looks great. The only downfall is that the only colors they have are black, white, and almond. At least here in VA.
 
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