Has anyone else tried acrylic paint on pen barrels?

[Drstrangefart]

I've been working on acrylic paint on fog wood pen barrels. The gloss takes WAY too many coats to cover, leaving an incomplete drying job, or the flats just chip durng hardware installation. I'm wondering if there's something I'm overlooking or if others have met the same failures. Had to take a razor blade on a scraper and start over two or three times on one prototype. Want to keep working on it, but not with diminishing returns this extreme. The glow in the dart stuff takes like 7 coats to go opaque. It's not working too well.

 

[bitshird]

I've been working on acrylic paint on fog wood pen barrels. The gloss takes WAY too many coats to cover, leaving an incomplete drying job, or the flats just chip durng hardware installation. I'm wondering if there's something I'm overlooking or if others have met the same failures. Had to take a razor blade on a scraper and start over two or three times on one prototype. Want to keep working on it, but not with diminishing returns this extreme. The glow in the dart stuff takes like 7 coats to go opaque. It's not working too well.

Why not paint the tubes, then use one of Charlies "Newlondon88" Resinsaver molds and cast the blank with the paint under the resin, with the Dead pen you can't tell that the white was merely a powdercoated tube, it looks as though it's a solid piece of what ever, in this case it was Silmar 41, clear casting resin. Making these is as easy as tripping over your shoelace while running to the bathroom!!

 

[Drstrangefart]

That does sound pretty easy. I'm not currently set up to do any casting of any sort. I'm still working my way through my first 30 slimlines. I need to sell some pens so I can get more kits and equipment. I will look into the casting, though. Sounds like it may save some hassle. I REALLY wanna simplify the glow in the dark for my friend's birthdays. I was hoping that would be a tradition, but not the way I'm trying to do it right now. I have one hope left in adding white to the glow paint to make it go opaque with fewer coats. That may be good ehough for me.

 

[nava1uni]

Try using spray paint. Also model paint works well. I find it is better then the paint that comes from Beverly's or Micheal's.

 

[johncrane]

You should try using a clear acrylic undercoat.

 

[ldb2000]

Learning to cast would be the best way to do glow in the dark pen blanks . To do some simple castings all you need are , some resin , a mold of some type and some pigments (glow powder and mica powder) a few paper cups and a few popsicle sticks . Total cost could be a cheap as $50 which is mainly the resin and pigments . This is a pen that I did with casting .

 

[Drstrangefart]

That is one sweet glow in the dark pen. Casting does seem to be the way to go. It is on the list of stuff to do.