Painting tubes?

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J.L.DAVIS

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Aug 10, 2010
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Anyone have suggestions on the best way to paint tubes? I tried some krylon spray paint, laying on cardboard, just did ok, but then when I would put the CA glue on the tubes it would kind of liquify the paint. Thoughts on what I could try to get better results?

Thanks
 
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Jared, I end up painting a lot of my tubes black. I've got a square of plywood that's about 18" square, and I've driven 2" screws about 1/2" into the plywood, leaving 1 1/2" exposed. I laid these out in a grid pattern so they were about 2" apart. slip the tubes over the buglehead screws and hit them with rust-o-leum flat black, then out in the texas sun to cure. let them dry a day or two, and the CA does not cause the paint to liquify. Don't know if that's because it's rust-o-leum, or the additional time curing, but since I paint about 30 tubes at a time I generally have extras on hand and don't have to wait when I'm doing a glue up. Tubes are cheap, I normally have a few dozen extra (or more) for the most common pen styles I do.
 
Thanks for all the helpful tips everyone!

How do you paint the inside of the blanks? What tool seems to work the best?
 
Two additional comments--I LOVE CA, but I use epoxy if I know there will be difficulty with my paint.

2) Primer sticks to the brass better than regular paint--and it resists CA better. Rustoleum spray primer comes in black, gray or white.
 
One time, being lazy as I am, I colored the tubes with a sharpie. It worked well. The blank was very translucent and when finished you could see right through to the tube. The sharpie ink colored the CA and it has some nice contrasting swirls on the tube. It looked really nice.
 
I have in the past painted tubes and/or inside the blank using a q-tip and testors model paint...

However, lately I usually cheat and by tubes from woodcraft for most kits... In addition to brass, they come in white, chrome and black ti... One of those covers me for 99% of what I'm working on!
 
I know other have had bad luck with it but I use Acrylic craft paint, paint the insides of the blank and if it's a real transparent blank I'll paint the tube also. I let them dry at least 24 hours and glue them in with thick CA.
 
I spray tubes, don't really worry about what type of paint or brand..whatever is cheap is good for me. I let the tubes sit for at least 24 hrs so the paint can cure and harden up. I then use 5 min epoxy to glue in the tubes. If the blank is extra see through, then you can use some powder dye to tint the epoxy too. I LOVE EPOXY ! If it gets on your hands..wipe it off right away. If the tube isn't in far enough, push it in some more. With CA...eats paint, burns skin nose and eyes, sets so fast you might not get the tube in the right spot. You won't need one of those silly tube insertion tools either with epoxy...just whatever you have that pushes it in is good enough. That's my opinion. You wait a good hour after you glue in the tube with 5 min epoxy and you can spin it.
 
Thought of another question. I notice several people that said they use black paint. Is there a reason black is better? I would think that the paint color would depend on the blank, is that correct or is there one color that is better than others?
 
I do different colors, but black often highlights the acrylic and makes it pop. I think that letting it dry overnight works best. When I am not doing that the CA can make the paint come off. I use Testors enamel most of the time, the kind used for models.
 
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You don't have to paint all your tubes black. You would not put black tubes behind a white pen blank. I paint tubes according to the primary color of the blank being used. All acrylic pens should have painted tubes in my opinion. Some might disagree, but there are many reasons for that. Once in a while you will spin an acrylic that truly needed no painted tubes, but for the most part, even if the tube was not visible inside the blank, the painted tube would have enhanced the blank even more, brighten up the colors perhaps. The biggest thing to me is that if you paint a tube and it was not necessary...well you did no harm. if you do not paint a tube and it needed to be, well now you wasted a bunch of time and money, ruined a blank and possibly a kit too. Always play it safe.
 
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