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Airbrushing turned items

Hi all,

I know this may be a somewhat heretical idea to some but I've been experimenting with airbrushing my turnings. Binh Pho makes a superb job of it and I have to say that he's the main inspiration behind this although I would never be able to aspire to his creative genius (I'm not being sarcastic - I really do think his work is out of this world). Anyway, here's the thing; I've been airbrushing acrylics onto a beech bowl with a reasonable level of success apart from the fact that when dry the painted area is incredibly rough - even though I "raised the grain" and sanded back before applying the paint. Sanding back the painted area to make it smooth simply removes the paint. Overcoating with an acrylic gloss coat simply makes the whole thing very rough - as well as cloudy. Unperturbed, I scraped all the paint off with the trusty bowl gouge and started again. This time I didn't use the gloss coat on top of the acrylic colours - I used carnauba wax instead to see what kind of effect that would produce. In a word, the result was "awful". I can't work out how to produce a nice smooth, even glossy, finish. Would it help if I applied cellulose sanding sealer first and airbrushed on top of that? Any other ideas about what I can do to achieve what I want (apart from totally abandoning this subversive obsession and just letting the figure and beauty of the wood speak for itself!). If I can nail this problem the design possibilities are practically limitless.

Thanks for all replies

Kind regards

Ron Headon Swindon, England

Reply to
Ron Headon
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you may have too much air going through for the amount of paint you are getting. The paint is drying on its way to the surface. You may also want to thin the paint a little. Also what others have said about prep.

Brian

Reply to
Brian

Binh uses "metal acid dye - water base" From Liberon supplies 800-245-5611

Walt

Reply to
Walt & Jenne Ahlgrim

Hi Ron

I don't paint my turnings, however I do have some spray painting experience. Get your initial wood surface as smooth as you can, than spray several coats of paint on but let each coat dry a day or so, than you sand very fine until smooth and spray some more coats on, after that sand until you are satisfied with the finish going finer and finer.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

R> Hi all,

Reply to
Leo Van Der Loo

Binh also uses transparent airbrush colors from Golden. I just bought some from him a few weeks ago.

I think Brian is correct. I use a lot of color with an airbrush. I use mostly dyes, but acrylics will "splatter" leaving tiny bumps. Thinner paint will flow better. Instead of water, however, choose an airbrush paint extender to thin the acrylics. Generally, airbrush paints, as opposed to tube acrylics, will flow better.

Joe Fleming - San Diego

Reply to
Joe Fleming

No one addressed this so far, but I think this is the key if the problem is truly raised grain. I'd also take a look at a super-blonde shellac as the sealer. My thought would be to apply the sealer/shellac as the primer coat, lightly sand it back to create a smooth surface and then try the paint.

Anyone know if Binh uses any base coating prior to color?

Reply to
Owen Lowe

I have been airbrushing using alcohol based leather dyes with good success. Depending on the wood species I may wet the surface with water, dry, and sand, but it's not always necessary. Never worked with beech, so I don't know about that one. I seal the leather dye with a couple light coats of spray can shellac - light coats so the dye doesn't run, shellac is also alcohol based.

-mike paulson, fort collins, co

Reply to
Mike Paulson

Owen, Binh sands to about 400 or 600 grit. During my class, we did not raise the grain prior to color application. Also, no sealer goes down.

Joe Fleming - San Dieog

Reply to
Joe Fleming

Hi Joe. Offhand, do you know what wood(s) Binh uses? Could fuzzing/grain raising be a function of the OP's use of beech? The acrylic paints my daughter is using on spin tops is raising the grain of the hard maple...

Reply to
Owen Lowe

Binh has mentioned Bradford pear as a favorite. It is light in color and absolutely bland in every respect -- a blank canvas, as it were.

Bill

Owen Lowe wrote:

Reply to
Bill Rubenstein

No ideas on the wood selection except for light colors, generally. We used ash in my class. One guy had maple.

Reply to
Joe Fleming

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