Airbrushing turned items

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

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

Walt

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,

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

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?

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

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

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...

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:

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