I've made perhaps 6 or 7 quality items since I've started in this God forsaken hobby a year ago, and I enjoy the natural look of wood. In fact, the only stain I ever used was a minwax "natural" color, and, by name, it looked quite natural, not chaning the darkness of the wood much (just the grain).
How many of you paint your projects, why was it painted (for durability, looks, etc), and what wood do you use when you are going to paint something?
Only to cover up the look of Cherry. Especially if I had to *Spackle* up some loose joints. mahalo, jo4hn
Larry Bud wrote: [snip]> How many of you paint your projects, why was it painted (for
Most of my projects are things I do for myself, and are intended for specific settings and thus to harmonize with a specific set of surroundings. If that suggests a color that is best achieved with paint, I make that decision in the design step. And so for those projects I choose wood such as poplar that takes paint well. I've never painted over wood that I originally chose to have a transparent finish. My philosophy is that any wood grain is worth looking at.
That said, I have seen some attractive work in which some portions of the wood are painted and others left with the grain intentionally exposed. And I did do a lamp for a friend that was painted black, but made of very open-grained oak so that the pores in the grain were still visible and evident only as texture in the resulting surface. I was pleased with it, and so was the friend, but this is not a method of finishing that I plan to use extensively.
--Jay
I made a tablesaw cabinet out of various scrap wood I had laying around and painted it a beautiful industrial gray. Put several coats on it to make it ding-resistant. Now it matches the lathes and looks very shop-worthy.
I won't make any piece of furniture,cabinet, to paint,if a client wants it painted I'll make it but sell it bare wood I don't want to see it finished with paint,,,,,paint does have it's place in my shop and it's on the walls and on my outside signs,,,,
I've made a few small pieces from pine or another soft wood (unknown species) that I have that looks rather mediocre at best. I'm talking about doll sized stuff for the granddaughters, not real furniture.
I'll stain pine to make it harmonize with other decor. Everything else gets a clear or oil finish.
Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
to paint something?
1) Windsor chairs --- traditionally, they're always painted. Windsors are made from several species (poplar seats, hard maple turnings, and red oak arms, backs, and spindles) whose varying grains would be distracting. Dunbar says that the paint emphasizes the sculptural form of the chair. I give mine two coats of two different colors of milk paint, and followed by rubbing in an application of warm linseed oil. 2) I've "polychromed" (museum curator lingo for painting) pieces made from yellow pine, white pine and poplar. I painted a hunt board of yellow pine with poplar legs. I made a faux mahogany with a purplish paint and streaked with Minwax Jacobean stain that simulated wood grain. I've done several armoires and cupboards from yellow pine. One, a pewter cupboard, I finished with barn red milk paint and linseed oil. Most are painted several colors --- raised panels one color, molding and base another, and the body another color. Some of these are "blotched" with stain to tone down any garishness. 3) I make working decoys -- both ice fishing and wildfowl. The fish are usually sugar pine or basswood. The birds are mostly pine or white cedar bodies (some tupelo gum) with pine heads. I coat these with gesso and paint them.Joel
Larry, Built a Mobile Router Table. Combined ideas from several different 'plans'. MDF 'carcase', 'Hem-Fir' scraps for interior 'cleats', Poplar for 'kick panel', and a sawn up kitchen table top for the 3 inch 'top' {wood-grain Formica covered}.
Painted exterior a 'Sky' blue, interior White, and 'kick panel' with PolyShield 'Bombay Mahogany'. Oddly enough, that's the same combination I used on a 'Boat' flower box . . . made one for Joanne and another for the Club 'auction' .
Regards, Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop
What does natural stain do? It seems like an oxymoron. I asked Minwax that same question and they gave me some BS answer.
I painted a PlayStation stand I made my son out of some pretty awful scrap.
What kind of paint and application method did you use. Were you trying to simulate a "metal cabinet" look?
I am just finishing a multi-purpose workbench in my garage which I made "cabinet style" and painted to simulate the traditional red color of a mechanic's tool chest. This was definitely experimental, and I used an interesting Rustoleum spray paint product over MDF. The paint is designed to give a "hammered" finish which looks good and is much more forgiving of poor application technique. It came out "pretty good", and could be much better except if I was willing to do the painting in the garage. I started there, but stopped as soon as I realized how much the overspray was spreading over the ENTIRE 3 car garage. So, I resigned myself to painting the rest outside which is very difficult because the slightest breeze upsets the spray pattern out of the can. It's not the way to go if you have to paint outdoors. Otherwise, it works great and is easy to recoat as needed to get the desired finished because the hammered look is naturally uneven.
The next project is a matching bank of cabintets overhead. I'm thinking of an electric paint sprayer for this project, with the expectation that I'll sand and repaint the workbench to match. I used such a painter when I was a kid, and I seem to recall that it's much easier to get the paint on the work and the overspray is well contained, but I would be way off base here. I need to do some more research on this.
I'd love to see pictures of your tablesaw cabinet. I'll share photos of my project once it's completed.
Tom
Larry,
Just finishing up a loft bed for my son. Painted glossy green over poplar, with varnished maple trim and ladder rungs. Looks good.
Generally, I choose project materials based on the look I'm thinking of. This normally results in only clear (or nearly clear) finishes - last project was two bedside tables - Maple and Walnut with a thin amber shellac seal coat and WB poly for water resistance. No stain on my projects.
Ian
I just finished 3 benches for Christmas presents. I painted them white. I used a Latex and I don't have spray equipment so I had to roll/brush it on. I hated that. The weird thing is, the guy at the store said I should use Latex because it's so much easier than enamel (oil). Having done the 3 projects with Latex I'll probably never use it again. Oh, it turned out pretty nice, got the approval of SWMBO anyway -- that's usually a good indicator. However, having used stains and finishes that all need special cleanup (and I don't consider that much work to be honest) I think I'd try enamel in the future. I've heard you can sand it and rub it out a bit better (you can't at all with Latex).
I also want to try milk paints. Except I don't know what I'd try it on, haven't had a need for something like that yet.
Mike
[snip]
surroundings.
It enriches the makers.
On some woods it will help pop the grain a bit, but no better than using BLO. It may be quicker to cure than using BLO if you are going to top coat it.
I have limited experince using it, and I intend to keep it that way. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
I've painted a project or three, sure. The "Rock Chucker Mark IV" catapult thingie is painted candy apple red. I have some simple shelves in the bathroom knocked together out of random scraps and painted with 88-cent Wal-Mart white. I've painted a few utility shelves black. Helping Hands(tm) card holders are painted if I make them out of cheap wood.
When I was making everything out of poplar, I typically stained it a walnut color. Now I make everything out of walnut, plus a few other species. I haven't stained anything for several projects now, and I like it that way. Working with contrasting woods that are already the color I'm after is expensive, but worth it to me.
So in short, I only paint utilitarian projects, or toys.
I have several painted pieces. I build Shaker style furniture and many pieces are painted. Paint is inexpensive, easy to apply, and protects the wood. Most painted pieces are pine. I also have painted ply bookcases that match the carpeting color.
A fair number of my projects are painted. That also means I use poplar, plywood and MDF a lot more than oak, cherry or other finer woods. I also tend to use pine and whitewash (or color wash) a fair amount, the pine is preferable to poplar because of the more pronounced grain that shows through a whitewash.
Very rarely I'll lacquer a piece, and usually it's a latex primer and paint, though on occasion I'll use oil base primer and latex paint. Outdoor pieces for example.
One major reason is region of the country, I'm in SW Florida where the style is beach/Caribbean/Floridian/tropical and "heavy" wood tones don't fit in. Even when I do a non-painted piece, I'm most likely to use a cypress or maple over an oak/cherry/mahogany look.
Jeff
looks like ten or twelve, thereabouts.
I often paint stuff when it's going to be used in rough conditions. I made some platforms for my washer, drier and dehumidifier that sit in the basement and I painted them. Also painted my workbenches (yes, I know, but they have a hardboard top). Stands for my grinders are painted as well. I've made a few little containers (not really boxes) of MDF as well as some of boxes using OSB that have been painted.
For the workshop stuff, I went to Sears and checked out their paint clearance area. I picked up some high-quality outdoor paint in sort of a green for $5 a gallon.
I haven't painted anything I've made from walnut or oak.
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