Milk paint recipes and other natural paint recipes

[Richard Sexton]

Hi; I can't say I'm a devoted reader of this newsgroup, the last time I read it was

1987.

I used to have as part of a small personal website a milk paint reicipe that was so unexpectedly popular I used to get phone calls about it.

It used to be at vrx.net/richard/mailk-paint or something like that. That url is long dead but, I've put it and every other milk and natural paint and finish recipe I could find on a newer version of my site.

Hopefully some of you might find it useful.

[Leon]

Thank you Richard, Nice site to visit. I was not aware however that Al Gore invented the internet in 1987, ;~)

[darkon]

I'm not sure what you mean here. I don't recall exact dates off the top of my head, but Usenet dates to the early 1980s at latest, and I think the first Arpanet sites were connected to each other in the late 1960s. I know first-hand that the Internet and Usenet existed in 1987, because that's when I first encountered them.

Is there some joke I'm missing? (Yes, I get the Al Gore reference)

[Leon]

No, it was the Al Gore thing whom had not shown up on the radar with his invention until later years. That said, I first got on the internet, well accessed other computers from my personal computer back in the mid to later

80's. Work related access to other computers via modem in 1978. While it did exist, I'd say that less than 5% of PC users then, "1987" were aware of an internet as such. I was a little surprised by the OP that the last time he read this group was 20 years ago.

[Swingman]

net.rec.wood ... ahhh yes, the good old days of the wRec, when women were women, and men were REAL wooddorkers!

None of this touchy feely milkpaint and politics. :)

[Larry Blanchard]

And before the Internet was Fido.

And before Fido was timesharing.

It makes me really appreciate todays technology when I recall acoustic couplers and paper tape on a teletype :-).

--=20 It's turtles, all the way down

[Lew Hodgett]

Especially at 50 baud, when trying to send something to the boonies.

By comparison, a good 110 baud connection was living in high cotton.

Lew

[dpb]

:) Yep, had to have been there to appreciate that...my all-time favorite was the HP instrument built around the HP-1000 w/ the three-pass paper-tape compiler...

--

[Lew Hodgett]

As a marketing mgr I knew way known to say, "HP, the standard of mediocrity".

Lew

[Larry Blanchard]

Lockheed made a minicomputer named SUE - System User Engineered - shades of J Cash :-). I think I mentioned this once before, but:

1. Type in your Fortran source and out onto paper tape (all I/O was paper tape on the system we had).
2. Load the Fortran compiler
3. Load your source tape and punch out assembler source.
4. Load the assembler
5. Load your assembler source and punch out object code.
6. Load the link editor
7. Feed in your object code
8. Feed in at least one library tape, usually two or three and punch out an executable.
9. Feed in the executable - if any bugs, start over.

All at 10 chars per second (110 baud) unless you used "ghost code" for the output tapes. That reduced throughput to 5 chars per second but saved the teletype ribbon and platen.

I'm sometimes amazed I still have most of my hair. But at the time (1968-1970) it was just normal operation.

[Roger Shoaf]

Milk paint, and white wash are poor substitutes for good quality modern paint. As one who hated to paint, I want a paint to last and give a durable and effective finish. Modern latex paint is non toxic and kid safe so why bother with a finish that needs to be renewed each year, and requires a whole lot of work beyond opening a can and dipping a brush?

[RicodJour]

It's also easier to by ready to assemble furniture and say you "built it". ;) I've only used milk paint a few times, but I liked how it looked.

R

[Roy]

Have you ever tried to strip milk paint? Sandpaper is about the only thing that works. (never tried hot caustic, but I'm older and wiser now, and would be hard pressed to come up with a reason to remove milk paint from an original piece these days).

In the mid-80's my Dad (rest his soul) moved two separate log cabins to a lot and combined them into a large cabin. The stairway to the second floor still has the original paint (1820-1830). Yep, worn in the middle of the treads but the sides of the treads and the original stairway door is in excellent condition, and still a vivid blue. Not bad for 170 years or so of use.

No experience with outdoor use of milk paint, but as a kid, I remember 'helping' whitewash the large stones framing the driveway every couple of years at my Grandmother's. Eventuality my Dad switched to oil based paint there though. I don't think exterior latex existed then.

Regards, Roy