3 Attachment(s)
Paint and clear for oak/baltic Birch
Ok, so I have been starting to create a project of mine with a shopbot CNC and 3/4" baltic birch. I am basically carving names into the wood with a 1/2" 60 degree V-groove bit. The cutting is coming along pretty good for what I am trying to do.
The problem starts when I am trying to color fill the letters. Currently, I am not staining the face of the wood but want to with a General Finishes Oil based stain in the future. Also, I would like to fill the letters (V groove) with a paint.
At first, I left the wood unstained and then after cutting the letters, I went back and spray painted the v groove. It came out pretty good, except sanding the paint off the face was a bit difficult and I had some leaking of paint into the face of the board. Paint in the v groove was even and looked good. I researched and found that if I spray shellac or sanding sealer into the v groove prior to painting the v groove, I would seal some of those tiny areas that my spray paint went into. So for my next trial I sprayed shellac into the letters and then I tried spraying the paint into letters and had better results with less bleeding, but still had a large amount of paint on the face. I still had to sand it off with a palm sander.
On my next try I sealed the letters with shellac and then used an artist brush to apply a heavy acrylic paint to the v groove letters. The red letters came out uneven but the black letters looked good with 2 coats of black. I was able to wipe away the acrylic on the face before it dried.
So now i have decided that I want to stain the wood and have paint in the v grooved letters. I have been reading about using masking to help with the letters portion. Can I stain the wood, cover with masking and then v groove the letters? It may help with spraying the letters or hand painting the acrylic paint.
Is there a better way to stain the wood, cut the v groove and then come back and paint the letters?
The paint recommendations are endless. I have searched the internet and it seems that people are using all kinds of paint, latex, SW outdoor, milk paint, acrylic, automotive to name a few.
I would like to finish it with a Water based poly, mainly for easy clean up, etc as I will be possibly making a bunch of these and working in my garage. I will be using a brush, but would certainly entertain the idea of spraying it on.
This is for an inside sign, so no elements to protect it from, however, I need some protection for the paint as coats will be hung from the wood.
1)A good way to paint letters?
2) Paint type for uniform color and can be covered by water based clear coat?
3) I have used GF High Per poly and also Enduro-var Poly varnish. Anything else I should be using?
Here are some examples.
Attachment 27603Attachment 27604Attachment 27605
