Reply To: Painting a bookcase
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After quite a lengthy break, I finally found a moment to post my findings.
I used the following materials, very much in line with what I mentioned in my original post:
– sealing coat of 1# shellac
– BM Fresh Start primer
– BM Advance eggshell paint
Floetrol or Penetrol – will discuss the findings
All paints were applied with a Corona Excalibur brush broken in with a couple of smaller projects around the house (and very carefully cleaned).
Applying the paint with a roller was a disaster. I think throwing the paint at the wood Jackson Pollock style would produce better results, and I’m only half joking.
The sealing coat of shellac led to slightly less nibbing in the paint, but not a huge difference. I will likely apply it in the future, but consider skipping it if I were in a hurry.
Floetrol vs Penetrol vs no additives.
Short story: using the minimum amount recommended on the bottle of either Floetrol or Penetrol improved the work and the results by a small amount. Don’t expect miracles.
The long story.
I used as a test unit the minimum amount recommended on the bottle of additive. In both cases this minimum amount produced the best results: slightly easier to apply, less nibbing, good coverage, fewer brush marks.
Without additives brush marks were a bit more visible, and some small spots were left uncovered, requiring a second coat. Not a big deal, since I was planning on a second coat, but worth noting.
Larger amounts of additives were counterproductive. Penetrol was harder to apply, but after it dried it looked very similar to the ones above. So it would be wasteful to use more than the minimum recommended. Floetrol produced increasingly worse results (a surprise to me) – nibbing, somewhat random dispersion issues – definitely do not pour it indiscriminately.
The biggest problem, ‘though, was that I wasn’t able to paint without brush marks. Good enough for trim paint, perhaps, but not for furniture.
So, much as I would have liked to do it all by hand, I still ended up with a sprayer, because I found it easier to understand its quirks and produce a nice finish.
- This reply was modified 6 years ago by aanghelescu.