Quick and smooth priming of pine and obeche mouldings.

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Not your average framer
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Quick and smooth priming of pine and obeche mouldings.

Post by Not your average framer »

I'm partly interested in what methods and materials which others are using, but I will also mention some of my own methods. I do particularly like using a 50/50 mixture of Craig and Rose Chalky Emulsion and Amsterdam acrylic paints. The Amsterdam acrylic paints are quite thick and heavily pigmented and with the addition of the chalky emulsion, these paints sand down to a very smooth finish very easily. When I am using this combination, it tends to be equally useful for priming and / or top coats.

I also have some Acrylic sanding sealer from Lion, but my technique is not always the same with this as this takes more effort to sand down smooth. This is not always the only technique, but there are times when I sand this down using my bench top belt sander. The belt sander can only sand a limited length, so I am mostly sanding pre-cut lengths on moulding, or mouldng already cut and joined in to frames. Belt sanders can be very aggresive, so I'm often working with well worn down belts and with vey light pressure as well. Getting a smooth seamless result across each part of a complete frame is not easy and requires keeping the frame which is being sanded contantly moving, so as not to leave any uneven results.

Pine mouldings often need some filling of gaps at the mitred cormers, which I often do at the same time with extra thick acrylic medium which tends to sand down flus and smooth, but does not harded very quickly when using heat to set the acrylic. Unfortunately, sanding the acrylic medium too soon after it has set tends to produce a pretty useless result. I also fill gaps with an acrylic sculpiting paste, which is usually easier to sand, but cleaning up my utensils and brushes is much more difficult afterwards, but this stuff sands down to a much better result.

I guess many forum members already know that I do not much enjoy too much sanding down by hand and if I need to do much hand sanding, I tend to apply anything which needs sanding down in a well watered down coat to reduce the amount of sanding. I would be interested to hear about materials, methods and preferences used by others.

Thanks,
Mark.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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prospero
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Re: Quick and smooth priming of pine and obeche mouldings.

Post by prospero »

Quick or Smooth. Can't have both. :lol:
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GeoSpectrum
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Re: Quick and smooth priming of pine and obeche mouldings.

Post by GeoSpectrum »

How true, the easiest I found is a good quality chalk paint, plus you can use a colour similar or the same as the top coat which helps a bit.
Alan Huntley
Ashcraft Framing
Bespoke Easels and Self-assembly tray frames
http://www.ashcraftframing.co.uk
Not your average framer
Posts: 11013
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Quick and smooth priming of pine and obeche mouldings.

Post by Not your average framer »

That's pretty much what I tend to do! The chalky paint tends to brush out fairly smooth and wipes down and little bit smoother with a mixture of meths and cellulose thinners on a pad made up out of kitchen tissue.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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