This is the hardest part of the whole build as I have to lift serious weight, endure flying sparks, deafening power tools noise, work in dust filled environment, work on my knees, squatting for long hours & drinking 3 litter of water each day for over 2 weeks...
My advise, get a helper....
The dust is intensive, I lost count after I swept up two 50 liter buckets of grind steel dust...
I then decided to paint the steel before welding to avoid the intensive Yoga exercise session if I were to paint the table after the table is completely welded... Can always repair the scratches & welding burnt paint with a tat to extra paint...
Painting is a PITA task, easy to do but takes ages to reach a competent level of finishing...
How much PITA? Before you paint, one has to prepare the steel...
- Firstly, you have to remove loose scale & rust with grade A60 sand paper or power brush with an angle grinder,
- Secondly, you have to rub down the dust & any oil stain from the surface with solvent, I use patrol for this task as they are great solvent that are easily available & they will evaporate without a trace. There are other practices such as wahing the steel with light detergent but I alway prefer how I did it...
- Then you get to paint...
Now, you can op for spray painting or hand painting... as my body is all sore after the earlier works, I hate to haul all the steel into the open & haul them back to the workshop after they are done... AND its raining season... a bad bad thing for wet or half dried paint...
*ps, It did rain a few time (per day) during the 3 day span of my paint job.
I use 4" paint roller for the job, some how, I can't paint with normal paint brush & roller saves me from the emberresment. AND with rollers, it is easy to control paint thickness & produce a even matted finishing which I like.
My paint selection :- 1 coat of Red Oxide primer & 2 coat of Enemal Alkyd paint (commonly know as Glossy paint).
More painting PITA....
- Apply the 1st primer coat after the patrol had evaporated & squeaky clean...
- Wait...... 4~6 hours for the primer to cure enough for the top coat... Too short the curing then the primer will be too wet for the top coat, too long the primer will harden too much for the top coat to "bite" on to the primer coat...
- Apply the 1st coat, do not brush over the same spot over & over again, this will make the top coat to mix with the primer coat... Nevermind if you can still see the tint colour of the primer coat on this 1st top coat, you can get this corrected with the 2nd coat.
- Wait..... read the instruction on the paint can, it says 4 hour for touch dry & 6~8 hour to re coat.... I waited 8 hours & they still feel too tacky for the second coat so I left them over night to cure properly...
- The 2nd coat will be a breeze as you had already 2 coat of practice & finish in no time.
This is what I got
The table parts including the rails in black
The table bearer channels 1 1/2 x 3" channels
Close up of the main 3" x 8" channel
Not forgetting the rails, with 2 coat of smooth black Hammerite paint...
It seems like you did a lot of work with all those steel. However, I think it’d be better if you did the welding before painting all of it first, then just retouching them afterwards. That way, cutting of the steel would not chip off the paint also.
ReplyDeleteSalvatore Aguilar
You should ask for some help next time you are working on a big project like that. I do agree with Salvatore that maybe you should do the painting last too. I think it’s more efficient that way. But it is amazing that you were able to do all these cutting, fabricating and painting on your own.
ReplyDeleteKai Tiger
Actually, this is the 1st time I paint before weld. Guess what, its so much easier on the back...
ReplyDeleteNo more crawling, no more squeezing into tight space... etc... Love it!