Let's Paint!

[Zombie]

Now that it's a little less busy at work, it's time to start on some projects to beautify the work environment! Nothing does that more than a good coat of decent paint. I'm not a professional painter by any means, but I do have a lot of experience in the trade as my father is one. Let's start with the back cooler.

 

We have a couple coolers at work for overflow or when it gets busy. For the back cooler, it was off from late November till the first week in February. The weather was not cooperating very much in January so I was unable to do anything in there due to the floor (and air temp) being near freezing. When the weather did break in early Feb, I started to clean it up for the upcoming Valentines Day. And while I was at it, I figured I could apply a coat of paint on the floor to make things easier to clean and look better.

 

There were a bunch of spots where I scraped down to the bare concrete and other spots where just the upper coat had peeled away. No problem, I treated the spots, then went over the whole thing again with another coat. Looked great, put a small ceramic heater in the cooler and closed the door so the temp was about 90+ °F in there overnight (at least it was above the door where the thermometer was). I'm not really sure how cold it was at floor level though, but it should have been above 50 °F at least. Anyhow, long story short, the cooler needed to be turned on the very next day and perhaps the paint didn't have a chance to fully cure or adhere properly as now the floor looks terrible.

 

So I'm back at it again, I'll save you the steps where I swept off the shelves, repainted the light bulb cage, took out some pegboard pieces which sit on the shelves (to prevent small vases from slipping through the spaces), swept the floor twice, scraped and sanded the floor and swept another two times.

 

 

Pretty bad shape, eh? Now that the floor is prepped, it's time to prime. The paint I'm using is a Polyurethane Floor Enamel (oil based) and the the paint representative I talked to mentioned that I should use the actual paint as the primer as most primers wouldn't hold up due to the near constant cold-wet environment (I actually used their premium latex primer on the floor in the past which seemed to hold up just fine, but, I'll follow directions here). As usual, I "feather" in the areas with a light coat where there is already some paint, and put a nice heavy coat on the bare spots.

 

 

Quite a bit of work trying to feather in those areas where there was some paint left and filling in those bare spots. I also tried to apply a heavy coat to the cracks (I caulked them when I first painted the floor in 2011 and they are holding up just fine so I want to make sure there is a thick film to prevent anything from coming loose). All in all, it looks a little strange, but a lot better.

 

Up next I'll need to address those rusty spots, paint the metal molding (or kickplate) around the base and sweep the floor yet another time. It's amazing how many paint chips, pine needles (from Christmas) and dust you'll find when when you get out the paint brush (must be one of Murphy's Laws). Nothing will happen on that till next week as the floor needs to dry properly.

 

 

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

If you are so eager to paint, how bout you come along and paint my flat Come to think of it, you could stop by at SV's, he probably also would like a hand

[Thorondor]

"Let's Paint!"

 

Guess what image that conjures up:

 

 

 

Well, Zombie, you certainly went all-in and the results speak for themselves. Shiny!

 

Still, I can imagine, with the iteration of scraping, sanding, sweeping and coating involved, the generous backache you must have had by the end of the day as payoff.

 

I think maybe the other fellow had the right idea sticking with the canvas after all.

[Zombie]

If you are so eager to paint, how bout you come along and paint my flat Come to think of it, you could stop by at SV's, he probably also would like a hand

 

I'd be happy to, but you'll need to pay my way and feed me (and a beer or two wouldn't hurt either).

 

"Let's Paint!"

 

Guess what image that conjures up:

 

 

 

Well, Zombie, you certainly went all-in and the results speak for themselves. Shiny!

 

Still, I can imagine, with the iteration of scraping, sanding, sweeping and coating involved, the generous backache you must have had by the end of the day as payoff.

 

I think maybe the other fellow had the right idea sticking with the canvas after all.

 

Good ol' Bob Ross!

 

Actually my back is just fine. My knee on the other hand is in tough shape (must've tore some muscle in there...been doing that a lot lately, signs I'm getting old). In order to combat that I sat on a overturned 5-gallon bucket with a rag on it for padding. Not the best for painting, but it got me through it.

 

I inspected my job this afternoon and it looks good. Everything was dry and there wasn't any "alligatoring" so that means the first coat will apply smoothly. Because Polyurethane is a little slippery when wet, I'll be adding sand to the paint for some traction. I have found that leaving the floor as it is after the sand coat is almost too rough. You have to remember that it has to be easy to sweep, and moving buckets around a rough floor is nearly impossible. What I normally do is apply a second coat without the sand to smooth things out a bit while still offering decent traction. But it's not the same quantity of sand all over the entire floor - I make it so it's like a gradient - heavier at the door for initial traction, lighter in the middle and nonexistent under the shelves.

 

I started work on the middle cooler this afternoon also (it's intended as a small display cooler, but we use it as backup). Unfortunately I couldn't take any pics as my camera was complaining that the 2 GB micro SD memory card was locked (which I found out just now that there is a little tab on the side which does this). Ended up picking up another memory card... 32 GBs for $5 so that should help with lots of pics and/or video too. Anyhow, you didn't miss much. I took out the glass shelves and the brackets so far. Tried to take down the metal drip pan under the condenser but couldn't due to rust and not the right tools. I'm going to try to get my dad to give me a hand with that sometime. The drip pan is the worst part of the cooler by far, I painted and cleaned up the middle cooler a bit last summer and it turned out great, but I never attempted taking down the pan or doing anything with the brackets and standards. So keep your eyes open for pics of that project.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

 

 

I'd be happy to, but you'll need to pay my way and feed me (and a beer or two wouldn't hurt either).

 

 

 

But Zombies don't eat and drink and definitely don't get paid, otherwise those necromancers would go bankrupt really fast.

[Zombie]

Extending that, Zombies shouldn't paint either. So yeah, let's not confuse the man and the screen name.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Interesting, this adding sand to the paint. I hope to remember. Nice job!

[Zombie]

I had a little time at work today so I inspected the cooler a little closer. There were a few spots where I scraped that the paint managed to get underneath the old paint and pull up a flap. So I took a razor blade and cut off the flaps, and what should I find? A little wet paint underneath (it was super tacky though so it was almost dry). If you're counting, that's 7 days of dry time. Granted, it was quite humid this past week, but still. I might need to use an additive on the final coat to help with that. Then I swept the cooler out again.

 

Might as well put on the sand coat then.

 

 

It was hard getting a good pic of the final "product" as the sun was really bright today, but you can probably see the floor is uniform now. I also took a closeup of the floor just as you would enter to see the sand finish.

 

 

A little hard to see, but every bright spot is a grain of sand. There's quite a bit on the landing and the main areas and very little underneath the shelves.

 

So here are some tips for painting with an oil-based polyurethane and sand finish.

1. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Make sure the floor is completely devoid of any foreign matter whatever that may be. You don't want to start and immediately find a blob of something in the paint job.
   
2. If it's really warm out, make sure to frequently towel off any sweat from your face. Any drops of sweat which fall on the wet paint will cause a discoloration. (Kinda gross, but we are all human).
   
3. Cut in along the walls with a brush first, then start rolling. Don't cut too far ahead or else the paint might skin over and then you'll end up pulling those skins off with the roller which may end up in the floor. Any imperfection will show if the paint is gloss or even a semi-gloss.
   
4. Use junk (or throwaway) painting equipment. Sand is a beast to get out of things like brushes and rollers. There's no need to use a good roller cover as you'll probably end up throwing it away. Shy away from using your best oil brush for cutting in along the walls unless the wall is finished already. Those el-cheapo china bristle brushes work just fine as long as they are used first (new bushes have a tendency to lose bristles and that will show in the paint). Check my setup below.
   

1. Thin metal roller pan. (These work the best for oil pants as you can just brush out the paint at the end of your session and let the rest dry on the metal).
   
2. Foam roller. Excellent for oil paints as long as the carrier solvent doesn't contain acetone.
   
3. El-cheapo Chinese bristle brush. I'm using a 1.5 inch (3.8cm) brush made in China with hog hair bristles.
   
4. Stirring stick.
   

To get that gradient sand finish I was talking about earlier, this is your best bet: Pour the sand paint (If premixed) or add the sand to the polyurethane directly in the roller pan and stir. When you think you have stirred enough, stir some more. Now that the sand is suspended in the paint, wait about 30sec-1min before applying. Don't dunk your roller all the way into the paint for the areas where you want a light sand coat. Just gently roll it into the paint a little bit making sure to wet the roller completely. A little bit of sand will make it into the roller so start applying it along the walls. Once that is done, gradually dunk the roller deeper into the paint to get more sand. Apply that next to the light finish, then carefully roll the heavier sand section into the light area. How far depends on how much traction you want. This will blend the the two together just a bit. As you get closer to the areas where you want a really heavy sand coat, begin stirring the paint frequently. Back roll into the area with a medium sand coat and you should be all set.

 

I'll see about getting some better pics on Monday or Tuesday. I'm off tomorrow and it needs time to dry anyway.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

What a painting masterclass you've got going here, Zombie!

 

It's definitely a detail-oriented job, what with the sand gradient effect and all. There's something to be said for perfectionism, as it's really looking rather pristine!

 

As it is, though, and even if you get to do it sitting down , I do wish one day this sort of thing can be achieved by spray painting with an air gun using some modified nozzle or something.

[Zombie]

As it is, though, and even if you get to do it sitting down

 

Except for cutting in along the walls, I did it all standing up. The roller handle has a spot to screw in a broom handle so that's what I did. It's better to paint floors with a broom handle/extension pole with a roller on the end because you can put more downward pressure on the roller and it also allows you to reach further/move less.

 

I do wish one day this sort of thing can be achieved by spray painting with an air gun using some modified nozzle or something.

 

There are nozzles made for sand finish on ceilings and walls, but sadly the hoppers all point upwards. Suppose something could be modified to make that possible, but in my case, there's nothing on the market that can create gradient sand finishes. Heck, even sprinkling sand on top of the wet paint is very difficult to achieve the intended results.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

I checked the floor of the cooler a little closer today. It's pretty good overall. The sand finish wasn't as concentrated as I thought near the door and seemed to be heavier than I expected around the edges. Not really an issue as it still needs another coat and that should even things out, but I might just brush on a light sand coat near the door just to make sure it's rough enough (then again I walked on the floor today with tennis shoes and I had plenty of traction).

 

Since I didn't want to attempt any painting inside the cooler today, I decided to do some maintenance/cleaning on the compressor outside. Last year I cleaned the fans and the condenser which turned out fantastic, but plumb ran out of time to clean the compressor as it was getting cold. It was a heck of a messy and dirty job. The thing was literally caked with dust and what I think is oil (not sure if the oil came from the compressor or the fans or from some external source). The soap I was using did a decent job if you really bared down and scrubbed hard, but it was still hard getting the junk loosened up. In the end, it turned out ok, but not as clean as I wanted. Really what I need is a degreaser (like an engine degreaser) but didn't have any on hand. I had a little carb and choke cleaner left so I tried that and it worked good... the only issue being it was pretty aggressive on paint. I'll see about getting before & after pics of that up sometime.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Heck, even sprinkling sand on top of the wet paint is very difficult to achieve the intended results.

 

Wait, did you put the sand into the colour or sprinkle it on top? I wouldn't sprinkle it because it might detach far faster than being covered inside the paint, though the traction would definitely be better for a time.

[Zombie]

Wait, did you put the sand into the colour or sprinkle it on top? I wouldn't sprinkle it because it might detach far faster than being covered inside the paint, though the traction would definitely be better for a time.

 

Don't worry, the sand was in the paint when I applied it. I mentioned the sprinkling thing to explain how hard it is to come up with a gradient, that's all.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

So here are the before pics for the dirty compressor:

 

 

Dirt and dust bunnies and who knows what is all caked on. Like I said, the soap I used did a decent job with a lot of elbow grease, but there is still some residue. Here are the after pics:

 

 

It's 1000% better, but there is still some white/grey residue on the coils which I assume is dust with maybe some oil. Need to get some degreaser to see if that makes any difference. I'm not after a perfect new looking compressor after this though. As much as I'd like to remove the light rust and paint it black, it's better for the compressor to not have any coatings on it so that the heat it creates will disperse properly.

 

Might as well work on painting the lower shelf of a couple of rolling tables. Before:

 

 

It was painted with a flat grey latex paint probably 17-18 years ago and it's starting to wear off on the edges. It was never primed either. And the shelf is constructed out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) so it's susceptible to swelling if water gets on it. All of that is bad news. So I brushed on a coat of a premium latex primer:

 

 

Not worried about the brush marks, I just need something on there to prevent the top coat from soaking away. What is the top coat? Why, that same grey polyurethane floor enamel:

 

 

Again, I just brushed it on. I'm not after a perfect result at this stage, as I'll roll on the final coat which will eliminate any brushmarks anyway. More to come at a later date.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Fine work, except the rust spot. 5 crowns.

[Thorondor]

That compressor sure got some TLC from you, Zombie, which should significantly contribute to its longevity. You're right in factoring in its efficient heat dissipation.

 

A job well done - do take some time to decompress yourself!

[Zombie]

That compressor sure got some TLC from you, Zombie, which should significantly contribute to its longevity. You're right in factoring in its efficient heat dissipation.

 

I might just be a tad anal retentive when it comes to this as I think the compressor has some sort of black enamel on it anyway. I just do not want to add another layer which may or may not do any good. Best to err on the side of caution though. We had to turn the back cooler on for a couple days due to a lot of work, but it's off now. It seemed to run a little bit better while on (at least I think it ran better). Anyhow, after letting the compressor cool off, I sprayed some engine degreaser on it, let that sit for 5 mins, sprayed another coat on, scrubbed around with a brush, then sprayed some soap on and let that drip dry. It did something as the few dark spots were removed. Have to let that sit and dry over the weekend to see what it looks like on Monday. Fingers crossed.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Well, the compressor looks pretty good now. After all that degreaser, soap and scrubbing it's about as clean as I'm going to get it.

 

 

You can actually see the copper color of the pipe windings now which is impressive. Depending on time, I might brush a coat of polyurethane on the compressor base just to spruce it up a bit.

 

My rolling table project is progressing nicely too. Previously I had just painted the lower shelf, but the metal frame of the table and the expanded metal diamond mesh on one side was a little lacking so I painted one table on Saturday. Here's what it currently looks like:

 

 

The top of the table I'm going to leave as it is because I painted that this spring with a hammered metallic grey paint which looks cool. Anyhow, the frame is going to need another coat as well as the lower shelf. Because of the high humidity here over the last few days, the paint is a tiny bit tacky so I'm going to wait till tomorrow to decide when the next coat will be applied.

 

I was inspecting the wheels and they have to come off for a complete rebuild, cleaning and relube. Not sure when that will happen, but maybe it'll get done this week if I'm waiting for paint to dry.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

As a "before and after" goes, Zombie, here the truth really is in the copper, not the pudding!

 

Just make sure that tubing doesn't shine overmuch as the value of that metal today captivates many a common thief.

 

Moving along, to the rolling table no less, the extra coating you intend to apply, to the lower shelf in particular, does seem warranted to further protect and smooth things over a little better.

 

And don't you stay dreamily watching paint dry too long like that - the fumes might well give you a headache.

[Zombie]

Well, I didn't have a lot of time this week due to being busy. Looking back, I probably could have painted something, but my worry is always starting a painting project and then inevitably being called away to do something else. Now you have a brush with paint on it... do you throw the thing in the can of paint and hope you can come back to painting later, or do you wash it out and call it a day? Nine times out of ten, it'll be the latter. Besides, the back cooler was on so that eliminated putting the final coat on the floor and also precluded me painting the lower shelf of the rolling tables (I want to roll the shelves and it just makes sense to do all rolling in one fell swoop). Also it was really hot and humid every day and I was worried that the oil-based polyurethane wouldn't dry properly. No worries, I can start other projects.

 

Years ago I primed and painted the inside of our double-wide garage door as it looked terrible. It held up ok all things considered, but it was starting to show some age. Last year I did some preliminary scraping on the door and never got around to doing anything else because I didn't have any primer on hand. With all the rain and snow, water seeps in between the panels and causes the paint to peel again. So I rescraped the entire door this last week, wire brushed the wood areas, swept countless times and vacuumed about 4 times too. I also caulked the lower row of the inner panels to hopefully prevent water infiltration (in a perfect world I would have used white caulk, but because I already had a tube of tan opened I used that). What it looks like now:

 

 

Sorry, couldn't get a decent pic of the whole door due to it being so bright outside. All those hinges were a pain to scrape, and the worst thing...? The nuts which hold the hinges to the door are the old square type, not hexagonal and almost every one of them was loose. I was able to tighten all of them with a 9/16 (inch) hex socket but I'm worried it'll loosen up again eventually as none of them had lock washers. Giant pain in the be-hind if you catch my drift. I'm still deciding whether I'll swap out all the nuts for hex (with a lock washer) as that would be a pretty big job. With the door needing to be primed anyway, now would be the perfect time to swap out the nuts. Anyhow, more to come.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

To paint or not to paint - that is the question, Zombie!

 

You're clearly on a roll. No project too big.

 

Since you're feeling the drive to get things done, I'd say go the distance. You know those square nuts should really be replaced as they'll inevitably just come loose again.

 

Pretending otherwise is but a delay tactic. Perfectly acceptable, of course, even if you know it will drive you up the wall again next time.

 

Sooo, might as well go nuts now?

[Zombie]

Undertaking a complete swap of square to hex nuts isn't hard, just time consuming and it'll cost some $ too because I'll need over 112 nuts and lockwashers (28 nuts per row × 4 rows). The cost of the materials will probably come to under $20 which isn't huge, the problem is the time it'll take me. I'll have to run it past bossman first to make sure he understands the issue. I also don't know offhand whether the bolts are long enough to accommodate a lockwasher (I have some nuts and lockwashers on hand to check though). Swapping out the bolts would really be an issue as I could foresee problems arising which may make it cost prohibitive. On the other hand, I might be able to use threadlock liquid to prevent the nuts from loosening up so worst case I could employ that in case lockwashers would not work.Happy, happy, joy, joy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZFTUtbn1RU

 

And this is only fitting:

 

https://youtu.be/2xDkgHy0p6g?t=152

 

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Another busy day at work. However, I was able to prime the garage door in-between projects (I'm using that premium latex primer). Finally a nearly full view of it:

 

 

I didn't prime the whole thing, just the parts where there wasn't any paint (or very little), so that's why it looks spotty in areas. It also may look a little shiny in spots, that's because the paint did not dry fully when the pic was taken. At the upper left you can really see how yellow the old paint has become over the years. The only thing I used was a 3" brush (I should have used a throwaway as the primer kinda gummed up my good brush but I should be able to get it clean after soaking overnight). The only part I didn't finish was the frame around the windows, that's going to require a different brush (2" angled sash brush), and a very steady hand (going to freehand it - no taping). Here's another pic, this time a close up (sorta):

 

 

You can see that the lower part of the panes on the last row have some yellow lines. This isn't from a too-thin layer of paint, it comes from water stains (and possibly tannins in the wood) bleeding through the primer (tannins and water stains are soluble in latex primer and discolor it, usually yellow or brown). I knew this would be an issue, but painting it with a latex primer first allows you to see what areas need to be addressed. I can spot prime those problem areas with a fast drying alcohol based primer later (it's probably closer to a shellac than a primer, but has lots of pigment in it to prevent bleed through). After that, I can touch up those spots with another light coat of latex primer and the whole thing should be ready for the final coat. In the meantime, it at least looks decent.

 

I didn't do anything with the square nuts. As I'll still be priming (and because it covers decently) I can swap out nuts up till I apply the top coat. Lockwashers will fit but it might be close on some bolts. I miscounted the quantity I'd need too - there are actually 5 rows of 28 nuts so that comes to 140. I might have 40 extra nuts and lockwashers so then I'd only need a box of 100 for each, though I need to count it out carefully as I want some on-hand to use when I need to fix something.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Have you tried using a roller? The door seems to have quite some area that could be painted much faster with it. I try to use it whenever possible as brushes are a pain in the arm...

[Thorondor]

Very informative explanation about the potential origins of the staining there, Zombie.

 

And I see you like extra challenge: painting the frame around the windows freehand, without taping - you daredevil you!

 

Obligatory nuts joke: it's going to be tight!