• Thanks for visiting The Penturners Forum today.

    There are many features and resources that currently you are unable to see or access, either because you're not yet registered, or if you're already registered, because you're not logged in.

    To gain full access to the forum, please log in or register now. Registration is completely free, it only takes a few seconds, and you can join our well established community of like-minded pen makers.

What do you paint your tubes with

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
Neil mentioned this in another thread so i thought it would be better having its own thread as Neil says, it can open up a discussion... :thinks:
 

clumsysod

GOBBY GIT
Graduate Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Posts
687
Location
Grantham
The few plastic pens I have done I found that children's water colour paints or tipex seemed to do the job better than Nail varnish or spray cans of car paint.
I certainly am not experienced in any way with the ways of acrylics on pens, tried it didn't like it I'll stick to wood and natural beauty.
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
I have never done any painting of the tubes, but it will be interesting reading what has been used and if it does the job without interfering with the glues, or what glues should be used for future reference ... :thinks:
 

bellringer

The Young one
Registered
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Posts
5,187
Location
Surrey
First Name
Alex
i say nail varnish for casting tubes not that i have tried it but we will have to see
 

turnaround360

Caracktycus Pots
Fellow
Joined
Mar 6, 2013
Posts
2,427
Location
Essex
First Name
Frank
I'v used nail varnish you can get it in any colour and it has a metalic look if you need it my daughter has loads of them:devil:
 

joe

Apprentice Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Posts
12
Location
Kentucky
I like to use acrylic paint and paint the inside of the blank once it is drilled. I use a Q tip to apply paint.
 

mervyn cadman

Full Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Posts
86
Location
Colchester - Essex
I like to use acrylic paint and paint the inside of the blank once it is drilled. I use a Q tip to apply paint.

I 2nd this Joe acrylic water based paint works very well I have used this a lot even when casting and doesn’t react with the PR resin (please don’t comment on the blank)
the tube has been airbrushed with a blue acrylic paint - 3 layers and dried instantly with a hot hairdryer on each application, the reason for airbrushing is that I get a very even flat finish as you can see in the image that the resin magnifies any faults or imperfections on the tube, now if your only painting the tubes because of transparency reasons then a good art brush will do, you can always heat again with a hair drier to speed up the process, people ask if CA glue reacts with the acrylic paint and I so no it doesn’t but what you do have to remember is that if you are painting tubes and inside pen blanks then this will alter the size of the tubes so a 10mm hole might have to be 10.5 to allowing for the paint on the tubes (depending how much paint is used).

This is a link to the paints I use - you can buy these at any good art shop - don't buy cheaper brands... they don't work stick with daler and rowney.
Daler-Rowney System 3 Acrylics


This is just an image to show the painted tubes


Another image is my hand painted tubes with the same paints to create British camouflage




In the past I have tried many different paints, spays, furniture sprays, umbro paints and what I found is acrylic water base paints work very well - it's a quick application because you can heat dry them to evaporated the water and that in turn harden the paint - hopefully I have made it all clear.

If you’re thinking of painting the tubes for clear casting then I strongly recommend air-brushing - there are some great colours in the system3 range even some metallic paints.

Merv
 

Neil

Fellow
Joined
May 21, 2013
Posts
3,132
Location
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
First Name
Neil
From what Neil said he uses Halfords spray primer. If that is a grey primer surely that would darken the acrylic whereas white would keep it light. Neil actually said his darkens the acrylic.

Terry,
The primer is available in grey or black and \I think even white. The darker colours deepen and enrich the colour of the acyrilic, works particularly well with the acrylic variously known as purple with white line, orchid or I think Purple passion or similar but I hope that you know which one I mean.
 

Terry

Chairman Plonker
Executive Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Posts
9,504
Location
An exile Geordie living in Kingston upon Hull
First Name
Terry
I 2nd this Joe acrylic water based paint works very well I have used this a lot even when casting and doesn’t react with the PR resin (please don’t comment on the blank)
the tube has been airbrushed with a blue acrylic paint - 3 layers and dried instantly with a hot hairdryer on each application, the reason for airbrushing is that I get a very even flat finish as you can see in the image that the resin magnifies any faults or imperfections on the tube, now if your only painting the tubes because of transparency reasons then a good art brush will do, you can always heat again with a hair drier to speed up the process, people ask if CA glue reacts with the acrylic paint and I so no it doesn’t but what you do have to remember is that if you are painting tubes and inside pen blanks then this will alter the size of the tubes so a 10mm hole might have to be 10.5 to allowing for the paint on the tubes (depending how much paint is used).

This is a link to the paints I use - you can buy these at any good art shop - don't buy cheaper brands... they don't work stick with daler and rowney.
Daler-Rowney System 3 Acrylics


This is just an image to show the painted tubes


Another image is my hand painted tubes with the same paints to create British camouflage




In the past I have tried many different paints, spays, furniture sprays, umbro paints and what I found is acrylic water base paints work very well - it's a quick application because you can heat dry them to evaporated the water and that in turn harden the paint - hopefully I have made it all clear.

If you’re thinking of painting the tubes for clear casting then I strongly recommend air-brushing - there are some great colours in the system3 range even some metallic paints.

Merv

Very interesting Merv. Thanks for posting!!!!:thumbs:
 

Terry

Chairman Plonker
Executive Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Posts
9,504
Location
An exile Geordie living in Kingston upon Hull
First Name
Terry
Terry,
The primer is available in grey or black and \I think even white. The darker colours deepen and enrich the colour of the acyrilic, works particularly well with the acrylic variously known as purple with white line, orchid or I think Purple passion or similar but I hope that you know which one I mean.

Thanks Neil. Yes I know what you mean and it is interesting when you say the darker colours enrich the colour of the acrylic!!!!!:thumbs:
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
Neil, i never even thought of painting a tube for a dark coloured acrylic blank, but you have planted the seed ... :whistling:

Merv, thaanks for the information in the post, i am ignoring your request to (please don’t comment on the blank) to say that blanks looks the dogs dangles ... The blue really stands out ... :thumbs:
 

silver

General dogsbody
Executive Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2013
Posts
6,301
Location
Somewhere in Staffordshire,
First Name
Eamonn.
I agree with merv,

I use acrylic on my tubes, I have painted the inside of he blank :thinks: not sure of the benefits. So don't do it now.

On the flamingo pink ones I painted the tubes white, I have used pink as well but felt it emphasised the tubes too much.

But from experience if you have not got the chameleon tubes paint them every time..

It's trial an error with the colours, but if you want to hide them then use a similar colour to the blank.
 

mervyn cadman

Full Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Posts
86
Location
Colchester - Essex
merv what resin did you use it looks incredibly clear thanks Frankie, great post mate.


It's only PR resin (polyester resin) I did degas the resin before pouring it into the mould then the blank was turned and polished just to see if a faults have occurred.

Thanks guys this is turning into a great discussion because of so many variations into peoples methods the problem we have as pen turners is that there are so many pen blanks available to us worldwide I think the golden rule here is that when turning resins and acrylic blanks is to paint the tubes regardless if it needs or not, the last thing we want to happen is to turn this fantastic pen blank only to find that it's messed up because we didn't paint the sodding tubes...and yet I still make the error.:goesred::goesred:
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
Merv, what system do you use for the Airbrushing, also do the paints in your link cover airbrushing also? :thinks:

Thanks .... :thumbs:
 

mervyn cadman

Full Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Posts
86
Location
Colchester - Essex
Merv, what system do you use for the Airbrushing, also do the paints in your link cover airbrushing also? :thinks:

Thanks .... :thumbs:



Jim the paints are made to go into most spray-guns the acrylic paint has be watered down a bit anyway so a normal compressor and a airbrush/ sparygun, I got both mine from maching mart.

Clarke TG2 Professional Touch-Up Gun - Machine Mart



Merv
 
Warning! This thread has not had any replies for over a year. You are welcome to post a reply here, but it might be better to start a new thread (and maybe include a link to this one if you need to).
Top