I want to place an order for some acrylic paint to spray a solid color before lamination. When thinned, how much paint is needed to spray a 6’ board? I’m sure it depends on a few factors but, a ballpark answer would be helpful. I’ll be passing along the paint to the sprayer and want make sure they have enough but not waste it either. i Looked through the archives and didn’t find an answer. Thanks in advance for any answers.
Just go to your local AC Moore or Michaels craft store. Even WallyMart has them. They have everything you could ever possibly need to paint your blank. Paint, let dry thoroughly, seal with acrylic clear. Lam away. With 3 kids I always have these around the house…guess what, they work perfectly. About $1 a bottle and available in probably 150 colors. I thin with Behr Acrylic Sealer then strain it before putting it in my cup gun.
If you’re spraying a light color, with a dialed in spray gun then you should be around 1/3-1/2 pint for a 6’0" shortboard. If you’re doing a dark color then you’ll be around 1/2-3/4 pint depending on smooth the board is finished and how dark the color is. Good luck!
Thanks Mako. For better or for worse, I’m ordering from Nova Acrylics in Culver City. Looks like what I’m after.
Thanks Fiberglass. For instance yellow, I’ll pass along 1/2 pint and a couple of fingers of of thinning agent and I should be good to go. Appreciate it.
The Nova is Super high pigment. Its well worth the price but you can get similar results from the paints Mako mentioned. Nova is great for certain colors but for others its hard to tell vs a dollar store tempra.
If you are actually doing yellow Id forgo the Nova and just use a tempra.
With the less expensive cheaper paints you will have a noticable color fade in a couple of years. Yellow and lighter colors hold up to UV rays better then a dark red. doing a UV stable clear over the art work helps.
There are also a few automotive acylic paints that are UV stable that work great. I have used a lot of the Wicked Color by Createx. Made for doing custom airbrush work for Cars and Motorcycles.
It also depends on the gun and how much you have to thin the paint down. Better quality around, better results. I have found out that with EPS, its beneficial to go a tad heavy on the paint. This really helps seal the blank, and less epoxy etc. But as always there is a fine line between glass adhesion and glass delamination due to all the crap on the blank.
Liquitex and Nova are outstanding. The Michaels stuff, pretty good, but you end up using a lot of it to get good coverage. The last thing you want is a blotchy paint job, and having your board look like someone in there backyard made it.
Appreciate all the comments. The sprayer is a pro so I’m good with that. I chose Nova based on the number of shapers that use them for production. Plus, the lady at Nova was very helpful on the phone and took the time to answer my questions. I’m a sucker for good service albeit at a higher price at times.
The problem with cheap acrylics is that by the time you water it down enough to get it through the gun,
because of its lack of pigments, it takes twice the amount to do the job.
Nova is the best.
It has the best binders on the market.
Binders help it to stick well to the surface.
Helps tremendously when doing multiple tape-offs.
Little pricey, worth every cent.
Been painting surfboards for 30+ yearsIt atkes approx. 16oz. to spray a solid board. (two coats).
Use a touch-up gun. Not a house sprayer.
I saw you mentioned Nova in a post you wrote and tracked them down. Speaking of multiple tape offs, nice work!
…hello BarrySnyder, very clean and functional outline that you have in the first photo.
Viewing the last photo I attach couple with some mystic connotations too.
-I use Temperas; I did not had the best experiences with European Acrylics in Red, Green, Purple, etc never used that Nova brand though…
Almost all the boards that I paint sport deep solid colors and NEVER fade but I apply more than 2 layers.
Surfand spy, what s your thinning agent?? water is the thinning agent…
The thinning agent is a Nova product called “Novaplex 25” meant for their brand of acrylics. Supposed to thin by 25% for spraying the lady informed me.
If you want to say a few pennies and not sacrifice qulity you can do a 50% paint 25% acylic binder like the nova plex or Golden or anyother quality artist paint and 25% water. All are subject to slightly diffreing amounts Paint pluse water is fine with a quality paint.
I just got a Flexio 570 paint sprayer in the mail for my birthday…Anyone used a sprayer like this to paint a board? I was thinking of giving it a shot on this next log I’m going to build…
EDIT: Ooops, just saw Barry’s comment on not using a home sprayer. Oh well.
