I put a tinted epoxy pinline on my board after it has been hotcoated and sanded to 100 grit, with the idea that I will sand both board and pinline to 150 before glossing. However, the pinline turned out to be far more raised up from the board than I thought. I tried to blend it in somewhat, but it started becoming see-through in places where it was too thin (which I should have expected). I sanded the whole thing off and am about to redo the pinline with acrylic paint. My question is: what should I expect from the acrylic pinline? will it be raised up somewhat? will it need a light sanding? how much of a “bump” can the glosscoat cover evenly? In hindsight, I might have been able to leave the epoxy pinline alone if the glosscoat does a good job at covering bumps, but somehow I don’t think thats the case.
Tactile feel of a poly resin pinline is a feel not soon forgotten…
Sand hot in direction of pinline, at least to 180, 220 preferred.
Use pigment, not tints.
can’t give you any help with the acrylic, but for the resin pin it is expected that it remain elevate (slight bump) in the finished board. That is partly why you do resin pins in the first place. Otherwise use posca or paint…
A tip before you pinline, sand in the direction of the pin line prior to doing the tapeoff and pin. Cross grain/scratches can give a path for runs. Even the little sanding scatches. It is kind of in the vaine of working with the grain.
I would think this applies to painted pins too.
One of the best resin pinline tips I’ve used was given here on swaylocks. If I’m going to do a gloss coat I just sand with 80 grit. They tape off the pinlines and apply a “ceater coat” of clear lam resin to the pinline with my finger. When it kicks, paint the pinline with colored gloss resin. Pull the tape after pinlines have kicked to the hardness of cheese. Works great, saves time sanding.
I posted that note about the “cheater coat”. Three items I’l reiterate here about resing pins…
One, I wet sand the area to receive the pin with 220 grit.
Two, the cheater coat is clear UV cure lam resin, so this step takes only minutes and for me, it has been the major secret to a nice pinline.
Three, I pull the tape AS SOON AS the brushing is done. If you wait, the resin may get “stringy” (or worse, gel) and as it thickens, it has more time to seek its way under that carefully taped edge. If the resin starts to set, give large odds that the pinline will look like crap, as too much gelling resin wants to stay on the board, or too much wants to “chunk” off with the tape. A nightmare. Leads to strong language, big delays, and sanding it all off. I don’t want to go over both sides of the pinline with an xacto knife, cleaning off feather edge, ever again. BTDT, got the video, T-shirt and sticker, don’t want to do it ever again.
Really, once you’ve got the process, nice resin pins are well within everyone’s abilities, AS LONG AS YOU’RE CAREFUL ALL THE WAY.
Thank you very much to all who answered my questions.
I went with acryclic paint after I had sanded off the original resin pinline, and I’ve been applying multiple thin coats and letting each one dry in between coatings. I have now painted on 3 coats yet the pinline is still somewhat transparent, which kinda defeats the purpose of using pinlines to hide cutlap imperfections. I was wondering if this is expeced and I just need to apply a few more thin coats, or if I have bad quality paint. Also, I believe I read you can make a color more opaque by mixing in a small drop of black, is this true?
when doing acrylic pinlines, you should be using Liquitex High Viscosity Acrylic Paint straight from the tube. spread it on, pull tape immediately, and let it dry. watch the video on Rich Harbour’s website if you’d like to see it done. here is a link to the type of paint (which should be available at any craft store) – http://www.liquitex.com/Products/painthivisartcol.cfm