Into a large container like a 5 gallon paint pail:
Empty 1 gallon bucket of DAP Fast N Final LW Spackle
with a 1/2 gallon of NC gesso (You can use a good white exterior flat acrylic house paint instead of gesso).
Mix with one of those mixing drill attachments:
If the mix is too thick, add some water to get it to the consistency of a milk shake.
This works for me, though I’m sure there’s other variations of this recipe on that work just as well.
Very cool formula!
Howzit atomized, If using the white paint I suggest a few drops of black to set the color or it may turn yellow, old trick I learned from a house painter. I can't imagine the cost of that much gesso. Aloha,Kokua
Thanks a lot. What about mixing Nova Color paints? Do you just use water?
Generally, I add enough water so it looks like it’s about the consistency of pea soup, to shoot through a spray gun.
A lot of it has to do with what kind of spray equipment you’re using, room temp, relative humidity, and the surface you’re painting.
Airbrushes: more water.
Hot dry days: more water.
Cold rainy days and sanded hotcoat sprays: less water.
If you buy Gesso or any kind of “Artist” paint from any art store you’re going to get totally reamed on the price.
Nova Color keeps the price down by selling direct to the customer.
I get the stuff in 5 gallon pails @ $115 from NC, which is in the same range of what you’d pay for a high quality exterior paint.
Don’t know about adding black to white to avoid the the paint yellowing.
Never had that problem.
Howzit atomized, Nova is the best by far, for 5 gals of white just add 1/2 oz black. isn't enough to change the white color but it won't yellow, you have beenlucky so far as to not have the yellow monster raise his head since he is out there just waiting when it comes to pure white paint and II have seen hm.Aloha,Kokua
Kokua, I’m planning on spackling the blank as atomised advises ( fast 'n ’ final with white acrylic) and then spraying the bottom of the board white (rails and deck yellow and fades) and it sounds a good tip from you but sure makes me nervous, there is enough of a learning curve with eps/epoxy for me over pu/polyester as it is 
but cheers for the tip!
Howzit surferden, I learned that trick from a pro house painter who told me about kitchen and bathroom cabinets turning yellow after a few years. White has no color to it and the black ( you can use blue or red also to make the white cool or warm) sets the white so it won't yellow. JUst 2 more cents.Aloha,Kokua
I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one.
You mention that you learned this “from a pro house painter who told me about kitchen and bathroom cabinets turning yellow after a few years”.
Well, until the development of water based and water bourne acrylic enamel coatings, cabinets and furniture where traditionally painted with oil based enamel paints.
Oil based paints will yellow.
The “yellowing” occurs because the fatty acids in the oil based binder of the paint oxidize when exposed to light. This becomes more pronounced through time.
True acrylic emulsion paints don’t have that problem.
As far as the problem with yellowing or browning in surfboards go, polyester resin and epoxy resin as well as polyurethane foam and to a lesser degree styrofoam, will yellow when exposed to UV light.
In order to mitigate this, UV inhibtors and optical brightners are added to the chemical formulations of the products.
Atomized thank you for the fact’s!
Hey atomised, you sure are a star with your help and I never thought about spraying the spackle, makes complete sense and this what I will do, I’m buying a couple of production guns, one for spackle, one for paint, brilliant tip, I’ll experiment with the consistantcy of the spackle, this should produce a far better finish on the blank and make sanding easier…cheers…SD
Another thought, I am probably spackling the blank and spraying acrylic but Tris here reckons on me using a 10oz volan bottom, 2 x stepped wrapped 10oz volan deck/rails (14ft board) As we know volan gives a greenish/darker glass job, so what do you think about epoxy sandcoat after glassing and then spraying the sanded board with acrylic and sealing with a polyester gloss coat, do you experience any starring/delamination with your poly gloss through the odd knock or is it exceptable enough when this happens?
I apply the slurry mix with a squeegee. I’ve also have tried spraying it on, and found that it was difficult to get the slurry to fill the small gaps between the beads of the EPS.
I prefer to do most or all of the paint job on the blank. I will do some of the painting on the sanded hot coat if needed, for example pinline work around an inlayed fabric panel.
Paint on the rail extremities and over hard edges are a real challenge for the guy polishing the gloss. It’s difficult avoiding burning through the gloss into the paint. One has to be really careful.
The trick with doing polyester glosses, is to do it on a freshly sanded hot coat. As far as starring/delaminating -haven’t seen any of that. Most commonly the gloss will chip over a ding. That can be easily be taken care of when you fix the ding.
Even though Volan can be free lapped, it’s usually cut lapped. Doing cutlaps with epoxy can be challenging. The guy who does resin color with epoxy, actually grind the glass down to the tape edge with a mini disk angle grinder instead of trimming it with a blade.
Ok, this is all great info! Very happy to NOT mess stuff up all the time, so thanks for the tips, I’m sure there’s still much of the fine tuning needed even w/this expert advice. Experience helps tons, I hope I’m getting closer to less errors, more smoothly executed sprays. Especially taping and multi colors.
SO, here’s today’s question, does all this apply to PU foam? Besides the spackling? Do all the additives, binders, etc still work well with that type of foam? Or is there another vocabulary for better bonding with PU production…?
Many thanks for any info, I’m going to look around for previous threads (so sorry if it’s all already out there).
Howzit atomized, Thanks for the heads up, the painter never went intospecifis about it being oil based or waterbased, But I will say that when doing flourecents it does help them from fading ( they definitely fade and fast)and it also makes for some interesting hues to the colors. I started adding some black to floral green and when done right it looks really nice. Aloha,Kokua
This thread is amazing!! You guy’s are awesome. I’m headed to the store right now to get some acrylic paint to add to my spackle. Stoked.
Cheers
Hi guys,
I’m setting up to experiment with spraying. I can’t seem to find Future Floor anywhere in the UK, what would be a decent alternative?
Thanks, love the thread, old but gold!
Harry
WJS-Similar question (mine) and info here: http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/water-based-clear-coat-air-brushed-blank
Thanks J, really appreciate it.