[GreenKeys] Black "Crackle" paint

[WA5CAB--- via GreenKeys]

Yes.  And I don't know.  My experience with wrinkle finish paint is 
exclusively with US military radios, where its use was limited to cabinets, cases 
and panels.  In most cases, those are no trouble to dismantle, so a 200 F 
baking requirement would not pose any problem.  I have seen the VHT brand 
before but don't think that I have used it, at least not in wrinkle finish.  But 
200 F for 20 minutes could well convert to 130 F for four hours, which would 
be about what I've done here many times using the sun as the heat source.  
I would also bet that it will not be fully cured and hardened in 24 hours.  
I always allow about 7 days before reassembly or packing and shipping and 30 
days for any rough service.

There are several comments that I will add from long experience both as a 
user and a seller of wrinkle finish paint.  You should always practice a bit 
with something vaguely similar that the results on don't matter.  You will 
find, for example, that if you paint a box with relatively square corners, 
you will probably get pretty good results the first time out in the flats.  
Except that if you have any holidays they will be slick, not wrinkled.  But 
all of the edges and corners will be slick.  To successfully paiint a 6-sided 
cube, you would have to have some way of suspending it in mid-air so that 
you could also paint the bottom.  Fortunately, this is very seldom necessary 
as one side is almost always either open (most cabinets) or doesn't matter 
(no one ever gets to see the bottom).  So that leaves 5 sides.  But you must 
paint it as though it had 13 sides..  You paint the 4 sides plus top, plus 
you paint the 8 edges at 45 degrees to the sides and/or top.  This isn't 
usually necessary with gloss or semi-gloss finishes as they will tolerate a 
fairly large build variation ("build" is a name for the wet coating thickness at 
any point).  With wrinkle, you must also get a uniform build on the corners 
or edges.  This isn't at all intuitive, especially for people who have done 
a lot of painting with none-wrinkle finish paints.  The other two rules 
should also be applied to any spray paint application but are super critical 
with wrinkle.  Never have paint coming out of the nozzle if the nozzle isn't in 
motion parallel to and at a constant distance from the surface it is 
pointed at.  And always move the nozzle only at right angles to the fan shaped 
spray pattern.  Determine the fan orientation before you start actually 
applying paint.  Usually the fan is vertical, so you want to move the nozzle 
horizontal.  Except that to paint vertical corners you need to rotate the nozzel 
90 deg. left or right so that the fan is horizontal.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480

In a message dated 04/30/2015 13:01:05 PM Central Daylight Time, 
dave.g4ugm at gmail.com writes: 
> This the stuff?
> 
> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281516656057
> 
> So I will to dismantle and bake to get the proper look?
> 
> Dave
> 
>  
> 
> From: GreenKeys [mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of 
> WA5CAB--- via GreenKeys
> Sent: 30 April 2015 16:31
> To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Black "Crackle" paint
> 
>  Why not just repaint it black wrinkle (technically, crackel or krackel 
> finish is something different - except for colour it looks like a dried mud 
> flat - smooth level finish with cracks running around through it - most 
> commonly found on two or three models of BC-312 and BC-342, -D at least, plus 
> most vintage General Radio test equipment).  At least, black wrinkle finish 
> is still sold here in the States.  Unfortunately, Hazmat regs make it cost 
> prohibitive to just mail you a couple of cans.
> 
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