Keep the shin of the paint

[Chris Bjornen]

How do you keep the shine of the paint when you are painting on metal..
I have engraved down some letters in metal and painted the letters but when i'm whiping of the excess of the paint, i damage the paint finish shine..
I'm whiping with tecnical spirit.
Pardon my english, I'm from Norway..

-Chris

[Howard Acheson]

Why are you wiping it? Paint is normally applied and then given time to dry. You don't wipe it.

Are you using an oil based paint or a waterborne paint? What are you trying to accomplish?

[Jim Becker]

Howie...it sounds like his engraved letters are in relief and he's getting the paint into them "normally" and then trying to clean off the excess on the surface of the piece.

Chris, could you wait until the paint is cured and then remove it mechanically (scrape) from the metal surface followed by a polish?

[Chris Bjornen]

If i scrape, I just damage the metal/steel(scrape marks).And when i have and order of 30 signs it takes some time to scrape them all and still keep a 100% finish..
I'm using a Oil based paint.Even if i wait an hour or so, i still damage the shiny top of the paint..it get's kinda like a desert landscape look..dry and not the wet look.

[Jim Becker]

Perhaps the etching needs to be deeper to retain enough paint during/after wiping excess.

[Howard Acheson]

I have no solutions but here are some comments and suggestions.

First, oil based paint takes a number of days to fully cure. It gets non-sticky in a couple of hours when the thinners evaporate from the surface. But, there is a second reactive curing process that fully hardens the paint. If your are trying to remove material in a couple of hours, you are just going to damage the surface of the paint and it will loose its smoothness and shine.

If the depressions that hold the paint are more than a couple of thousands deep, the thickness of the paint in the depressions becomes a problem. Because of the thickness, the paint will take a very long time to harden. It could be 3-4 weeks. If you have deep depressions, you should be using a two part finish like an epoxy paint which creates heat as it cures and will fully cure within a few hours.

No matter which finish you use, you might consider applying the finish and then immediately using a squeegee (what is used to clean the water off windows). This should remove all the finish from the part that is not to be colored. It would be worth a try.

A final note, unless you let the finish fully cure, you will not be able to do any work on it. Any sanding, scraping or polishing will damage the shine on the paint. Even then, you will need to first level the painted surface and then polish it using a polishing compound.