Painting Birch Ply

[Mike Racine]

Have been tasked to build a doll house for the gran kids. Its going to be 72H x 48W x 24D. Yeah it’s a big one.

Going with Birch ply and my thought pattern is doing a SealCoat sealer then paint. SealCoat is oil based so do I need to go over that with an oiled base paint? I've never used SealCoat before.

I got to keep in mind it will be in a kids’ room come Dec and I don’t need any “fumes” if you get my drift lol

Thoughts

[Paul F Franklin]

SealCoat is shellac dissolved in alcohol. You can certainly top coat it with water borne paint or other finish. I personally don't see much advantage to using sealcoat under the paint, I'd be more inclined to just use a high quality sandable primer under the paint.

[John TenEyck]

BIN shellac based pigmented primer would be a great primer under most any paint if you can spray. If you can't then use a waterbased primer recommended by the paint manufacturer. And use a waterborne paint to avoid lingering odor. Oil based paint will stink for months.

John

[Mike Racine]

Ok. Ill pick up some BIN. Research shows its some of the best stuff out there. Should be for the price lol

[Jim Becker]

Hit the material with fine abrasive, preferably while it's still flat so you knock off any "fuzzy" before you do your finishing regimen. Hit it will 320 after the Sealcoat and you should end up with a nice, smooth finish if you use quality paint.

[Tom M King]

BIN has been my standard forever, until I was in a race to do some changes in our house, in short preparation for my 104 year old Mother moving in with us. I had some Sherwin Williams Wood & Wall (those words might be the other way around) left over from another job. It was almost dark the evening I sprayed the primer on the doors. I thought they would probably require a lot of sanding the next morning, and maybe some damage from dew, since I had sprayed them outside. I just tilted them on edge in the rotisseries, and left them outside overnight.

The next morning, I only had to sand out a couple of tiny insect tracks, and the doors were ready for the finish coat. I sprayed them about 8 that morning, hung them at 10, and we had my Mom back home by Noon.

I don't know if I was getting outside help, but those doors came out about as good as possible, with about 10 seconds of sanding. I'll try it again.

Finish paint was some Home Depot paint, because I didn't have time to go anywhere else to get something different. I just asked for their best water based interior semi-gloss, and didn't even notice what she gave me.

[Paul F Franklin]

BIN has been my standard forever, until I was in a race to do some changes in our house, in short preparation for my 104 year old Mother moving in with us. I had some Sherwin Williams Wood & Wall (those words might be the other way around) left over from another job. (snip).

SW premium wall and wood primer has been my go-to for any interior "house" painting, especially on new sheetrock. Just buy it when it's on sale.... And it works great on MDF too.

[John TenEyck]

Might it have been SW's Emerald Urethane Trim Paint, Tom? That stuff sprays great. It's similar to BM's Advance but dries and cures much quicker. It's fast becoming my favorite interior paint. But now that I think about it, it's rated for both interior and exterior use.

SW's Wall and Wood primer is nice stuff but really, really thick, so you can't spray it w/o thinning unless you use an airless rig. That's why I like BIN pigmented shellac based primer. The viscosity is very friendly for spraying, even in a gravity feed gun. Also, Lenmar makes an excellent WB primer (called Undercoater, IIRC) that's incredibly cheap at around $38/gal. I think the viscosity is even lower than BIN.

John

[Tom M King]

It was whatever the high end Home Depot stuff was. I never even looked at the can. I did use airless. I have a gallon of that SW paint for the rental house, but haven't done anything with it yet.

[Mike Racine]

Locally all I could find is Kiltz Oil base primer. One can with the low odor other red can as reg oil base. Any huge difference in the BIN and Kiltz besides the shellac addition?

[John TenEyck]

Locally all I could find is Kiltz Oil base primer. One can with the low odor other red can as reg oil base. Any huge difference in the BIN and Kiltz besides the shellac addition?

Well, yeah, one is oil based and the other is alcohol based. If you are spraying I would NOT use an OB product. The overspray will make a huge sticky mess on everything it lands on. It will take a long time to dry and stink up the place while it does. It probably will be hard to sand after it dries, too.

If you have a SW or BM in the area visit one and get their WB products. I think I mentioned earlier that Lenmar's WB Undercoater sprays great, sands easily, and is really cheap at about $40. You can buy it at BM. If you don't have either store locally, then order BIN from Amazon. $60 to your door with Prime.

John

[Mike Racine]

Finally found me a can of the BIN so I will be using that. 45.00 a gal but its suppose to be good stuff.. Hope so

[John TenEyck]

Most good ones are more Mike.

John