Some Paint Advice

Paint tipping is an acquired skill. It takes practice to develop. Lots and lots of practice. Thousands of square feet of practice.

It can be done with two rollers.
Tip roll in one direction only. Down OR up, left OR right. Not up and down. Change tip rolls often (every thousand sqft).
Roller marked are caused by too much pressure or too much paint. They are NOT caused be too little reduction.

 

Well, we can't see the issue in the photo. I've been painting 2 part LPU's for a decade and I've never heard the expression "solvent pop". Interlux specifies either a "brushing solvent" or a "spraying solvent". The difference is in the evaporation rates. The brushing solvent is a slow evaporating solvent and the spraying solvent flashes off more rapidly. Using the brushing solvent at the concentrations recommended by the manufacturer should give you excellent results. The idea behind the slow evaporating brushing/rolling solvent is to give the paint film time to settle into a nice smooth finish before it starts to cure. Your paint looks to be a bright white. That's the easiest color to roll and tip. Dark colors can be more challenging due to the pigments used and viscosity differences. That's not me talking Interlux tells the customer that in it's instructions.

Jamestown Distributors is a big Epifanes distributor. Why not call them on Thursday? A few years ago I had some questions regarding some Sika products I bought from them. They put me in touch with the technical service rep and he spent about 1/2 hour answering all my questions. I have found that following the manufacturers instructions exactly yields the best results. The people at Epifanes want you to be happy. If the advice you're getting here isn't helping go right to the horses mouth.

have a happy new year,

MIA

 

there are no roller marks

The tipping marks did not lay down..

I apologize if I was unclear.

 

I've had a similar problem with epifanes enamel, rolled and tipped. Came to the conclusion that it was because of the brush I used. The cheap ones with coarse yellow hair that absorbs paint like a sponge. Maybe your cut roller had a similar problem with being too absorbent?

Never been a problem using a good quality expensive varnish brush for tipping (the synthetic kind with very fine tip bristles).

 

Sorry, thought you said that you used two rollers

Same basic issue.
Pressure induces thicker ridges that don't flow out. Tipping is Bairly touching the surface, if bristles bend then there is too much pressure.

Adding solvents speeds up drying time and reduces the wet working time.

Any delay between application and tipping increases drag mark potential.

 

Keep in mind.
ALL paint allocation techniques leave identifying traces on the finished surface. I can always tell how paint was applied.
You haven't tipped hundreds of thousands of sqft yet.
A great tipped job will still have marks. It won't look like polished gelcoat.
Tipping was developed on wooden boats. If the brush marks were less than the wood's grain marks, then a perfect paint job was achieved.

If you desire an absolutely smooth finish, it will require wet sanding and buffing. Not LPU's favorite treatment.

 

thanks, yes

We started today at 76F in the paint room and thinned to 13%. We did have a faster wet edge issue, but the paint did flow better. We are going to cut it to 11% after lunch.

We also changed the tipping brush to a 4" brush. It works okay, but losing a bristle now and then.

I'll post some pictures later.

 

The paint got too thick at the end at a 13% starting rate (by weight).

I was right behind the guy rolling and I could feel it start to thicken.

We threw away the unused paint at the end.

I think this thinner is flashing off really fast and we will run at 15% from here on out.

We did get some runs off a chine, but honestly, I thought I was pulling a bit hard and then figured my thinner rate was too low.

Our environment is controlled. We were about 76F and 40%rh to start. The ending was the same.

pics later today

 

Here are the pics