Painting

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Neidrauer Adventures and Photo Album » Building a Live Steam Locomotive - the Mikado Project » Painting

Another non-print section, but another milestone event. Parts have been Prepared, Primered and Painted.

26-Aug-08 The weather in St. Louis continues to be unseasonably mild for August, so I continue to mix paint and shoot locomotive parts for the big Mikado engine before the temperature and humidity get too high.

Here's good news for Mom and Dad: I really used that model 'F' Paasche airbrush you bought me 25 years ago! A couple of weekends ago I painted many of the little tiny parts, spending more than 20 hours prepping, priming and then painting with the black acrylic automotive paint. Using my HPLV gun, I learned on the fly to set the paint flow rate and the spray pattern (somewhat). Still, a big spray gun in the hands of a beginner trying to shoot all the nooks and corners was challenging, particularly trying to get paint in between all the spokes of the wheels.

My first attempt had thin spots with the primer showing through. Talking with my friend Mark M., I was going to borrow his touch-up gun when he offered to loan me his airbrush for the detail work. What a great idea! I modified a quick-disconnect fitting in the lathe to attach to the airbrush hose and plugged it into the big compressor. Boy, that big tank sure beats those little tiny cans of 'Propel'.

Last night I mixed a small batch of black paint (8 oz.) and filled the 1 oz siphon cup (with an eyedropper siphon), cranked the compressor up and got into all the small spaces. Here's a difference between a traditional siphon gun and a HPLV gun: 25 psi of pressure. I was running the big HPLV gun at 5 psi, the little Paasche was 30 psi! I hit most of the parts again, covering the thin spots up and getting about 5 oz. of paint down before the 2 hour working life of the paint expired.

Feeling inspired by the success of the little spray brush, and worried that the humid mass of air from the gulf tropical storms pushing into St. Louis would close my painting window for another month or two, I decided to put a coat of paint on the locomotive frame, cylinders and trailing truck chassis using the big gun. I can't move these heavy pieces around like the little parts, so I moved the painting setup around for stationary parts, mixed a new batch of paint, practiced a little more with the big gun getting a smaller spray pattern and put several coats of paint on before my paint window closed. By the time I finished cleaning up it was midnight, the humidity had rising from 56% to 82% and I was very tired. I'll have to roll the frame over and paint the other side when I get a chance.

Hmmm. Amazing how the clutter in the background just jumps out in a photograph of the Frame, Cylinders and Trailing truck in black. 26-Aug-08

After spending several hours cleaning and bolting the cylinder covers on, the cylinder casting has been primered. Bill was disappointed that I painted the shiny brass covers.

More painted parts hanging on the 'drying rack' I'm happy with the paint job, only a few areas need touching up.

Hmm. Black parts on a black background. So maybe I'm a better machinist than photographer. But the fact that the parts are Black bears witness to the work!

Sunday 17-Aug-08. I take the plunge and fire up the HPLV gun, mix the single-stage Sherwin-Williams Acrylic Enamel automotive paint and start painting!

Check out the shelving full of primered parts! This represents three spray cans of etching primer and a full days work.

Saturday, 16-Aug-08 Parts is Parts. I spent the day Prepping and Priming all the little parts. I realized that it would take a very long time to hook and paint each part individually, so I created two racks to hold the parts and wired them together to make things simpler.

Oh I am excited just to look at this picture of the wheels and trailing truck in primer gray! We have had unusually cool temperatures and low humidity for St. Louis in August and I have been seized by the moment to get some paint put on bare metal! 15-Aug-08

Drying rack for parts in primer. Taking a tip from something I saw at a commercial paint/coatings business my best friend Ted S. worked at, I create my own parts drying rack from a spare furnace filter basket and some hooks from scrap aluminum ground wire. I have a hanging hook to the left where the part is painted, then it is moved to the rack for drying. The primer I am using is some awsome self-etching Sherwin-Williams automotive primer good for steel, aluminum and stainless steel metals, all of which I have on this locomotive.

The Frame is Primed. 10-August-2008

The back of the locomotive frame

The front of the locomotive is at the top. This is a hard thing to photograph with my ancient Cannon S200 ELPH. The frame from bumper to bumper is 6 feet long!