make your own.

[owendo]

In this day whe you seem to be able to get all the info you want about almost anything why can we not get the formula for a decent make it yourself paint/varnish.

is there a chemist out there that can answer this ?


<hr width=100% size=1>Mike Woodhouse
Vertue V17

 

[Guest]

Original Adm. Manual ...

of Seamanship and other 'old' salty publications of a bygone era had all the 'recipes' for primers, paints and coatings ...... but of course a lot of the components are now banned, expensive, subject to medical review etc. etc.

<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ...
Bilge Keelers get up further ! I only came - cos they said there was FREE Guinness !

 

[vyv_cox]

I doubt that it could be economic for a single user. I have had some slight involvement in making touch-up paints for plastic coatings and even these simple things are surprisingly complex. The solvent can be a blend of at least four different compounds to give the correct drying characteristics that produce the gloss needed. Just one of these, added 1% in the stuff I worked on, is Butyl Oxitol for which the hazard information says:
"Butyl OXITOL is harmful by inhalation, in contact with skin and if swallowed. It is also irritating to respiratory system. " And we haven't started on the resins, pigments, thickeners, curing agents, etc yet.

I think I prefer to buy mine from the chandler, even at their inflated prices.

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[Weatherlawyer]

You won't get the ingredients much cheaper than the finished products available. You certainly won't get the quality control.

Ingredients are easily found on google searches. Antique repairs and chemistry forums might oblige. Most recipe's contain boiled linseed oil and tunge (?) oil. White spirit or meths will act as thinners.

Be careful of disposing of rags as old rags make good tinder and (tunge oil especially) react with air the way manufactured resins do with catalyst. They can heat up to flash-point.

You can use any colouring matter for a dye. Using cloth dye or acrylic colours would be the cheapest. Artists oils are the finest and the use of earths and ores the most stupid if you don't know exactly what you are doing. The main difference between varnishes and paints is the colour. Paint also contains a blocking ingredient to remove transparency. Titanium oxide, I think, is considered the best.

You will almost certainly find recipes for the paints the old masters used on art sites. There has been a great deal of research into that subject for obvious reasons. Having said that some old masters works have been hard treated and still lasted the time well.

Apparently the ancient Egyptian paints that have been found in pyramids etc., are only now starting to discolour.

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