We Hate It When Our Paints Become Unsuccessful

Sean answers a listeners question about the ever changing quality of materials including the new One Shot Low VOC formula.

Transcription:

Coming to you from Starr Studios in Denison, Texas, this is Coffee with a Signpainter, a weekly podcast hosted by sign painter, Sean Starr, that consists of interviews with other sign painters and some of the customers and characters Sean comes across while running his studio. Okay. I'd like to welcome everybody back to Coffee with a Signpainter. Today, we are going to be answering a listener's question. I'm not sure if everyone knows about this, but on the podcast website, which is seanstar.com, We've got, an app on the website that allows you to record questions, for myself or one of the guests to answer.

So feel free to do so. We, we've gotten up to listeners in 65 countries now, so not really even sure how that happens, but, very cool. Okay. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna we're gonna roll the listener's question, and then I'm gonna dive in and try to answer it to the best of my ability. So listener's question.

Here we go. Alright, boss. So here's my question. I was basically wondering if you could, kinda give a breakdown of how you prep boards for exterior work. I mean, I have, a couple of different ways that I do it, but I I love learning from, from folks that, actually know what they're doing.

It's kind of like if you, like, say, like, you know, you order a piece of MDO, you cut it down, and how do you how do you seal and prep your edges, and then kind of like go through and you know start to finish like how you how you prep your boards and and then maybe just sort of like a rundown of how you think about layout. But really what I'm interested in is is the materials. What sorts of materials are you using? What materials will last? Because I've been hearing lots of talk about, Novacolor and, you know, folks that use exterior house paint, as opposed to enamels and stuff like that.

So I'm just curious your take on on that debate, but, I'd really like to just hear about the way you go about prepping exterior boards and panels and walls, that sort of thing, if that's something you could possibly do. So, alright. Thanks, man. Bye. Okay.

of all, great question. I'd like to, thank the listener, and that's, Caetano Valenzuela that sent that in. Yeah. It's a great question. There's multilayers to the question I will try to answer to the best of my ability.

Okay. Starting off with your question my opinion of MDO is that the quality has just dropped so much in the last ten to fifteen years. I I don't use it hardly at all anymore. The reason why is I've had I've had multiple instances where it would delaminate, and you'd end up with, what looked like, large bubbles, where it's separated from the different layers of the plywood, that paper layer on the top. So, not 100% sure if this is accurate, but this is what one of the wood suppliers told me, is that all, of that type of material now comes from Eastern Europe, and, there's just been a concerted effort year after year to lower the cost.

So what he said, was was happening is, they would just cut cheaper and cheaper glues, so that when the all of the stacked layers of the plywood are put together, They're putting less glue. They're putting cheaper glue. Some of it has to do with, environmental regulations about the glues they're able to import through the wood into The US. Again, I don't even know if this is accurate, if he was just making an excuse, but that was that was my experience over and over with MDO, which is a real shame because, many of us used it for many, many years. So what that's led me to do is to work more and more with, furniture grade plywood, different types of, birch, for instance.

A lot of the work that we do here, you know, we try to incorporate wood grain and texture into it whenever we can because it adds a lot of depth to it. So, that works out well for that, but that's also led to a wide variety of experimenting with, primers and different kind of things to get the finish that we want. So that's kind of a roundabout way of answering your question. But the way that we prep those boards is basically the same is to how we prepped MDO for years, which is, you know, after the wood is is cut to shape, it's sanded and then we apply multiple layers of primer and then we go ahead and paint in the background. And depending on what we're painting, we either try to end up with a really smooth finish or will allow some texture to be on it.

But, you know, this this all leads to a larger I don't know if problem is the right word, but it's a it's a larger thing that's happened and is happening, in the trade, which is just the the the change in quality in materials is, has just dropped year after year. And I think it's just, it's part of our culture where everything, is looked at to to be seen. How do we make this, the cheapest and sell the most of it? You know, it's the Walmart mentality. And it's it's starting to, you know, take it take its effect in a lot of different ways.

It's one of the reasons that I, really love, working on glass with, with gold leaf and other things, which again, gold leaf the quality of gold leaf has, dropped dramatically. But glass is still glass. And, you know, so, you can even go to the lumber yard and, pull straight up, you know, pine boards off the shelf. And they're, you know, it's really hard to find straight boards anymore. You know, I think the processes have just been so They've pushed to streamline them so much and make them so cheap.

And increase corporate profits so much that, you know, we're getting the bottom of the barrel at this point, so when it comes to wood, you know, the the MDO plywood, for instance, I I've looked for other alternatives and that, you know, maybe others in other parts of the country, have access to different material than what I've worked with in recent years, in California and here in Texas. I don't know. But, yeah. I'm just not a fan at this point. But the good thing is is that's pushed me to be more creative.

I've probably produced, a pretty good handful of wood signs in the last five years that I wouldn't have thought to try because, you know, I've I've gotten outside that, that traditional cut out MDO type approach, and that's allowed me to paint on a lot of other wood surfaces including reclaimed barwood, barnwood, and a lot of other things that, is is made for some more creative sign work. So, for instance, one thing that, I still consistently use we're working on a sign right now here in the in the studio, is, we we reclaim, old fence pickets Down here in the South, they've got a lot of, cedar fencing, which, as you know, cedar is a a great material for longevity. And, when people go to replace their fence, they just have this massive amount of these pickets. And so, we'll periodically scoop some of those up. A lot of times you can get them free on Craigslist, and, we'll get those cleaned up.

We'll we'll sand them so the wood gets a little bit more clean and gets rid of that gray look. And and then we've got a a natural barn wood looking surface to paint on that we can, you know, make our our sign surface out of. But again, I mean, that's only gonna really Really work out when you've got something rustic or or, You know that that requires that natural would look so there's my answer to the MDO thing. As far as excuse me. As far as materials go in general, this brings up paint.

I think you mentioned paint in your question, about the, the house paints. I was resistant to house paint at Now I use it whenever I can. House paint is designed and developed to last outdoors for decades. So might not last the full thirty years that the manufacturers claim. It might depends on the direction of the exposure, but, you know, I it's been my experience that that will outlast sign painting enamels on an enormous level, especially when you start getting into colors like reds, and you're in a in a high UV exposure area like the South or the West Coast.

And so that has, also, led to, some excitement on my part is regarding one shot lettering enamel. As most of you know, they got bought out, and now they're under the umbrella of, Matthews paint. And, I ordered several of the cans of the, the low VOC that they're, having to sell in California now and was, you know, gritting my teeth because as, again, many of you know, one shot, as a company has messed with its formula multiple times over the last however many years. And, virtually every time it's been a step backwards, and there's been a lot of issues that, have frustrated us. However, when I opened up, a can of the low VOC one shot, the smell of the paint is identical to, to the Matthews paint.

And I had opportunity about five years ago, a Matthews paint rep came into my studio in California and, gave me several courts of the Matthews paint and some other of their hardeners and some other stuff to give, give it a try. And, I was thrilled. The quality was amazing. However, at that time, even though they claimed you could do lettering with a lettering quill with it, there was no way it was like the, the thickness of, of milk. And, there was no way they, the, the rep claimed that there were people at Disney, using it to do hand lettering, but there's I I couldn't see how it'd be possible.

It was so thin. But we did a lot of sample boards, and we did a lot of sample boards that we stuck out in the direct sun for a long time so we could kinda keep an eye on it. And, man, that stuff held up great. So I was really excited when I opened up the new one shot low VOC, and it smelled exactly the same. And then when I started to work with it, it it it felt the same as working with one shot.

But I'm hopeful that, the, the quality of, Matthews has combined with the consistency of one shot. That would be a great thing, but time will tell. They might have ended up, you know, messing with it in such a way that it it doesn't hold up. I don't know. But, I'm very optimistic about it because, you know, as much as we all love one shot and that's been the standard and everything else, you know, this is our livelihood.

We go out and we paint something on somebody's building and it starts, fading or peeling or doing whatever that reflects on us. They don't they're not gonna care, you know, where'd you buy your paint from? So, yeah, that that's a that's a concern. But as far as, the house paint, we we used Sherwin Williams for years. That's just a particular favorite of mine.

I've got their color books. And although that you have to make a few changes, to your brushes, we use a lot of angled fitches on that kind of work. But yeah, the house paint any day of the week on a wall, I will I will use that. As far as the the window stuff goes, that's, I think, still the same. I mean, that's, letterhead sign supply, Ron Purcell's place, out in California, sells all of that material, and we use the same typical stuff everybody else does for that.

But, so, yeah, that's that's where I'm at. The whole materials thing. It's caused concern over the years, but at the same time, like I said, I I think it's pushed the creative envelope because I think I've painted on a lot of different materials and experimented with things that I might not have if it was the same just, you know, pull a sheet of MDO off the shelf and prime and paint it kind of thing. You know, I I I think it's a good thing for all of us to, be pushed a little, by change. And I've complained about change before on this show, but, you know, in in the human experience sense of things, I think it's, I think it's a good thing.

It it makes us, stop the routine and stop the status quo and makes us adapt to whatever it is we're we're being, being hit by, and that's, that's good for us. That allows us to, improve and develop new skills. So, yeah. So that that would be my recommendation, I guess, for everybody is, if you're getting fed up with something, if you're not liking, type of material you're painting on, try something else. You know, there's a lot of, a lot of different things you can, develop.

I think that's one of the great exciting aspects of sign painting that's kept me going and a lot of others is, you can work for years, let's say, just on plywood signs and then, you start tinkering with glass and gold leaf, and you start realizing, woah. I I know nothing really about that. So then you could spend another ten, fifteen years just really getting good at that. Okay. Well, that's gonna be the show for today.

I really appreciate Catano's question, and, we've got lots of new guests lined up that we'll be interviewing in, the near future. So stay tuned and we will talk to you guys next week. In the meantime, if you've not tried the sign painters blend coffee from Full City Rooster, definitely give that a try. We, shared that with some friends over the weekend that, really, really loved it. So, people like it.

Go get it. Alright. We'll see you next week. Today's episode of Coffee with a SoundPainter is brought to you by Full City Rooster Coffee Roasters in Dallas, Texas, roasting distinctive coffees from around the world. Sean drinks Full City Rooster Coffee every day in the studio.

You can order their coffee online at full city rooster dot com. Thanks for listening to Coffee with a SignPainter, hosted by Sean Starr. You can find all sorts of info about the show and sign painting including previous episodes at our website, seanstarr.com.