[Hallicrafters] Paint formulas

[Glen Zook]

The latex acrylic paint is fine.  However, you definitely do NOT want to handle the finished product for between 48 and 72 hours.  The paint may be "dry to the touch" in just a few minutes.  But, it takes 2 to 3 days for the paint to really harden and up to a week to become fully "cured".

What I normally do is to paint the object and then VERY carefully put it in a place where no one is going to touch it for at least 48 to 72 hours.  I don't like to ship a cabinet before about a full week has expired between when the item was painted and when it is packed to ship.

I avoid spray cans "like the plague" unless there is no alternative when doing the actual painting.  Now when priming, I have had no problems with using a spray can.  But, for the final coat I definitely do not like to use a spray can.  It is just too difficult to get an even coat without runs, "hot spots", etc. when using a spray can.

I guess that I am "lucky" in the fact that I live in a major metropolitan area (the Dallas, Texas, area) and both my local Sherwin-Williams store (about 2 miles from my house) and their major warehouse which deals with many of the electronics manufacturing firms is located about 10 miles from my house.  There are certain types of paint that are only available from the warehouse (and they definitely do custom mixing at the warehouse).

The last paint that I got over at the warehouse was for a Collins KWM-1.  I took the cabinet over there to get it matched and the technician started to do the matching.  Then he got a "brilliant idea" and went back into the storage area and came out with 2 cans of paint.  One of those, ASA 61, was the EXACT color that Collins used on the KWM-1.  The result was that I didn't have to wait for the color to be mixed and, since ASA 61 is a very popular color, the paint was actually cheaper.

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com