Mixing Rustoleum with Rustoleum

[whtbaron]

Well, I JUST did this, three weeks ago,,,
We wanted to paint a steel door, because 6 different carpenters refused to replace the door,, (brick on both sides!!??)

My wife had picked a latex exterior paint, I decided to put a coat of tractor oil based paint on as a "primer"

I thought,, heck, why not try to mix colors, and get the primer "close" to the final color that she wants??
(I had the paints in the shop, left over from other projects)

I mixed
50% Allis Chalmers orange (Valspar paint)
35% International Harvester Red(Majic paint)
15% John Deere green(Rustoleum paint)

I thinned it with a NAPA reducer, CR233 IIRC,,,
and
I added Majic brand hardener, at the recommended rate for Majic paint.

I came within about 10% of the color of what my wife wants,, we may end up staying with this,, as I think the color is appealing more to her, every day.



The paint is perfect,, it hardened within 3 hours, I re-hung the door the same day I painted it.

I see no problem with mixing different enamel paints, even different brands.

It's good when it works, and I've done it often, but mix small amounts first to check for compatibility. I've also mixed brands and seen the whole can turn to curdled Jello. Yes, they were all oil paints.

[Jax]

It's good when it works, and I've done it often, but mix small amounts first to check for compatibility. I've also mixed brands and seen the whole can turn to curdled Jello. Yes, they were all oil paints.

Not any more for me. I mixed 2 oil base paints that weren't dry 2 weeks later.

[SweetMK]

Not any more for me. I mixed 2 oil base paints that weren't dry 2 weeks later.

In my opinion, mixing the paint had little, or nothing to do with the paint not drying.
I worked at a large company at that time, large enough that we had one engineer (with a chemical engineering degree ) that only did "paint".

I told him how I had painted a mini power hacksaw (it used 10" hand hacksaw blades) and 6 months later, the paint was soft enough to leave a fingernail dent in.
THEN, within 24 hours, the fingernail dent would be smooth again.

The paint guy explained to me that enamel paint can "skin over", trapping the solvents in between the paint skin, and the part that was painted.
The only solution was to remove the paint, and repaint the item.
Better quality paints are even better at forming this "skin", the skin is what protects the steel part under the paint from rusting.

Well, I happened to find a USA made 4x6 bandsaw, so, I sold the mini hacksaw to a co-worker.

That guy even tried baking the saw in a kitchen oven, the paint did not harden. He left the paint to stay soft.

After that I was VERY picky about paint thinner that I used. A NAPA paint specialist told me about the NAPA CR233 reducer (and two other NAPA CR2XX reducers)
That reducer evaporates FAST, it is so fast, that the three reducers are designed to work only at a specific temperature.

The CR233 works at around 80 degrees, so, I time my painting so that the temp is near that.

That mini power hacksaw?? I had painted it with the same brand "thinner" as the paint used ,, but,
I had painted it at 65 degrees outside, then moved the hacksaw to a 60 degree basement.
The thinner never was able to evaporate,,

(This trapping of solvent is the exact reason paint companies tell you to apply several thin coats of paint, not one thick coat)

Hmm,, it has been over 30 years, I ought to call that guy, and see if the hacksaw paint ever hardened??
That is,, if the guy is still alive,, it has been 30 years,,


AND,, the paint engineer?? his name was Fred something,, and Fred was still working at over 70 years old.
We had a pension system that was so good, that Fred was loosing money by continuing to work.

I asked Fred,, Why was he still working, which was costing him money??

His answer? His mother-in-law was living with him and his wife,, he could not stand to spend ALL DAY at home with his mother-in-law!!
He had to go somewhere,, and coming to work was the lowest cost place to go,,,

[SlowBlues]

SweetMK, self healing paint you say? any pin holes and scratches will immediately be filled in by fresh paint underneath just waiting to do it's thing!

sounds like you should have charged a premium for the future proof paint job.

[whtbaron]

The old synthetic enamels we painted cars with in the 70's also used a drier. I've seen similar experiences with paint staying soft when they forgot to mix the drier in. Spraying in light 3-4 coats is still a good plan we seldom follow when shooting shop projects in a hurry.

[123weld]

follow the current trend[/U],, - paint the trim "chocolate brown",,,

now, something to keep in mind for the upcoming finished pics, that its pretty much a standard around here, that pics include the designer, posing w/ the work. its best done, in good taste, from a couple different angles. kinda like how vanna white does the letters

[tinspark]

O K, I don't claim to be a painter, but have thrown down my fair share of rattle cans over the years..(as I said not a painter) I was at Home Depot the other day and one of the dudes mixing paint behind the counter who is known in the industry around my parts who knows a lot about paints from another company that he retired from added some black to a can of white and told me that it will be whiter than the white that's in the can . I mentioned that to a painter buddy of mine, cause that made no sense to me. And he said yep, true!!! I said "alrighty then".

I am sticking to welding and rattle cans!! HA!

[whtbaron]

Black or very dark blue? You can have a similar effect in photoshop when you are tinting a photo between shades of blue and yellow.... the blue side of the spectrum will tend to make the picture look brighter and clearer.

[Lis2323]

AND,, the paint engineer?? his name was Fred something,, and Fred was still working at over 70 years old.
We had a pension system that was so good, that Fred was loosing money by continuing to work.

I asked Fred,, Why was he still working, which was costing him money??

His answer? His mother-in-law was living with him and his wife,, he could not stand to spend ALL DAY at home with his mother-in-law!!
He had to go somewhere,, and coming to work was the lowest cost place to go,,,

THAT has gotta be one of the saddest stories (regarding retirement) I've heard.

Right up there with dropping dead soon after starting retirement.


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[SweetMK]

THAT has gotta be one of the saddest stories (regarding retirement) I've heard.

Right up there with dropping dead soon after starting retirement.


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I knew over 6 guys that died within 6 months of retirement,,
In EVERY case, the guys had lived a VERY high stress life at work,, (supervised too many people, too high of a financial responsibility,,, etc.,,, )
I got out of there,, very young,, as soon as my pension was fully vested,,_

[whtbaron]

What he really needed was a heated shop....

[Lis2323]

What he really needed was a heated shop....

Ah... the voice of wisdom. We will have to check in on you in a few years and see how you're doin'.


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[whtbaron]

lol... I'll need to improve the Wifi in the shop...

[SweetMK]

lol... I'll need to improve the Wifi in the shop...

The lack of WiFi causes stress,,
Stress causes,,, (see my post about stress a couple posts back,,,)

The last 26 years of my life has been geared towards living a stress-free life.

[danielplace]

I would not, according to the tech info on Rustoleums website those two paints have different recommendations for the solvent to use with them.

Where did you find that? I came up with all the hazardous product crap but no useful info.

The Farm and Implement recommends acetone for thinning even though it is a mineral spirits solvent paint.

https://www.rustoleum.com/~/media/Di...amels_TDS.ashx

The oil based Gloss Black Rustoleum recommends to only use acetone or mineral spirits.

https://www.rustoleum.com/-/media/Di...Bronze_qt.ashx

Very likely the two could be mixed. One ounce of each whipped up good and allow to sit and if they stay mixed brush some out on piece of cardboard so you can see if color and drying characteristics seem normal.

[SlowBlues]

I believe the main reason they recommend acetone is that acetone is still legal and available in all 50 states.

Acetone is fast flashing (can be good or bad), where as mineral spirits are slower.

It's always recommended to use lighter coats with acetone, because the top can cure and trap solvent (liquid paint) underneath - as discussed in a post further up about soft paint.

The biggest thing about rattle can paint is that it is not mixed enough (shake shake shake) before, and during use.

You really want the solvent (mostly acetone usually, with some mineral spirits to slow drying time enough not to skin over) and the pigment/adhesive/whatever else to mix up on a chemical level, as they are not going to mix up anymore after they leave the can. If the weather is cold warming the can to a warm but still within the safe rang temp helps.

[CAVEMANN]

I believe the main reason they recommend acetone is that acetone is still legal and available in all 50 states.

Acetone is fast flashing (can be good or bad), where as mineral spirits are slower.

It's always recommended to use lighter coats with acetone, because the top can cure and trap solvent (liquid paint) underneath - as discussed in a post further up about soft paint.

The biggest thing about rattle can paint is that it is not mixed enough (shake shake shake) before, and during use.

You really want the solvent (mostly acetone usually, with some mineral spirits to slow drying time enough not to skin over) and the pigment/adhesive/whatever else to mix up on a chemical level, as they are not going to mix up anymore after they leave the can. If the weather is cold warming the can to a warm but still within the safe rang temp helps.

Acetone, Lacquer thinner and fast enamel reducers can flash off too fast and leave a "dry " finish, here in southern Arizona we usually used a slow reducer with a retarder and catalyst, often the acrylic enamels were mixed around 75% paint, the balance was reducer, retarder and catalyst until the last coat & it was mixed with about 75% reducer and "fogged" on, the increase in reducer would cause the enamel to level out and eliminate dry dull lokking paint, this was really true with metallics,some metallics were very opaque and had to be built up in very light coats to prevent runs, I shot a metallic copper/brown that i could,nt shoot a wet coat because it would run..................badly.

[Sberry]

We have a shaker for the sawzall and then soak the rattle cans in hot water.

[Lis2323]

We have a shaker for the sawzall and then soak the rattle cans in hot water.

I have to keep my sawzall for pruning trees.




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[Sberry]

I have a shaker too, use it on occasion.

[Sberry]

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