Re: urethane paint
Wow, well, let's see if I can remember. I made it two years ago but that's OK. The box was made of half inch Luan and all of that is pretty straight forward. We took a router to it and put a quarter inch radius cut on all the edges. After that the cutouts were made for the store-bought inserts and fronts for the actual storage system. I got them (one holds 4 trays and the other holds 2) from Cabellas as I recall. Then I glassed it. I first gave it a good painted coat of straight epoxy using slow set hardner. I use Raka epoxy by the way. Then, within 24 hours, I put one layer of very fine woven cloth on it. I believe it was 1.2 oz biaxle but it might have been as high as 2 oz. At any rate it was fine as silk. Really nice stuff. I bought about 10 yards of it from a guy on E-Bay and still have some left for special progects where you want a smooth finish. Anyway as soon as that set up I hit it with home made fairing compound (West Systems 410 Microlite filler and Raka's epoxy).<br /><br />I sanded it fair and then primed it with their Brightsides Primer before going to their Brightsides top coat.<br /><br />Rolling and Tipping: Here's the deal on that. Everyone has used a roller to paint the walls of a house, but that's not exactly what you would call fine finishing. We all think of spray for fine finish but in truth spray has its problems too and if you're painting a large thing like a boat and you're forced to do it outside its a lot easier for most folks to just use a roller. Thing is you have to learn to use a roller in a new way.<br /><br />When you roll and tip you can get a great finish. What happens is that as the roller applies and evens the distribution of paint it leaves small sort of dimples in the surface. That is why a plain rolled surface looses some of its shine. So what you have to do is to knock down that little dimple so it all lays flat. If you do that the much smoother finish can actually approach what you'd get from spray.<br /><br />So here's what you're doing and how to do it. First off you need a roller that doesn't sop up and try to apply so much paint that it runs or sags. So a short napped roller is in order. The ones you want are Corona Glasskoter in mohair. You can get them in as little as 3/16" or 1/4" nap and that is perfect for top coats. They come in 7" or 9" lengths. I used the shorter ones for this job.<br /><br />You then need a good brush of a width that allows you to keep good control of it. I like one of about 2" myself. Any wider and there is to much chance of applying pressure by accident with it.<br /><br />Now, here's what you do. You clean out the roller first to get the dust out - do this with reducer or whatever (acetone works). Then put very little paint onto the roller and apply it to the surface. Put on as little paint as you possibly can, while getting complete coverage. Thinner coats are better coats. Use the roller to physically carry the paint to the surface and then to evenly distribute it. The job of the roller is only to do that - even distribution of the thinest coat of paint you can get to cover the surface. Then as soon as you have finished the spread with the roller make one pass lightly with it in one direction only. As soon as you have done this put down the roller and get out the brush.<br /><br />You need a chisel pointed Badger hair brush. You need the very best quality one you can get (go to Hamilton Supply for them). Now you pull the very tip of the bristles of that brush over the freshly rolled surface. You apply absolutly no paint or anything else to the brush. Its only job is to knock off that dimple. You touch the painted surface so lightly that its almost like the breath of a baby on it. I am not kidding. After you do this for a half hour there should not be a hint of paint on that brush. You have to touch the paint but do it so lightly and in only one direction, at 90 degrees to the direction of the last pass with the roller. <br /><br />And you do this, as I said above, and if you have the reducer right (start at the recommended minimum and have more in a bottle next to you) what you will see happen right before your eyes will absolutly stun you. The freshly rolled and tipped paint will lay down like the finest of spray jobs. Every single hint of roller dipple will fade in seconds and there will be nothing even remotely resembeling a brush mark.<br /><br />And that is rolling and tipping.<br /><br />But back to my tackle box. I primed and painted it according to the instructions on the can. I was using acetone as a reducer and was cutting it around 25% as I recall. Because even after lots of practice every now and then we all get a little heavy handed with the tipping I cleaned them up with acetone too. These brushes are expensive so you have to keep them clean. Oh, I always had 2 brushes ready in case I buggered one of them up.<br /><br />After it was painted it was screwed using six #10 stainless screws and epoxy for bedding into a bulkhead on our boat. I taped it first of course and after the screws were in and the epoxy bedding got firm I pulled off the masking tape for a nice clean match to my boat. Here's what it looks like today:<br />
<br /><br />And here is one with the cabinets open:<br />
<br /><br />Thom
