How do i fix this mess?

[myxpykalix]

The mfg when i asked told me stain would wipe off of the plastic resin. He said to sand it down and sand down the bartop and i tried to apply the stain but my hands shake so much that i messed up and when i tried to wipe it off it acts like it stains the plastic.


Is there some solution like nail polish remover or (?) i can use to clean the letters like with a Q tip? Or any other ideas?

[dmidkiff]

Jack, I have no experience with the epoxy, but if it were mine I would try denatured alcohol. If that did not work, lacquer thinner and then acetone. I would try these because I have them on hand. I would also try the nail polish remover. If none of these work I might try re-mounting on the shopbot and skimming some off the letters and re-pouring. Before re-mounting to shopbot I would apply 2-3 coats of lacquer or shellac, let dry for 2-3 days and apply paint mask, and then skim and re-pour.

[cnc_works]

And don't forget Goof Off. Sometimes it is just the thing!

[bob_reda]

I don't know what brand of epoxy you used, I used denatured alcohol to really thin mine out, don't know if it would take it off, nail polish acetone are the same thing.

Bob

[rb99]

Remember acetone is one of the most carcinogenic thinners / chemicals you can get, and it gets ready access to your blood supply through your fingernails. Wear gloves and a mask and use outdoors if possible.

[Sk8MFG]

Remember acetone is one of the most carcinogenic thinners / chemicals you can get.

No, not at all. It's actually quite tame.


But as with anything mask and gloves are a good idea.

(didn't know until I fact checked the above that acetone is actually produced in the body under certain conditions)

[kubotaman]

Jack be very careful with what you use to remove the stain. If you use acetone or lacquer thinner it may just remove the stain but leave the finish with a hazy finish. It may very well slightly melt the epoxy leaving a hazey finish. What you have done is applied the stain in the sandpaper scratches and when you wipe the stain off you are above the stain down in the scratches. I would try some wet and dry paper using water and try to remove the stain that is left. It that works then go to a very fine polishing compound, Auto paint store only, and polish the letters. You would be surprised as to what a person can save if they use a little bit of patience. Don't hurry your job and you can save a lot of extra work. Hope this helps!

[Xray]

If all else fails try some xylene, super duper solvent.
Might have to go to a dedicated paint store/epoxy supply to find some, I have yet to find anything this stuff won't remove.


"one of the most carcinogenic thinners / chemicals you can get" - Might have been thinking about xylene, acetone isn't that hazardous, xylene is.

[rb99]

No, not at all. It's actually quite tame.


But as with anything mask and gloves are a good idea.

(didn't know until I fact checked the above that acetone is actually produced in the body under certain conditions)

In Canada about 17 years ago the govt took it out of the workplace. My friend who is doctor warned me about it. Take care.

[Sk8MFG]

In Canada about 17 years ago the govt took it out of the workplace. My friend who is doctor warned me about it. Take care.

Now I'm pretty sure you're confusing your solvents. Canada has certainly not removed acetone from the workplace.

Acetone has been cleared by Canada Health as more or less fine for normal use. It's in a huge number of everyday consumer goods. Nail polish remover comes to mind, as does a number of achene medications and cosmetics.
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/chem_profiles/acetone.html
http://www.chemicalsubstanceschimiques.gc.ca/fact-fait/glance-bref/acetone-eng.php


And back to the topic at hand.

[Mayo]

The time you will take trying to fix this will be 10 times longer than it would take to make some new thin cut out letters and glue them in place, then pour more epoxy to cover them if you want a totally even surface.

[myxpykalix]

I went and bought some acetone and some Q tips and cotton balls and that seems to have cleaned most of the letters pretty well. I have to let the coat dry (been 2 days now still tacky) then give it all another overall light sanding, apply another coat, let dry then apply epoxy.

[myxpykalix]

So here is where i am at on this. I got it stained around the letters, put on another coat but if you can see on the U up above and on the S below it is stained and I was thinking of going over the plastic resin letters with paint but i don't know what type/brand of paint would stick to the plastic? Any suggestions?

[joe]

Jack,

I'm sorry you've had trouble with this project. After reading all the posts and scratching my head I have questions. Even if you found the perfect paint for the letters would the background ever be un-effected.

From here it looks like the panel needs to go back under the router for a resurface and start over. This would be the fastest and cleanest method. There is the outside chance of cutting new letters and apply over the existing mess but then is the background beyond looking clean.

This business of sign making isn't all that easy. Take heart, I've made much bigger mistakes than this.

[Davo]

Don't nail salons use acetone in nail polish remover on a daily basis?

And yes xylene is bad we kept it locked up and wore protective gloves, I worked in a chemical lab for the local refineries here and we used pure acetone on a daily basis to clean crude oil up... Of course we mixed it with toluene

Our acetone was the real deal and not a lower % like the consumers use

It dries us out real well but other then that, the gas fumes you breath at the pump still contain worse chemicals

[Brian Harnett]

Just a thought If you get the stain to your liking and rout the letters out, the wood itself is a lighter color in the routed out letter pocket, put the epoxy coat for the whole top on at that point it will fill the letters right up and level out with a nice contrast.

[joe]

In response to Brian's post.

If Jack was able to rout out the letters, wouldn't he be better off to also rout a set of letters and paint them separate. You can make lots of mistakes this way and recover. So the point is, individual letters are easy to paint and then applied in the pockets. Or even plop them over what he has now.

If this was my project I'd re surface and start over. I'd hate to give this kind of gift with flaws in it.

[bleeth]

I'm with Joe at this point. Spot fixes will show regardless.
Skin it all off and start over slowly and carefully.
You can't rush this and there are no shortcuts.
Hopefully you can register it at the same point on the mill so the letters can just be recut.
If you did this with your often used center point you can scratch the model outline into the spoilboard and align the part from that.
Take the "crud" off with a flycutter in small steps so you don't reduce your wood thickness very much. Then recut letters and proceed.

[myxpykalix]

Actually the second picture is the "before" and the first picture is the "after". I have the bartop coat stain even and it looks pretty good. My question was mainly about painting the plastic letters, what type of paint would stick to it? was what i needed to know.

A few of the letters were stained. I had used acetone to clean the majority of of them up. The problem i ran into was, because i had sanded some of the letters previously stain had gotten down into the pores of the scratches and was tough to get out. I couldn't resand because the stain was still wet.
I may either get the dremel out after it is dry, or I have a woman coming monday who has steady hands and can paint this detail for me inside the letters. There is no way i'm going to "start over" on this thing. I don't think it warrants it at this point. Maybe the pictures are a bit deceiving but it looks fairly good. Again what i'm interested in was what type of paint to use to cover the plastic letters. Thanks for your advice so far....

[joe]

Bleeth,

He's not going to do it. Too bad.

[myxpykalix]

Joe,
I'll show you pics when it's done, good or bad. I don't think it is at a point where i need to start over. I do appreciate your advice.