What paint to use on a new wood camera?

[vinny]

I spoke with Dick Phillips but he couldn't recall the paint he used on his cameras other than it being water-based and sprayed on. I'd like to out a durable finish (flat black or gray) on my camera. It's baltic birch and some surfaces are coated with epoxy. I need something that will cover both. I've tried tests with rust oleum and rustoleum auto paint but the results scratch easily. Auto paint in aeresol cans doesn't have the same mix as real auto paint so it doesn't make a hard coat. I am familier with the Eastwood 2 part cans but it's a one-time use can and would be $$$ by the end of it. I do have a hvlp gun I could use if I find the right paint. Anyone know specifically what paint camera makers use/used?

[mdarnton]

If you're looking for battleship grey and tough, then oil-base concrete (think basement floor) paint would fill the bill. You might, however want to add a matting additive to it, to kill some of the gloss. For spraying it would need to be thinned out quite a bit with the appropriate thinner, and you couldn't lay on a lot all at once as you would with some other types of paint. Anyway, for a quality surface and durability both, you'd want to build a lot of thin coats rather than one thick one.

The only thing that would qualify as water based and permanent would be some sort of acrylic (artist's substitute for oil paint) or latex paint (house woodwork).

Or a two part epoxy finish, if you like doing things the hard way. :-)

[Roger Thoms]

Vinny, if it were me, I'd use Benjamin Moore Advance and I would probably brush it on, although I have sprayed it with a Cap Spray HVLP sprat outfit. I have been using Advance on cabinetry and interior wood work and am really impressed with the product. It has a good combination of hardness and toughness. I just had a quart colored matched in B&J's grey for some lens boards I made. I need to paint the boards, and if you like I can paint a sample on scrape of wood and drop it in the mail. Shoot me a pm with your address if your interested. My other thought is Rust-Oleum Appliance Epoxy spray paint, but I think your color choice would be limited.

Roger

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/f...heen=792&tab=2

[Jonathan Barlow]

Paint it black! Burke & James battleship grey cameras have to be the ugliest ever built.

[Alan Gales]

Shoot Vinny. I figured you for a lime green kind of guy!

[C. D. Keth]

There's going to be purple metal flake in that battleship grey, right?

[dap]

For what it is worth the factory paint on my phillips isn't all that durable - I'm sure you could do better.

One of my other hobbies is rebuilding old woodworking equipment and I have had very good luck with sherwin williams industrial oil based enamels - pretty durable stuff and easy to handle/use. Full disclosure - I've never used the stuff on wood though. In any case it would be worth browsing their website to see if there are any suitable products (their industrial line of paints are very high quality).

[dap]

One more word of advise - many enamels take quite awhile to cure to full hardness...the longer you wait before assembling/using the better. The rustoleum you were having trouble with might prove to be more durable than you think if given adequate time to cure (when I paint castings with enamel I'll usually set them aside for a month or two before I work with them).

[Tin Can]

Car paint, dries hard.

Custom color is easy.

[Brian Sims]

you might want to look into pigmented polyurethane