Darkroom sink paint - marine topside paint

[Serge S]

My wood sink is complete.

Thinking of using rustoleum marine topside enamel paint - has anyone used this product?

Thanks!

[Doremus Scudder]

My wood sink is complete.

Thinking of using rustoleum marine topside enamel paint - has anyone used this product?

Thanks!

Exactly what I used for my 10-foot darkroom sink. It's been doing well for about five years now. Repainting is easy if you need; just sand lightly, wipe down and paint. I've had to paint a couple of areas due to cracks (not the paint's fault) and stains (pyro). Results were good. I'd recommend it.

Do use the proper primer before painting with the topside paint.

Photo of my sink attached.

Doremus

[Ulophot]

Doremus, look nice. What is the little corner board at left with the two dark spots and the wire going south?

[Serge S]

Excellent.
Thanks for the quick response & photo.

It is instructive to see you faucet set up...something Will need to address next.

Exactly what I used for my 10-foot darkroom sink. It's been doing well for about five years now. Repainting is easy if you need; just sand lightly, wipe down and paint. I've had to paint a couple of areas due to cracks (not the paint's fault) and stains (pyro). Results were good. I'd recommend it.

Do use the proper primer before painting with the topside paint.

Photo of my sink attached.

Doremus

[Drew Wiley]

I doubt that kind of paint will hold up well over the long haul; too brittle. Time will tell. I'm quite familiar with true marine coatings, whether for ships or wooden saunas. What used to be standard like polysilicone enamels and catalyzed moisture-cure urethanes, paintable nitrile rubber coatings, have all been banned from US land use for quite awhile due to nasties outgassed during use. A nitrile blanket could be heat-welded in place by a commercial roofer with the requisite skill and equipment.

There are multiple big marine suppliers and even coating manufacturers right across town; and I was once a serious distributor, that is, the dude in charge of selecting, buying, and specifying those for the company, which included sales to the Navy and defense contractors all across the Pacific. But I'm retired, and so is my former competitor counterpart across the Bay, who was really more of a friendly collaborator in a mutual interest. I strongly prefer penetrating Marine epoxies (Smith, West System, Abtron, etc) over paints for wooden darkroom applications. But that's nasty stuff too, and good ventilation, eye protection, and rubber gloves are essential. I really don't like using it indoors at all. It takes about three days to cure. But if necessary it will accept a paint overcoat, and the primer and paint will last much longer than without the underlying epoxy, since the wood itself becomes dimensionally stabilized by it.

[domaz]

I doubt that kind of paint will hold up well over the long haul; too brittle. Time will tell. I'm quite familiar with true marine coatings, whether for ships or wooden saunas. What used to be standard like polysilicone enamels and catalyzed moisture-cure urethanes, paintable nitrile rubber coatings, have all been banned from US land use for quite awhile due to nasties outgassed during use. A nitrile blanket could be heat-welded in place by a commercial roofer with the requisite skill and equipment.

There are multiple big marine suppliers and even coating manufacturers right across town; and I was once a serious distributor, that is, the dude in charge of selecting, buying, and specifying those for the company, which included sales to the Navy and defense contractors all across the Pacific. But I'm retired, and so is my former competitor counterpart across the Bay, who was really more of a friendly collaborator in a mutual interest. I strongly prefer penetrating Marine epoxies (Smith, West System, Abtron, etc) over paints for wooden darkroom applications. But that's nasty stuff too, and good ventilation, eye protection, and rubber gloves are essential. I really don't like using it indoors at all. It takes about three days to cure. But if necessary it will accept a paint overcoat, and the primer and paint will last much longer than without the underlying epoxy, since the wood itself becomes dimensionally stabilized by it.

I think I would just not worry about it and repaint rather than deal with epoxy. Sounds like nasty smelly stuff. If you aren't using a darkroom sink all day every day it seems like it would have time to dry out generally and not rot very fast at least.

[Serge S]

Hi Drew,

Thanks for the detailed information on marine coatings. In the research I did read West System type epoxies & similar seem to be a proven choice but unfortunately, I am trying to avoid these as I read that they outgas powerful fumes. I suffer from dry eye (possibly caused by poor darkroom ventilation) – so I am trying to avoid products that could irritate.

Then I came across marine topcoat as an alternative – sounds like a good solution now - based on feedback from Doremus.

I doubt that kind of paint will hold up well over the long haul; too brittle. Time will tell. I'm quite familiar with true marine coatings, whether for ships or wooden saunas. What used to be standard like polysilicone enamels and catalyzed moisture-cure urethanes, paintable nitrile rubber coatings, have all been banned from US land use for quite awhile due to nasties outgassed during use. A nitrile blanket could be heat-welded in place by a commercial roofer with the requisite skill and equipment.

There are multiple big marine suppliers and even coating manufacturers right across town; and I was once a serious distributor, that is, the dude in charge of selecting, buying, and specifying those for the company, which included sales to the Navy and defense contractors all across the Pacific. But I'm retired, and so is my former competitor counterpart across the Bay, who was really more of a friendly collaborator in a mutual interest. I strongly prefer penetrating Marine epoxies (Smith, West System, Abtron, etc) over paints for wooden darkroom applications. But that's nasty stuff too, and good ventilation, eye protection, and rubber gloves are essential. I really don't like using it indoors at all. It takes about three days to cure. But if necessary it will accept a paint overcoat, and the primer and paint will last much longer than without the underlying epoxy, since the wood itself becomes dimensionally stabilized by it.

[Doremus Scudder]

Doremus, looks nice. What is the little corner board at left with the two dark spots and the wire going south?

Hi Philip,

That's the mounting panel for the wet-side timer that hadn't yet been installed (a Zone VI compensating timer lives there now). The wire is for the footswitch. I had to run the wire before installing the sink itself.

To address Drew's concerns about the topside paint being too brittle. Yes, I've had a couple of cracks over the five years the sink has been in service. These were likely do to stress and settling of the sink itself as it got used to its new home, i.e., likely not the fault of the paint. Even so, it was super easy to spot-sand and repaint small areas.

Wooden boats are pretty flexible (I had a couple moored in Port Townsend for many years), I'd think topside paint would have to hold up under that kind of flexing plus all the foot traffic on the deck. It's pretty skookum stuff.

Best,

Doremus

[Salmo22]

Hi Philip,

That's the mounting panel for the wet-side timer that hadn't yet been installed (a Zone VI compensating timer lives there now). The wire is for the footswitch. I had to run the wire before installing the sink itself.

To address Drew's concerns about the topside paint being too brittle. Yes, I've had a couple of cracks over the five years the sink has been in service. These were likely do to stress and settling of the sink itself as it got used to its new home, i.e., likely not the fault of the paint. Even so, it was super easy to spot-sand and repaint small areas.

Wooden boats are pretty flexible (I had a couple moored in Port Townsend for many years), I'd think topside paint would have to hold up under that kind of flexing plus all the foot traffic on the deck. It's pretty skookum stuff.

Best,

Doremus

Hey Doremus:

What chalk or sealing methodology did you employ where your sink bottom and sides are joined? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming you did something "extra" to seal those connection surfaces/angles prior to applying the topside paint. My 8' wood sink is nearly ready for coating/sealing and I cannot abide the outgassing associated with sealants like West System's. Because of my health concerns, I've got to go the topside paint route. A timely discussion.

[Drew Wiley]

Caulk before the paint or after? Moisture-cure urethane caulks like Sikaflex cure by absorbing moisture from the air, just like the classification indicates, so don't outgas much. But you should wait a week before getting them wet or painting them. They remain pliant and might acquire a developer stain. 3M makes a specifically marine version, a little more expensive. None of them are cheap or clean up with water. Aquarium and Bath silicones do not accept paint. Don't use any kind of acrylic caulk, so called Bathroom type or "siliconized or whatever"; they won't hold up. A semi-marine version called Phenoseal might; but it's hard to find. I use Geocel; but it has a nasty hot solvent outgassing time just like marine epoxy, so scratch it off your own list.