Nick's bench

[86rocco]

Along those same lines, I used to work at a place that did a lot of photographic work, they had plywood sinks painted with some type of epoxy paint (Benjamin Moore I think)

[Nick]

I am going to pain the inside. I was thinking about black laminate for the out side. Home depot sells 4x8 sheets for about 50 bucks. My other thought was to use paint like Larry said. There's a lot more work to make it look good with paint.

I was surprised that the wood leaked like it does. You cannot feel it, but when you spray it with soapy water little bubbles come out every where. I think MDF is more dense and would be better, but that stuff is heavy and 2 times the money, and it does not seam to hold a screw as well.

As a side note the deck plate does not leak one bit.

My other thought is to thin some wood primer and put about 30" of vacuum to it and let it draw the paint into the wood from the outside before I Finnish it. I'll keep you posted.

Nick

[Mouse]

Nick,

Prime it with latex primer, and a couple coats of latex semi gloss should do it. Any color will do.

John

[gofaster]

Nick,

Thanks for posting the picture of your 5 cfm leak. That's important info.

The amount of soap bubbles amazes me!

I guess that's why my old Blue bench is lined with some kind of fine black paper that looks kind of like tar paper.

I haven't been able to find a source for the sealing paper.

Painting the inside of the bench before I close it up can be added to the list of operations.

[86rocco]

I'm not surprised that particle board is a little porous after all it soaks up water like crazy but that picture seems to indicate it's much worse than I'd thought. I was thinking about laminating my bench too, just for aesthetics and durability but this has convinced me to paint all of the inside surfaces too.

[Mousehouse1]

I never thought about the wood actually leaking. Great post Nick.

What paint or sealer would you use on the inside panels? While I have my bench apart I might paint the inside panels with something. Would you paint the inside panels or just the outside? Does it matter to have both surfaces painted or sealed or will the outside do?

[Mouse]

I have always suspected wood products to bleed air because I have never been able to get good low-flow readings from a wood settling chamber, the readings are always high.

I would imagine melamine to be a superior product for this, having a plastic surface on both sides. I would think plywood to be the worst, while partical board being kind of in the middle as far as air bleeding goes.

[Mousehouse1]

How much paint is needed to paint a msd/mercdog style bench? I think I am going to seal the bench and then paint over that. Should seal the wood better and should help prevent air leaks.

[larrycavan]

A couple of coats of any good paint will seal it. If you do like Dave mentioned and turn the bench on with the top sealed before the paint dries you suck it into the wood and make it even better. Another coat after that and you should be good to go. Mine is painted and I have 0 leakage. I did not paint the inside either.

JMO

Larry c

[Mouse]

Flat finish paints may leak, use semi gloss latex.

[larrycavan]

The more I think about Dave's situation, the more I realize that painting the inside would be very important. There could be leakage between the plenums.

For an already constructed bench, if leakage through the construction material actually is happening, the top should be removed and the divider board holding the flowdisk should be painted. The back should be removed and the entire outside surface of the lower plenum should be painted as well.

[DaveW]

Nick,

Bench looks great!

What did you make your orifice plate out of and how thick is it.

[Mousehouse1]

Is there anything you can paint over silicone with that will stick to it? I don't want to go around my bench and remove all of the silicone around the edges and then resilicone everything.

I know latex paint doesn't like to stick to it.

Any ideas?

[larrycavan]

Martin,

I dont' know if there's anything that will allow paint to stick to silicone. There are some sprays that are designed to get paint to stick to plastics...you might try one of those products.

If you use a new, sharp single edge razor blade you can remove the silicone from the outside of the bench and then lightly sand the area before priming and painting. A handle like the one gas stations use to remove inspection stickers would make the job easier. Use the blade like you would on a gasket surface.

Larry C

[Nick]

Dave. the orifice plate is 1/8" steel. I don't have a boring head for my mill, so I have to make it in pieces in the lathe and weld it together. (careful with the heat) Ideal would be aluminum one piece. But steels the deal here. It is sharp edged on both sides so it flows the same both ways.

To paint silicone, put a thin layer of paintable silicone over it then paint. The only thing that sticks to silicone, is silicone.

Paint usually covers about 300-400sq ft gal. per coat.

I'm going to see what I can find at Home Depot tomorrow.

I just received Pipe Max Version 3 tonight. Something else to learn about.

Nick