Thread: Bueller's shed - a noobs journey through vintage machinery

Yep if you're using the hammered finish then a brush is the way to go, you can use cheap and nasty brushes too as the brush marks disappear once the hammered finish pops out.

Try a microfibre 'little ripper' 100 x25mm roller from Uni-Pro. I have used these over the last 6 months for epoxy and waaaaaay better than brush.
Gives a nice softly stippled finish, quite like original.
Cheap, and fast, and definitely worth a try.

Haha its funny you should mention that, I just bought one about 5 minutes ago! Only got the cheap covers for it at the moment because I'm just doing the inside of the cabinet, I'll grab some of the microfibre ones for the rest of the machine.

Okay yeah I should have done this ages ago, I just did the entire inside cabinet in less than 10 minutes with the 100mm roller. Some little hairs here and there from the roller but for a first coat it's not a big deal.

Edit: oh and it's Hammerite Hammered Charcoal if anyone is wondering.

Paint is down on all parts of the cabinet now. Tried out the foam roller that came with the Little Ripper and while it's good for squeezing into tight spots it tends to leave streaks at the edge of the each pass. No lint stuck in the finish though so they're way better than the other cheap rollers I got. Also picked up the microfibre ones this morning so I'll try those later this evening. Quite happy overall with the change to rollers, they're much cheaper to throw away and I'm finishing stuff so much faster. I am wasting a lot more paint but the time saved is worth it.





Quite happy with the colour, I think I might actually make this the standard for my Woodfast machines from now on.

Looking good, you're making it hard for me to find excuses not to repaint my compressor. Though finding a supplier of Hammerite now Masters has gone might be a problem.

The 100mm roller looks ideal for this. I bought one for a job a while ago, but the only covers I could get at the time shed more hair than a Samoyed in springtime and haven't used it since. I'll look for the micro fibre ones.

Believe it or not I have a neighbour who painted the entire exterior of her large 4br rendered brick house with a 100mm roller - hubby is useless (most he contributed was holding the ladder) and she reckoned the 230mm rollers were too hard to use. Saved herself 17 grand, but reckons next time hubby is paying for a painter or he'll be paying for the rest of his life!

Yeah Hammerite can be really annoying to find now that Masters is gone, I'm very lucky in that a tiny paint shop 2 minutes from my house sells it. Limited stock though, sometimes I have to make special orders.

Originally Posted by bueller

Quite happy with the colour, I think I might actually make this the standard for my Woodfast machines from now on.

That's a pretty heavy duty toilet roll holder on the right!

Haha imagine the toilet that goes with it!

Productive weekend! Still need to put down some final paint but the bulk of the work on the cabinet is done, went out to my parents this arvo and welded the new chute in place. Not pretty but quite strong so I'm happy. Will get some pics up tomorrow after work, light has faded here and I'm absolutely knackered.

As for throwing away the rollers, get a narrow glass jar and lid, add the relevant solvent, and drop the microfibre roller in it between painting sessions.
On next use fish out the roller, scrape it a bit on the lip of the jar to squeeze out the gross excess solvent. The St. Dalfour jam jars are ideal height and width ( the French made contents are excellent too, mostly fruit, not just sugar)
Once fitted to the roller, either run it up and down the paint tray slope to get out the last solvent, this will give a slight amount to thin the paint batch in then tray, or a few back and forth on a rag or paper towel.
I have been using 3 rollers this way for a few months; 3 different colours.

The microfibre is way better than the shaggy towelling varieties.

The microfibre can also give a wet edged line like you describe; a bit too much paint in the roller, so just lean a bit more pressure on the offending side of the roller for a few passes on the tray, after having loaded the roller with paint.
The reason for the lines is due the pressure applied when painting is often not perfectly even, as the handle is an open loop, so the spring effect applies more pressure to one end (frame side) than the other (open end).

Apart from the even-ness of coating, the roller and microfibre in particular gives a much thinner coat than possible with a brush. Thinner generally means better chip resistance.

A it more trivia, there is a thumb grip too on the handle, so consistent orientation can contribute to more consistent pressure distribution.

I have done c. 340 linear metres of RHS for my shed build, plus three work tables in the last 5 months using just one microfibre roller.

Couple of photos of my incredible welding skills 😂





Wound up doing a rush job on this because the shed was like a million degrees with my welding jacket on, consequently only about half my welds were any good. Remembered I had some metal bog leftover from the bandsaw so I used that to fill in the gaps between the new and old chute, will sand tonight and continue with paint this week.

Just knocked the bog down with an 80 grit disc on the grinder, hand sanding was taking way too long. Couple of little gaps but it's good enough for me, looks a million times better than it did previously. Waiting for the dust to settle and then it's onto paint.

looking forwards to seeing how the cabinet comes up after you hammerite it.

i gave up looking for hammerite, couldn't find it up here now that masters has gone, so i grabbed a 4 litre tin of black hammertone (Omega Brand) to roll on my welding bench legs tomorrow.

I should have rolled the primer on as well, but i couldn't help myself spraying it as i had a new spray gun.

it reminded me that i hate spraying enamel without a proper spraybooth.