Ms. Pac-man stenciling - Take 2

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Permalink Reply by Bill Jr. on September 16, 2009 at 7:35pm

Might want to try water based stripper this time.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on September 16, 2009 at 8:40pm

Does water based stripper work better on wood cabinets? Or better specific to the type of wood, like ply?

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Permalink Reply by Bill Jr. on September 16, 2009 at 9:16pm

Jeff to be honest with you I only used stripper on the Bostonian cabinet. I know there is citristrip and a few others out there that you leave on for several hours and everything just comes right off. Just be sure to clean the cabinet good before painting. You might want to try oil based paint this time around.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on September 25, 2009 at 8:23am

Interesting...

Well, if I do this a third time, maybe that would be worth trying. It does sound highly messy though. Especially on a non flat surface like the top. Did you find that you only used one bottle or less of the thinner though to do it?

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Permalink Reply by Joey on September 27, 2009 at 12:36pm

I used stripper to strip a KISS cabinet. The biggest problem I have, aside from the obvious mess, is the worry about leaving bits of the stripper behind to foul up the eventual paint job.

I recently started on a full repaint/restencil of a Stern - Dracula. Instead of using any chemical stripper, I just hit it with the sander and 80 grit paper. Not the cheap Harbor Freight crap, but the 3M green paper from Lowe's. I had the backbox stripped in less than an hour. It went REALLY fast, and I just changed out the paper every couple of minutes. After that, I won't use stripper on the half a dozen cabinets that I plan to repaint in the near future.

Stripper is great for refinishing bare wood, or removing many layers of paint from an antique door or house trim.. The finish on arcade and pin cabinets, even if repainted black from conversion, is very thin. Sanding works well for me.

Hit it with 80 grit. Fill dings with filler, fix problems, reglue joints, etc.. Resand with 120 or 200something. Primer, light sand. Begin finish.

Might as well add, the latex method I've found that works - 85% Premium Olympic semi-gloss interior latex (from Lowe's), 10% water to thin, 5% Floetrol (flowing agent, to smooth). I was really impressed. I have pics of the Dracula repaint and the DK Jr. cabinet I recently painted here:

http://joeysgameroom.blogspot.com/


Joey

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Permalink Reply by ibis on October 9, 2009 at 11:29am

For what it's worth I hit my Ms Pac with 60 grit in a light fashion. Then went to 80 in light fashion then 120 and 220 to finish.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on October 15, 2009 at 1:56pm

Finally more progress. I hope to have all the sanding done for real, this time, by the end of Tuesday next week. Hoping that the weather stays warm enough to put down the base coats of paint at least on Wed-Fri....

Here is the cabinet in question. Really kills me to have to destroy this one, it really has some great color left, paint is solid not flaking....

I ended up using just 60 grit to try something different. I think overall this is a cheaper method...but possibly more time consuming, not sure yet. But I also like the fact that it seems to be less of a health risk - not putting stripper into the air even with a mask and glasses...

I found that after about half of one side, the 60 grit sure didn't work as well. Picked up from Harbor Freight, so like Joey said, must be pretty crappy. Next time will have to remember trying more of a name brand from a big box store.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Jr. on October 16, 2009 at 4:36pm

Jeff, if your going to be doing "any" bondo work on the back corners be sure to install some new leg levelers and put them out almost all the way. This will protect your back corner repairs while your laying the machine down.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Moore on October 17, 2009 at 1:23pm

Very good tip. I will do that.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on October 24, 2009 at 8:58am

I got really lucky this week and had a couple of warm enough days to think about painting.

But first, the remaining prep.

First, sanded down the other side. There is definitely a tradeoff here between stripper & cost, vs. straight sanding and time. Next time, definitely 3M pads.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on October 24, 2009 at 9:00am

Finally the cabinet is all sanded at 150 Grit. I then went over it again with 100 Grit. Like Brian says, it doesn't need to be polished, too smooth and the low tack stencils don't stick, and too rough they don't either (as I found out last year the hard way)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on October 24, 2009 at 9:03am

Then, onto all the spots for wood hardener before bondo. I had a TON of oddities this time around, a lot more than last time....lots of knots that were pulling away from the wood that I just picked out...

Here is a shot of the kickplate. One spot that was bashed in, two spots for knots, and then all of the staples and bolt holes on the Ms. Pac front. Last year I filled in my bolt holes and left out the tray. I asked the owner if he wanted the same and he did. It may not be for the 'purist', but I can't stand those four huge bolts that go right through the Ms. Pacman artwork.

And then on the very top, where a nail was sticking out that hadn't been put in true holding the side together. I used the dremmel tool to cut off the end. Is there a better way to do that? Or maybe I needed a smaller dremel extension so that the slot you see wasn't as big. Filled that in with bondo too...

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