Spray paint that will not cracking

[Alan Moberly]

What is a brand of spray paint that will not cause cracking on acrylic mirror that has been engraved from the back and then the engraving spray painted.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Acrylic spray (depending on where you are) Plasticote works well as does spray enammel (but takes longer to dry)

cheers

Dave

[Alan Moberly]

Small town Kansas which means not much available. No acrylic in solid colors and no Plasticote. Even the Krylon Fusion causes cracks in the engraving. Has anyone used latex paint for coloring engraved areas.

[Martin Boekers]

Could you post a photo of the piece as well as
your settings? that may help us figure it out.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Check for Plasticote at the automotive shops. I'm in a small town too and they had a wide selection.

Regarding its durability, I just used it to refinish a 1911 slide. I let it cure over the weekend and it looks great.

[Alan Moberly]

Will do Chris in about 30 minutes.

[Joe Pelonio]

Yes, latex works fine on acrylic as long as you protect it. I will let it dry well then apply any color of scrap vinyl over the paint and trim the edges. Then you can use double sided tape/silicone or other adhesive and noy damage the latex.

[Kev Williams]

Krylon Fusion is loaded with harsh chemicals (propane, butane, MEK, xylene, acetone, etc)...the reason it sticks so well to plastics is most of those ingredients will melt plastics! These chemicals will likely make the acrylic cracking worse instead of better-

Rustoleum acrylic latex is simply Di propylene glycol monobutyl ether (sounds like RV antifreeze) and a bit of titanium dioxide and carbon black. Might work, and Home Depot should have some...

You might try different mirror-- IPI plastics has their own version, "Lazr Mirr" I think it's called, comes in different colors and thicknesses, and I believe it's extruded acrylic and not so prone to the edges cracking. I have some of the blue mirror, haven't done anything with it yet, but it looks nice!

[Mike Null]

Krylon Fusion is my "go to" for acrylics. So far no issues with it but I have to use multiple coats to get sufficient opacity. Dutch Boy latex has also been ok.

I have acrylic paint for my airbrush but it's too much trouble to use for small jobs.

For certain jobs I also use the vinyl cover over the paint.

[Alan Moberly]

Here is what I would like to do. Mirror acrylic engraved from the back and then color in the engraving. So far every spray paint I have used cracks the engraving. I will run to the next town and look for Plasticote at the automotive stores. I have attached a picture of the cracking.
WP_20141010_06_14_07_Pro.jpg

[Alan Moberly]

I just could not give up on this and I finally found a solution that works. Laser settings that just barely go through the mirror coating and the Krylon Fusion = no cracking. I did find like Mike Null point out that the coverage of fusion is not that great. Mike what is the vinyl cover that you mentioned in your post.

[Mike Null]

Alan

I use a plain white sign vinyl which I apply to the back of the piece then trim to fit with an exacto knife. This is for name tags. For signs I do not apply vinyl.

[Kev Williams]

If I may, another word on Krylon Fusion paint--

In 2006 we bought our houseboat. This pic was the first day we saw the thing. The port side of the boat faces west (and does where I have it too)... Notice the window screens, pretty sad looking, the front room window screen in particular appears nearly threadbare...




This pic is the newest I can find handy, taken in August 2011:




Notice the screens look like new? To this day they look the same, after 8 years of 24-7-365 facing towards the west sun. The material keeps shrinking from age, but that's about it.

--- every 2 years I pull all the screening, and I spray paint them with Patriotic Blue Krylon Fusion. I can't praise this stuff enough. Everything should work so good! BIG thumbs up!