I thought I was starting to get the hang of the airbrush, but I've been having some issues with paint adhesion. Basically I'm doing thin coats and hitting it with a hair dryer after each coat until I get enough color down. Usually 2 or 3 thin coats.
I'm using rusto painters touch primer, then sanding with 400, I use createx or apple barrel paint and thin with water. After the plug is painted I hit the whole plug for a minute or 2 with the hair dryer to kind of heat set it,everything came out nice until I started to wire it up. A small bit of paint stuck to my glove and peeled up. I'm wondering if I need to sand the primed plug better or is this a paint problem? Should I be heat setting the paint differently? Tried to get a better picture but my camera sucks..
Thanks for all the help, I hope everyone's having a great season so far

If the paint stuck to the glove it must not been dry yet. Did the paint peal or did the paint and primer peal to bare wood? I cant tell from the pic. That would help figure if its the primer sticking to the sealer or paint sticking to the primer. There are so many variables including just how much humidity is in the air when you paint its very hard to figure out what went wrong.

Sounds like the paint was not fully dry. Also I sand my prime coat with 220 so the paint get's a little more bite. 400 grit leaves a pretty smooth finish. Also some of the Createx color take a little longer to dry, especially the pearls!

I would suggest spraying a clearcoat before handling

it makes a nice scratchcoat also, giving the epoxy something to grab.

Thanks guys, I'll try those things. The paint peeled up from the primer, I let the plug dry for a couple days before I handled it. Also I keep a dehumidifier on in the shop set to around 40% humidity.
Think I'm also going to wire up some light bulbs in my spinner box so I can dry my plugs more effectively.
Bruce is there any clearcoat you recommend? I've had issues with clears yellowing under epoxy before

since you use rustoleum primer, go with the rustoleum crystal clear. I use it, works fine, no yellow that I know of.

yellowing comes from urethanes usually

That primer may be the reason for not drying or adhesion. I used to use Krylon, but they changed the formula of course :wall:

I may just go with white lacquer primer I use for cabinets from now on.

next time when using the applebarrel paints thin them down with some liquitex airbrush medium instead of water. it will properly thin the paint. With water if you thin too much the paint looses its bonding qualities. in essence you're spraying colored water. You can get that stuff at your local ac moore.

Lurewasher thanks for tip, Is liquitex kind of like the future shine polish people thin paints with?

I have been using a light clear lacquer finish as a scratch coat. Now you can handle the plug while wiring if you epoxy b/4 after wiring. I now epoxy after the clear coat,eyes and grommets, then wire.