P3Steel Steel Frame Parts Painting
Painting the P3Steel steel frame parts is practically unavoidable, whether you have a stainless steel or carbon steel frame. This step precedes the actual assembly of the frame and takes longer than putting together the basic P3Steel frame.
Painting proceeds in four steps:
1. File away all barbs leftover from the laser-cutting process.
2. Sand all the parts with 150 grit sandpaper.
3. Wash all the parts with warm water and detergent, rubbing with a sponge to remove all oil and metal dust residues. Dry with a rag and leave to finish drying for at least two hours.
4. Apply one or two coats of paint with a 24 hour interval between coats.
Contents
Filing away all the barbs
The laser-cutting process leaves an average of two small but sharp and dangerous barbs per part. Use a metal file to remove these.
Sand all the parts with 150 grit sandpaper
Sand each steel frame part with 150 grit (medium fine) sandpaper. This will insure good adherence for the paint and that any crusty dirt is removed from the metal surfaces.
Wash and carefully dry all the sanded parts
Wash each steel part with warm water and detergent, rubbing with a sponge to remove any leftover oil (the oil is a residue from the steel sheet rolling process) and metal dust, rinse carefully and dry with a rag. Leave to finish drying for at least an hour or two. At this stage all the steel parts should be clean and ready to be painted.
Paint!
Matt (flat) black acrylic paint seems to produce the best results as it adheres very well to either stainless steel or carbon steel, and it dries faster compared to other colors. Matt black also requires just a single coat, whereas – at least in my case – other colors required two paint coats. For example, a single coat of yellow does not provide uniform coverage, as shown below:
