Hey I am doing my 4th playfield and have switched to the 2k system simply for the convenience. I also came up with a simple paint booth that works really well and I thought I would share. I have a wood shop in half my garage and I had a home-made dust collector hanging above my work table. It is just a box with two Walmart box fans and four 20x20 air filters on it. For this playfield I added a skirt around it the same size as my work table and draped some plastic around. When the fan is on it sucks air from the room through the filters and blows it down across the table. I keep a gap in the front and lean in to spray. It is not a lot of air flow but enough to keep the fumes out and away from my face. It also allows me to keep my garage doors open for full ventilation as the clean air inside is at relatively positive pressure so no outside air should get in. It is also great because you can fold up the plastic around the skirt when it is not needed. It takes a bit to build but is really convenient as I don't need to build a new booth every time I want to spray.

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How long do you wait between coats?

Thanks a bunch, this is really very helpful. I am about 95% done with restoring my funhouse playfield. It is my fourth one but I am still learning alot. Before I did the whole HPLV setup but it is a pain to set up and puts a ton of vapor in the air which seems much more dangerous than the 2k. I would really like to just use the 2k going forward.

I have had problems before with fisheyes and this time I really focused on cleaning really well before the first coat (prior to repainting). I used Rapid-prep on a buffer sponge and got no fish-eyes. I also put down a very light first coat just to cover the surface and I waited 2 weeks for it to fully cure. Now I am hoping I am good because the final clear will either be on the first clear coat or new paint.

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I got a old whirlwind playfield a while back from a guy who was doing a swap and I used as a practice PF. It was the first time I used the 2k and I had a weird issue. I was playing around with using clear vinyl stickers instead of waterslides. When I put on a layer of clear over the stickers everything worked fine. However, when I would spray a new coat the next day the stickers would "pucker up". I would sand it back but it happened a couple of times. I plan to use waterslides this time but I was thinking I would wait a week or so after the first coat so that I was sure the next coat would not have some weird interaction with the first. That was kind of an experimental PF so maybe it was some other variable but you have never had any problems with waterslides under the first coat after a day?

Okay, well I will follow your advice to the letter and hopefully don't have any issues. I should be able to do the final waterslides today and start spraying Saturday.

These are the two I have used.

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It was the first time I used the adhesive remover and it worked great. I had a bunch of mylar to remove and previously I had used an alcohol/flour method which was a f'ing mess. I also used goo-gone but it seemed to have more of a residue. This one smells a little like goo-gone so probably has a citrus something in it.

Is the 10 weeks only for playing? Is it okay to repopulate the playfield a week or so after? Seems like it would but maybe the posts or something would introduce some kind of stress?

If it is okay to repopulate is it also okay to do a good waxing? I like to wax before I repopulate so I am sure I can get everywhere.

Well alright then. Honestly waiting is the hardest part for me. I am super obsessive and just stopping kills me but I will do my best.

I also do a lot of woodworking and waiting the recommended time between coats of finish always catches me up.

Can I ask what specifically "die back" is?

I did start with the playfield but after cleaning and replacing inserts I put a light clear coat down and then waited two weeks. During that two weeks I re-did the cabinet. I still have some work to do on the cabinet and can rebuild mechs and polish metal guides but not more than a week or two.

Thanks a bunch for the advice.

Anyone have any tricks for keeping sanding gunk out of the holes on the playfield. I came up with this hand flapper sander thing but it would be nice to avoid it altogether.

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Thanks, I will see if my HF has those brushes. I think I read that ear plug thing but I am wondering if he keeps them in between coats or removes them when spraying clear.

So I just finished my last coat. Overall it looks pretty good. I thought I would do my last one yesterday but in getting it perfectly flat I took off some paint in high spots and had to retouch it. However my question is why am I getting these small bubbles? I am sure they will sand out but I am just curious if I am doing something wrong. Here was my setup:
1. 80deg, 30% hum
2. Heated can in warm water
3. Cleaned playfield with naptha then Rapid-prep then a final wipe with a tack cloth just before spraying
4. Spraying in a small booth with filtered down draft
5. Spraying about 6" away to get a full wet coat
6. Medium-heavy coat about 3/4 of a can

I see the bubbles form immediately and can remove some with over-spraying but some form after I spray. The surface I sprayed on was solid flat clear at about 1500 grit sanded. Kind of hard to get a good picture but I did my best.

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I have done quite a few coats and sanding to get this level and they way it is spraying for me a "light coat" looks dimply just like the Springbreak in post 1368 above. A medium coat is fully wet but has a orange peel texture. I sprayed the minimum I could and still not have the orange peel (like medium-heavy). I have to get pretty close for it to wet and lay flat. Going over and over with light coats just gives orange peel. So all that said, it is as light as I can go but still pretty heavy.

I did this coat 24 hours after the last coat.

Well I guess I will try that order of operations next time although I am hoping not to have to spray again. Compressed air is not a great option for me given my small paint area, it disturbs the plastic and tends to drop bits of stuff from above. I guess I could do a tack and then a quick Naptha right before spraying.

To be honest I don't see any solid contamination, just the bubbles so maybe I can skip the tack cloth altogether as long as I spray soon after cleaning.

The more I think about it I think I just needed to clean better. I had some touchup paint spots and I didn't want to disturb them so I did a fairly light cleaning.

I will be honest that I probably only shake the can for 2 minutes. 5 minutes before and after puncture seems like a very long time but that is probably my general impatience.

Well after a lot of sanding and polishing I think I am pretty much there. It is very flat and has a good shine. There are some very fine lines from sanding that I am still chasing but they don't show up in pictures. Because I did a lot of spraying and sanding to get it flat I am probably a week out from the first spray so I am hoping my "die-back" is minimal. I will do a final polish after it is fully cured.

I will note that it currently passes both the "finger-nail" and "smell" test. I am still going to wait but those may not be the best method to confirm a full cure.

I am pretty happy with it but still learning a lot. At this point the clear job is probably about as nice as the paint job so chasing it much further doesn't matter too much. I am definitely not very efficient but the finished product is what counts.

I will say that I feel like I am a little limited on the 2k. It kind of sprays how it sprays and I just have to live with it. I am no expert on a full HPLV setup (I have done two but as a true novice) so I am sure there are a lot of learning curves there but I am contemplating going back and trying that again on my next one. I have been watching HEP's videos and am so jealous of his setup and skills. Everything looks mirror perfect but he has 40 years of high-end painting experience so what are you going to do. I was laughing today about what I would have thought two years ago when I got into pinball that 75% of my effort was basically improving my painting and coating skills.

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In Colorado Naptha also just got banned but I got 2 gallons of the stock they had. I would note that I went into an auto-finishing place for some custom spray cans and they had stuff that I am pretty sure is basically Naptha (something like "Rapid dry cleaner" or something like that"). It is for "professionals" only but I am pretty sure the place I was at they would have happily sold it to me.

Also I can just drive up to Wyoming....

Thanks, I wanted to get as many lines out now as I could assuming it would be harder in a week or so but I am ready to hang it up.

Yeah, that is the thing isn't it. When to stop.... A lot of the touch up I have been doing is in areas that are going to be fully hidden. I was just looking at my Taxi which I did before which wasn't nearly so flat and shiny and it looks perfect in play. It would look great on the game now but I keep seeing the tiny flaws.

I am not a coating expert but this sounds right to me. I am always skeptical of prescriptive advice without understanding the why (sometimes to my detriment). The Spray2k is almost exclusively used for autobody work and as such much of their recommendations are likely to be focused on getting good results in that application. I have a hard time believing that there would be any surface adhesion issues with multiple coats as long as you sanded and prepped properly between coats. There may be structural issues with built up stresses due to different curing periods but I don't think we see any evidence of this. Maybe it restricts off-gassing of the bottom layers?

Also, I think the key point is that on many older playfields 2-3 coats is simply not enough. I don't think anyone is recommending 6-7 coats just for the aesthetics but it may be necessary to get the playfield flat. I know on my last playfield I used probably 6 coats but there was a lot of sanding so I think the final product is maybe around 3 coats in total thickness. If I had started with a perfectly flat playfield I definitely would have stopped at 3 coats.

I would also say that I don't see any short term issues with using this many coats. The playfield looks great, there may be longer term issues but I am not sure what those would be. It is good to listen to experienced advice but you also have to follow your own experience and if something is working I personally would be hesitant to stop without understanding why. I suspect it boils down to the fact that what is best for cars may not be best for playfields.

I am just wonder if this is more of a philosophical problem than a practical one. Has anyone had issues with using more than 3 coats?

Just my opinion of course.

Good point.

There is a project Earthshaker that I might buy for my next project. Anyone restored one? Are any parts unobtanium? Are cabinet decals readily available? Key mechs to check out? I guess the shaker motor works.

Thanks

I am seriously thinking of getting one of these. I don't know about you but I don't have the patience to shake for 5 minutes.

That one looks pretty straight forward. I actually couldn't find the one Adam used on Amazon (and his did break while filming). Say this one for $12 which I will try out. Obviously it is not a complicated piece of technology.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MGTJDFG/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1