Sealer

[sed9888]

Hi everyone, I have been told to use a sanding sealer prior to pouring resin into my routered lettering to stop any bleeding from the resin into the edges of the lettering, do any of you use such a thing if so what one do I need to buy ? TIA

 

[Robbo3]

There are three main types of sanding sealer:
Acrylic = 20 minutes drying time, water based
Shellac - 20 minutes drying time, thin with methylated spirits
Cellulose - dries in seconds, thin with cellulose thinners
I've no idea if what you were told is correct but cellulose can be applied neat with a brush or a rag. Try not to breathe in the fumes.

 

[Chippymint]

Once you have routed or carved your letters/numbers, all you need to do is paint them using an acrylic oil paint - 2 coats min. Keep over-spill to a min. All you should have to do, once properly dried, is either put your sign through your thicknesser or belt sand off the face until the figures are looking good and all over-spill paint has gone. After that sand to the standard you want and then coat the sign with an external oil or varnish.

 

[JonOuk]

Personally, I don’t get why people love sanding sealer so much!
I think that using something for ease of sanding(!), that contains a soap as a first coat, undermines finishes by having a weaker layer under the harder over coats.
Contemporary finishes don’t need them, I’d argue that with most applications you don’t either, maybe in the odd rare case, but not as the go to thing for every job.