V Cutting Tape

[Boyan Silyavski]

The only way i know of, as i said above, is using flat reinforced sponge to do that. As per this sign making video:

[PaisleyPCdoctor]

I saw this video and stole a really great tip...

If you use vinyl sheet as a mask, it probably won't fray at the edges as badly as masking tape, but even so, you'll still get paint bleeding through from the edge of the lettering onto the uncarved areas. The tip in this video is to paint the letters with background colour first, let it dry, them paint carved areas. The idea is that the bleed colour would be same as background anyway. So...

With gold text carved on black background, for example...

1- paint uncarved wood black
2- apply vinyl film
3- carve out letters
4- paint letters black and allow to dry (seals bleed points)
5- paint letters gold and allow to dry.
6- remove vinyl film.
(I've never done this before- just putting the idea out there)
Here's the video I stole the bleed tip from..

https://youtu.be/NgMoYRDtrUo

[magicniner]

Boyan's link is excellent but the results the guy in the video achieved don't look 100%
I don't do brushes and foam, just good masking and spray guns, but I'm from an automotive paint background and I'm really picky about colour and surface finish, I can spot a poor job on a car at 100 yards in bad street lighting on a rainy night :D

[Boyan Silyavski]

There is no automation doing stuff like that. One must be an Artist.

Its impossible to mask anything 3d properly with tape, vinyl or similar.


For perfect result first of all the wood should be chosen to be perfect for the job. IMHO that would be Cedar or similar structure wood.


But if a perfection is desired when painting, then even secondary machining like surfacing after paint is not a bad idea. For example: egrave deeper setting Z0 say 0.5mm deeper, base coat inside, paint inside, trim all 0.5mm, then using flat tool paint rest, right away carefully clean excess paint that went inside across the border. Use flat painting tools, fixtures.

Same like auto body work. You don't flatten a door using 10cm sanding pad, you flatten it using 50cm sanding pad.