Ronald Raygun wrote:
IanM wrote:
Unless he's getting more paint on himself and the hard standing he's
slapping it on far thicker than we do as we are doing two coats.

Possibly, but it's neither here nor there whether he puts on one
thick coat or two thin ones, if the combined thickness is about
the same. Or he could have been using the word "coat" to mean
one year's coating even if it was in fact applied in two thin coats.
Anything that you have to sand or scrape off next year is wasted. OTOH
a fouled bare spot has not only slowed you down, its also a right PITA
to clean up for repainting. I try to go for a minimal buildup with
*some* sanding required to allow a fresh coat but anything over about
1/16" of antifouling would do me more good in the can than on the boat
(except in heavy wear areas).

The biggest saving would be buy a radiator roller handle and the *GOOD*
(i.e. EXPENSIVE) rollers to go on it. A fully loaded large roller is to
heavy and awkward and cheap rollers break up too much and waste paint.
The extra length of the radiator roller handle makes the job go much
quicker with less stooping.

I was really pleased when I "discovered" (followed someone's advice
to use) radiator rollers (for the avoidance of doubt, we're talking
about the small ones, about 5 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter,
the handle being about 2ft long). They're so much easier to use and
make a quicker job of it than brushes. I also tried ordinary full
size rollers and found them too heavy and went back to the small ones.
But then I tried the big rollers on a long handle, and they really make
fast work of it. They're not too heavy when you hold them with both
hands.

Yes, same small rollers on a long handle.

Big rollers might make sense if you are coercing the crew to help, but
it goes plenty quick enough with the small rollers, and I don't want the
extra mess and effort with big ones. Also I find it convenient to work
with a small roller and a big tray,



I use cheap rollers and don't understand what you mean about them
breaking up. Nor do I understand why using rad rollers should use
less paint overall.

The big rollers have to be wetted out and a lot of paint soaks into the
roller core on the cheap ones. Even with the little rollers named brand
'decorators' ones do a far better job than the economy DIY discount
store foam ones, stay bonded to their cores in spite of the Xylene
thinners, and last a whole coat or even two.

We used 3/4 of two packs of 10 rollers the first year, as they were
breaking up after a couple of square yards, and I bought the good ones
hoping they'd last twice as long. I reckon we are using about 3 a year
and in a couple of years I might need to get a few more. Every roller
that breaks up and has to be binned with lots of paint still on it is
bad for the environment, and more immediately important to me, my pocket!

Its all about minimising wastage FIRST before considering reducing
quality to make savings.



--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
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