I am building a cornhole set and have a question about painting. The
instructions say to use glossy or semi-gloss paint. I have several
different cans of paint in my garage and really don't want to buy more.
Can I use a flat and semi-gloss interior/exterior paints and cover it
with a couple coats of polyurethane? Will it still be slippery enough
for the bags to slide?

On Mon, 3 Jun 2013 18:34:59 +0000 (UTC), "badgolferman"
wrote:

I am building a cornhole set and have a question about painting. The
instructions say to use glossy or semi-gloss paint. I have several
different cans of paint in my garage and really don't want to buy more.
Can I use a flat and semi-gloss interior/exterior paints and cover it
with a couple coats of polyurethane? Will it still be slippery enough
for the bags to slide?

I painted mine with Gloss enamel spray paint. They were *too*
slippery. It was almost impossible for a bag to stay on the board
unless you gave it a really high arc and hit near the front.

I had to take down the gloss with synthetic steel wool.

Flat might be too slow, but I think semigloss would be good.

Like you say, you can always give it a coat of poly if it's too slow.

The material will make a difference too. I used Medium Density
Overlay which has a very smooth phenolic surface. If you used regular
plywood or MDF then the gloss might be OK.

Bottom line...use the paint you have, try and adjust if neccessary.

HTH,

Paul F.

I had to Wikipedia "Cornhole" to find out what a cornhole set was.

Yes, if the Polyurethane is semi-gloss or gloss, then painting over whatever paint you have with that polyurethane will give you much the same thing as if you'd used a semi-gloss or gloss paint.

There are very many different kinds of urethane plastic, all of which are called "polyurethane", but I presume you mean an "alkyd based polyurethane" which is what replaced "varnish" as the clear coat of choice over wood.

It's not a great idea to use a latex primer or paint here because the subsequent coating with poly would be putting a hard coating over a soft one, and that will result in the poly not being well supported and being prone to "chipping" because the latex under it will break on impact before the poly will. A better choice would be to prime with an alkyd primer, cover with alkyd paint(s) and then apply your oil based polyurethane to get the proper smoothness. That way, each coat is strong and hard enough to provide good support to the one above it.

Note that if you're planning on leaving these corn boards outside, you should paint the underside and edges of them as well to prevent them from absorbing moisture from rain or the ground. If you don't do that, the paint will crack and peel wherever the wood swells. Also, polyurethane doesn't have very good UV resistance, so it would be best to store these boards in the garage or basement when they're not in use.

To promote the best possible adhesion of each coat to the next, your best bet is to paint each oil based coating on within 24 hours of the previous one being dry to the touch. All linseed oil based paints and varnishes, all alkyd paints and all alkyd based polyurethane paints and "varnishes" cure by the same chemical reaction, and so putting each coat on before the previous one is fully cured promotes chemical crosslinking between coats, and that ensures excellent adhesion of each coat to it's neighbors. For a smoother surface, I'd paint with roller sleeves instead of using a brush, and I'd store the roller sleeves tightly wrapped in a plastic bag and in your fridge or freezer between coats. The cold temperatures will prevent the paint or polyurethane from curing while in storage.

And, if you use a flat or eggshell alkyd paint over your primer, I'd use at least three coats of polyurethane over it to ensure the rougher surface of the flatter paint doesn't cause any additional roughness in the surface of the semi- or gloss polyurethane.

nestork posted for all of us...

And I know how to SNIP



I had to Wikipedia "Cornhole" to find out what a cornhole set was.

nestork

Darling Dufas & I don't need no Wiki to know what
cornholing is.

--
Tekkie

On 6/12/2013 8:45 PM, Tekkie® wrote:
nestork posted for all of us...

And I know how to SNIP



I had to Wikipedia "Cornhole" to find out what a cornhole set was.

nestork

Darling Dufas & I don't need no Wiki to know what
cornholing is.


Neither do Beavis and Butt-head. ^_^

TDD

Quite honestly, to someone who didn't know what "cornholing" was, it sounded like something you might see someone do in a porn movie using a corn cob.

Maybe that's just because there was a recent thread in here about strange things found up people's rectums.

That's why I thought I should find out for sure what it was before posting.

badgolferman wrote:

I am building a cornhole set and have a question about painting. The
instructions say to use glossy or semi-gloss paint. I have several
different cans of paint in my garage and really don't want to buy
more. Can I use a flat and semi-gloss interior/exterior paints and
cover it with a couple coats of polyurethane? Will it still be
slippery enough for the bags to slide?


Finished the job last Sunday. Just waiting for the bags to show up now.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/1863/photoab.jpg

I used exterior semi-gloss paint. Haven't put the polyurethane on it
though. Wondering if the paint will hold up to the weight of the bags.

"badgolferman" wrote:
badgolferman wrote:

I am building a cornhole set and have a question about painting. The
instructions say to use glossy or semi-gloss paint. I have several
different cans of paint in my garage and really don't want to buy
more. Can I use a flat and semi-gloss interior/exterior paints and
cover it with a couple coats of polyurethane? Will it still be
slippery enough for the bags to slide?


Finished the job last Sunday. Just waiting for the bags to show up now.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/1863/photoab.jpg

I used exterior semi-gloss paint. Haven't put the polyurethane on it
though. Wondering if the paint will hold up to the weight of the bags.

No lights?