Two chips out of tub. Looks like ?? disgruntled home owner? Or, maybe
a workman dropped a tool.

Anyway need to find out the easieist, best porcelain repair kit to use
on this white tub.

I would like to post pictures, before and after, but haven't been able
to park the pictures in a public spot. Can I send a couple of pictures
to someone to post? I tried to gain access to public pic posting when
I posted a question about an exterior painting problem, but at every
public website tried, can't even pick up a picture! let alone try to
register there.

Or, is there some photo parking spot that might work? Will this gmail
account let me park them for public access?

Two chips out of tub. Looks like ?? disgruntled home owner? Or, maybe
a workman dropped a tool.

Anyway need to find out the easieist, best porcelain repair kit to use
on this white tub.

I would like to post pictures, before and after, but haven't been able
to park the pictures in a public spot. Can I send a couple of pictures
to someone to post? I tried to gain access to public pic posting when
I posted a question about an exterior painting problem, but at every
public website tried, can't even pick up a picture! let alone try to
register there.

Or, is there some photo parking spot that might work? Will this gmail
account let me park them for public access?


*Kit Industries in New Jersey makes a product called Porc-a-Fix with several
colors to choose from. I could not find their web site. Home Depot sells
one or two of their colors.

Google Porc-a-fix Paint.

If you don't get any hits, post again and I'll look up the info for the Canadian Distributor, and they would know the contact information for the factory, who in turn would know who their US distributor is.

Porc-a-fix Paint is a hard drying oil based paint that comes pretinted to match all the colours that both Crane and American Standard used in all of their bath tubs since the 1950's when coloured bathroom fixtures became popular.

The tiny bottle of Porc-a-fix you buy comes with a small sheet of instructions and two small pieces of sandpaper. Both should be thrown in the garbage where they belong.

Mix up the Porc-a-fix to a uniform colour by stirring it. Dip a toothpick into the Porc-a-fix and then touch the end of the toothpick to the chip and move the toothpick around so that the paint drains off the toothpick onto the chip.

Cover the whole chip that way.

Once the paint is dry to the touch (within a few hours) use a single edge razor blade to shave the excess paint off the chip. Be careful to hold the razor so that if follows the contour of the tub. If your chip is on a corner where you can't do that, then just leave the excess paint on to dry.

Porc-a-fix used to be made by KIT Industries, but they've since been sold to a different US company that is continuing production of these paints. Porc-a-fix also comes in a number of colours that major appliance manufacturers like GE and Frigidaire used for their stove cook tops.

I own a small apartment block, and I've been using Porc-a-fix to repair chips in bathtubs for over 25 years now. I don't know if it's the best porcelain chip repair available. So far as I know, it's the ONLY porcelain chip repair system available for coloured tubs. If your tub is white, you could probably use any white Testor's plastic model paint to do the repair providing you get a reasonable colour match on the white.

If the chip is on the bottom of the tub, and deep enough so that the steel is exposed and rusting, it's best to coat the chip with epoxy before painting it to match the surrounding colour. If that's the case, post again and I'll explain a good way to apply epoxy to the chip.

Porc-a-fix's sales agent in Canada is:

G. F. Thompson Company
ph. 1-800-499-3673

On Thursday, June 13, 2013 10:16:39 AM UTC-4, Robert Macy wrote:
Two chips out of tub. Looks like ?? disgruntled home owner? Or, maybe

a workman dropped a tool.



Anyway need to find out the easieist, best porcelain repair kit to use

on this white tub.



I would like to post pictures, before and after, but haven't been able

to park the pictures in a public spot. Can I send a couple of pictures

to someone to post? I tried to gain access to public pic posting when

I posted a question about an exterior painting problem, but at every

public website tried, can't even pick up a picture! let alone try to

register there.



Or, is there some photo parking spot that might work? Will this gmail

account let me park them for public access?

Is it really porcelain? That's not very common these days. Most tubs made in the last 20 years or more are fiberglass with gelcoat on them. You can still get real porcelain but you pay a lot for it.

He's talking about a steel tub with a porcelain enamel finish on it.

"Porcelain enamel" is a special kind of powder coating. It's not the same kind of porcelain that toilet bowls, toilet tanks and bathroom sinks are made of. It's a powdered plastic (usually polyester) that gets electrostatically sprayed onto the steel and then baked so that the polyester plastic resins melt and fuse together to form a smooth and very hard coating over the steel.

On Fri, 14 Jun 2013 01:02:39 +0200, nestork
wrote:


jamesgang;3078024 Wrote:

Is it really porcelain? That's not very common these days. Most tubs
made in the last 20 years or more are fiberglass with gelcoat on them.
You can still get real porcelain but you pay a lot for it.

He's talking about a steel tub with a porcelain enamel finish on it.

"Porcelain enamel" is a special kind of powder coating. It's not the
same kind of porcelain that toilet bowls, toilet tanks and bathroom
sinks are made of. It's a powdered plastic (usually polyester) that
gets electrostatically sprayed onto the steel and then baked so that the
polyester plastic resins melt and fuse together to form a smooth and
very hard coating over the steel.

I would not consider polyester resins to be "very hard".

--
croy

On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:55:36 -0700, croy
wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2013 01:02:39 +0200, nestork
wrote:


jamesgang;3078024 Wrote:

Is it really porcelain? That's not very common these days. Most tubs
made in the last 20 years or more are fiberglass with gelcoat on them.
You can still get real porcelain but you pay a lot for it.

He's talking about a steel tub with a porcelain enamel finish on it.

"Porcelain enamel" is a special kind of powder coating. It's not the
same kind of porcelain that toilet bowls, toilet tanks and bathroom
sinks are made of. It's a powdered plastic (usually polyester) that
gets electrostatically sprayed onto the steel and then baked so that the
polyester plastic resins melt and fuse together to form a smooth and
very hard coating over the steel.

I would not consider polyester resins to be "very hard".

Probably only used on plastic tubs. This has some detail about how
tubs are coated.
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Bathtub.html

It depends entirely on the Tg (glass transition temperature) of the polyester.
(aside: plastics don't have fixed melting temperatures like pure solid materials (like ice or copper). Instead, they have a temperature range over which they go from a soft and flexible material to a hard and brittle material. The middle of that temperature range is called the "glass transition temperature" or "Tg".)

Just because something is hard, doesn't mean it's not made of plastic. It's just a different kind of plastic than you're used to.

I am not at all familiar with the process described in the web page Vic Smith linked to whereby an enamel frit is dusted onto an iron or steel tub that's well above the frit's melting temperature. I would be concerned that heating the steel would result in it rusting rapidly, even before the molten frit has had a chance to coat the tub and prevent the oxygen in the air to come into contact with the hot iron or steel.

In the process called "powder coating" that I am familiar with, a mixture of plastic resins (commonly polyester plastic) and coloured solid particles (called "pigments") are electrostatically sprayed onto a metal object. (most commonly the object being powder coated is metal, anyway)

That powder coated metal object is then baked in a large oven at typically about 350 degrees F for a half hour or so.

The heat both melts the plastic resins and causes them to chemically crosslink very densely with each other. As the plastic resins melt, they flow together to form a smooth plastic film over the metal object with the coloured pigments suspended inside that film very much like raisins inside raisin bread.

When that "powder coating" cools, it's very much more durable than field applied coatings like polyurethane or epoxy floor paints.

The Powder Coating Institute

What is Powder Coating | The Powder Coating Institute

Some common examples of things that are powder coated instead of painted are the steel deck of a gas or electric lawn mower or the steel scoop of a snow blower, a steel bicycle frame and steel or aluminum patio furniture.

Porcelain enamel is a kind of powder coating that differs from powder coating only in that the baking occurs at a higher temperature. Generally, if the baking temperature is below about 700 degrees F, the coating is called a "powder coating", but if the baking occurs above 700 degrees F, the resulting coating is called "porcelain enamel". Generally, the higher the baking temperature, the harder and more durable the resulting coating will be.

Even though the process used in porcelain enamel coatings is identical to that of powder coating, the porcelain enamelers have their own web site:

Porcelain Enamel Institute

Plumbing and Sanitaryware - Porcelain Enamel Institute

The "glass lining" on the inside of your water heater is a porcelain enamel. The cooktop of a gas or electric stove will be powder coated because paints couldn't stand up to those temperatures without softening and discolouring. The clothes tumbler drum and top of a clothes dryer will typically be powder coated if they're made of steel.

And, since porcelain enamels become harder and more durable with baking temperature, the hardest and most durable porcelain enamel inside your house is probably the blueish grey coating on the interior of your stove's steel oven. That coating was baked on at about 1300 degrees F, which is why self clean cycles of 900 deg. F won't harm it.

On Jun 13, 7:45*am, "John Grabowski" wrote:
Two chips out of tub. Looks like ?? disgruntled home owner? Or, maybe
a workman dropped a tool.

Anyway need to find out the easieist, best porcelain repair kit to use
on this white tub.

I would like to post pictures, before and after, but haven't been able
to park the pictures in a public spot. Can I send a couple of pictures
to someone to post? *I tried to gain access to public pic posting when
I posted a question about an exterior painting problem, but at every
public website tried, can't even pick up a picture! let alone try to
register there.

Or, is there some photo parking spot that might work? Will this gmail
account let me park them for public access?

*Kit Industries in New Jersey makes a product called Porc-a-Fix with several
colors to choose from. *I could not find their web site. *Home Depot sells
one or two of their colors.

Thank you, will do. Best part is HD is close enough. will call them.

On Jun 13, 11:50*pm, nestork wrote:
croy;3078114 Wrote:



I would not consider polyester resins to be "very hard".
-Croy

It depends entirely on the Tg (glass transition temperature) of the
polyester.
(aside: *plastics don't have fixed melting temperatures like pure solid
materials (like ice or copper). *Instead, they have a temperature range
over which they go from a soft and flexible material to a hard and
brittle material. *The middle of that temperature range is called the
"glass transition temperature" or "Tg".)

Just because something is hard, doesn't mean it's not made of plastic.
It's just a different kind of plastic than you're used to.

I am not at all familiar with the process described in the web page Vic
Smith linked to whereby an enamel frit is dusted onto an iron or steel
tub that's well above the frit's melting temperature. *I would be
concerned that heating the steel would result in it rusting rapidly,
even before the molten frit has had a chance to coat the tub and prevent
the oxygen in the air to come into contact with the hot iron or steel.

In the process called "powder coating" that I am familiar with, a
mixture of plastic resins (commonly polyester plastic) and coloured
solid particles (called "pigments") are electrostatically sprayed onto a
metal object. *(most commonly the object being powder coated is metal,
anyway)

That powder coated metal object is then baked in a large oven at
typically about 350 degrees F for a half hour or so.

The heat both melts the plastic resins and causes them to chemically
crosslink very densely with each other. *As the plastic resins melt,
they flow together to form a smooth plastic film over the metal object
with the coloured pigments suspended inside that film very much like
raisins inside raisin bread.

When that "powder coating" cools, it's very much more durable than field
applied coatings like polyurethane or epoxy floor paints.

'The Powder Coating Institute' (http://www.powdercoating.org/)

'What is Powder Coating | The Powder Coating Institute'
(http://www.powdercoating.org/11/Our-...Powder-Coating)

Some common examples of things that are powder coated instead of painted
are the steel deck of a gas or electric lawn mower or the steel scoop of
a snow blower, a steel bicycle frame and steel or aluminum patio
furniture.

Porcelain enamel is a kind of powder coating that differs from powder
coating only in that the baking occurs at a higher temperature.
Generally, if the baking temperature is below about 700 degrees F, the
coating is called a "powder coating", but if the baking occurs above 700
degrees F, the resulting coating is called "porcelain enamel".
Generally, the higher the baking temperature, the harder and more
durable the resulting coating will be.

Even though the process used in porcelain enamel coatings is identical
to that of powder coating, the porcelain enamelers have their own web
site:

'Porcelain Enamel Institute' (http://www.porcelainenamel.com/)

'Plumbing and Sanitaryware - Porcelain Enamel Institute'
(http://www.porcelainenamel.com/plumb.htm)

The "glass lining" on the inside of your water heater is *a porcelain
enamel. *The cooktop of a gas or electric stove will be powder coated
because paints couldn't stand up to those temperatures without softening
and discolouring. *The clothes tumbler drum and top of a clothes dryer
will typically be powder coated if they're made of steel.

And, since porcelain enamels become harder and more durable with baking
temperature, the hardest and most durable porcelain enamel inside your
house is probably the blueish grey coating on the interior of your
stove's steel oven. *That coating was baked on at about 1300 degrees F,
which is why self clean cycles of 900 deg. F won't harm it.

--
nestork

Yes, but DON'T try to include the chrome racks in that cleaning
cycle. I know, I know, hind sight.Seemed like a good idea at the
time.