Painting routed acrylic letters

[JethroMc]

We are getting more and more of a need for painting routed acrylic letters. We've done a bit of it in an inflatable spray booth with mediocre results, and we're in the process of setting up a proper spray booth with a view to improving our output both in volume and quality.

What I would like help on is the preparation of acrylic before painting. We cannot seem to get an uncontaminated finish, no matter how much or how carefully we clean the parts before painting. I know part of this has to do with dust control and extraction, which the new spray booth should help with, but I think a big factor is static, which makes it extremely difficult to get the acrylic really clean and dust free.

Our shop seems to be particularly susceptible to static as we have also had problems with printing because of it. How do you all control static in an overall way in the shop, and then more specifically with individual workpieces such as acrylic letters that need painting?

I understand wiping with a water/alcohol solution and a leather chamois is effective, but with routed letters it can be difficult and very time consuming to wipe the entire surface. Was else can we do to make this easier?

Anyone had any experience with these?: https://amstat.com/esd-ionizer/p2021-nuclecel-end-of-line-ionizer/

 

[JBurton]

What paint products are you using on your acrylic?
I've never messed with ionizers, though I've wished for one for ages, I'm still skeptical that they'd work well. I mean, I'm not anti science by any means, it just seems too good to be true...
Another source of dust is moisture in your air lines, make sure to have a nice dryer or a filter with a low micron count, and an inline filter before the gun can help. We have ancient air lines, so this is typically the source of our specks.

 

[Superior_Adam]

add a humidifier that will cut down on a lot of static. We have one hooked through the HVAC and works great for our print room.

 

[spectrum maine]

paint returns face down
let dry flip and paint faces and returns lightly. the returns are hard to paint without overloading the faces

 

[JethroMc]

What paint products are you using on your acrylic?
I've never messed with ionizers, though I've wished for one for ages, I'm still skeptical that they'd work well. I mean, I'm not anti science by any means, it just seems too good to be true...
Another source of dust is moisture in your air lines, make sure to have a nice dryer or a filter with a low micron count, and an inline filter before the gun can help. We have ancient air lines, so this is typically the source of our specks.

We're using Genesis Lustral by Sherwin Williams.

 

[visual800]

we scuff letters with red scothcbrite and then prime with 2 part auto epoxy, and then paint latex. I like satin but if a customer wants gloss we can do that.

We place letters upside down on trasfer tape and spray all sides and then flip letters over to do faces

 

[Ryze Signs]

We sand our acrylic letters with a DA sander for faces, and scotch Brite on the edges, wipe them down with denatured alcohol, then paint edges and faces all at once with industrial enamel.

 

[althom12]

use matthews paint and plastic prep and if its factory surface you dont need primer but if you want it anyways matthews products are best tiebonds the best primer and tack cloths work good