Twist painting shafts, my way.

[dave moore]

Hi all

 

I posted that I'd share my painting technique for spiral stuff. Bear in mind that some of the paints, tapes and brushes that I employ are part of my working kit as a signwriter and boat decorator, though alternatives are readily available.

 

RESOURCES

 

Length of string

Low tack tape, 6mm wide

Chinagraph pencil

Masking tape

Lettering enamels, I use One Shot

No 7 lettering brush, chisel ended

 

METHOD

 

Paint the shaft , finishing with the lightest colour, usually white or cream. I then put a screw in each end and rest it on a couple of improvised cradles, allowing the shaft to rotate in a horizontal plane, the screws resting on the cradles.

Then I mark the shaft at 12 o'clock at each end and in the middle using the chinagraph.

 

Tie the string to the screw at one end of the shaft, then wrap it round so that it touches the middle and other end marks. You may wish to use bits of masking tape to hold the string in place. It needs to be pulled tight to give a decent spiral.

 

Using the pencil, I mark along the string with a series of dashes. Once complete, I remove the string and run a line of tape along the marks, turning the shaft in the cradle as I do so.

 

Next, work out the circumference of the shaft. I do this by wrapping a strip of paper around it, divide the result by 4, this gives the width of each stripe. I then cut a piece of card to this width and use it to measure off from the tape, giving a parallel set of marks to the tape, a stripe's width away. I then lay a second line of tape to those marks, this delineates the first stripe.

 

I paint this in yellow, using the lettering brush. That takes a few minutes, you may well need a second coat. Once dry, remove the tape. Then, using the edges of the yellow as a guide,,run a series of parallel marks with the help of the card strip and pencil. This guides the next run of tape on both sides. The tape is also laid along the edge of the dry yellow stripe, giving 2 " channels " to paint in...I usually paint the red stripe next, the second lightest colour.

 

Having removed the tape on each side of the red stripe, then I paint in the darkest colour, normally dark blue or green. Remove the tape when dry. Take the shaft out of the cradle and remove the screws. One end will normally carry the mop head or boat hook head, this can be left as is. The other end needs to have the screw hole filled, sanded smooth then quartered with the pencil before the end of each stripe is painted in. You may need to use a smaller brush for this.

 

Here's a photo of an earlier effort.

 

Good luck!

 

Dave

[Ray T]

Dave, beats my ironing board, for the use of. I like the way your misses allows you to screw the cradles onto the dining table.

 

Seriously though good write up - thank you.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Ray T

[Victor Vectis]

Seriously though good write up - thank you.

Yes, thanks from me too.

[mark99]

Very concise practical instructions. Bet it took a while to develop in t'head before doing it first time.

 

I like the way you have to sort of think in negatives when using multicolours/masking.

[Rob-M]

I think I'll stick with the natural look for now but maybe one day when I've no other jobs I'll come back to Dave's instructions and give it a try.

[IanM]

Thanks Dave. I need to do this with our mop handle and have been putting it off for ages.

[dave moore]

Thanks for the kind comments. Just to add that I've used other methods previously, including lengths oc cotton to set out the spiral, as a painter I can also do it freehand too. The method above is virtually foolproof (!) and easy to apply. The swan neck can be painted using similar techniques, though getting the string round the top bend can be tricky. Good luck!

 

Dave

[Sea Dog]

Top tip - and a tip top result! Thanks for sharing your experience Dave.

[mark99]

Or you could buy twisted multicolour paint. (In the skyhook shop).

[X Alan W]

Or you could buy twisted multicolour paint. (In the skyhook shop).

Nah you need several sticks of stripey rock from the seaside shop & glue "em end to end, can shorten the shaft handle if you get peckish