Inside of cabinet black paint !!

[high_vacuum_house]

Good morning,
The latest radio that has followed me home is a Murphy A38C whitch had a small case of naughty woodworms but luckily they decided that the bottom inside of the set was the tastiest and left the rest alone!!. The rest of the cabinet is quite decent and only requires a bit of tidying up to do.

I have filled in all of their holes with wood filler but I was wandering what type of black paint I could use to tidy up the interior. The original paint is very dull and I belive that something like "blackboard black" would be dull enough to make the interior look correct.

Does anyone out there have any experience of painting the inside of wooden cabinets?

Many thanks,

Christopher Capener

[Nickthedentist]

No, but I too would use blackboard paint.

Nick.

[brenellic2000]

I agree, 'Blackboard' paint was (still is!) a universal 'cover-all' paint to hide 'blemishes' (aka cock-ups)!

Woodworm - the furniture beetle larvae - go for the starch in the glue binding the (usually birch) laminate. They eat their way along the glue and emerge elsewhere. Cunning blighters.

Barry

[Silicon]

Blackboard paint might be your best option for covering up the filler.

However the black pigment inside my Murphy A92 and other radios of this era seems to be a wood stain. The wood grain is very visible.

What did they use originally? Was it 'solvent' or water based?

[mark pirate]

I have used black satin finish spray paint, it dulls down to a matt finish as it soaks in to the wood

Mark

[brenellic2000]

Early woodstains were nitro based or a drying oil (spirit in this sense wasn't used). Water based only really came to the fore in the late 1960s/1970s and even then water based stains required more work as they lifted the grain. Today of course, the EU has decreed big business must use low volatile/water based stains. No wonder we've got a water shortage!

Barry

[chipp1968]

A spirit .(Meths based stain ) would be good . Its the best stains for restoration jobs .Hopefully they will still be available .Quick drying and good colour. Blackboard paint may also be good .Mat finish is whats needed I would have thought.

[emeritus]

Spirit-based wood stains are still available. If your local shops don't stock them, they are available in a range of colours [including black] from Axminster Tools: http://www.axminster.co.uk/chestnut-...0ml-prod21822/

My experience is that blackboard paint, unless diluted, would obliterate the underlying wood structure: that is what it is intended for. I used to use blackboard paint to make blackboards from plywood offcuts when my children were younger. After 2 coats, no sign of the grain structure. You have to work quickly to avoid brush marks showing up as it is very volatile.

Matt black car spray used to be available. Fast drying, good coverage. I haven't used it on wood, but it worked fine on the cardboard that I used to make witches' hats for the kid's fancy dress.

[murphyv310]

I will go with Mark. Any acrylic spray paint will do fine and the chemical make up of the paint will be a poison to the beetle and its eggs.

[high_vacuum_house]

Good afternoon,

I bought some heavy duty industrial spray matt black paint from Toolstation and I used it this morning. After blowing all of the remaining dust out and then going over the inside with a lightly damp cloth to pick up any leftover dust, It worked very well and the cabinet inside has been transformed to what it would have been like as it left the factory.

I did not use much paint at all, just enough to blacken and hide the filler in the holes and to get rid of some other dirty marks. All of the original factory punched number marks and wood grain have been preserved.

Whilst everything is out of the cabinet the slightly rust pitted loudspeaker pedestal and black dial surround was given a going over as well and now look new.

The cabinet of this Murphy A38C is looking vastly better now than it did when I first picked up this set Many thanks for your suggestions,

Now onto the chassis!!

Christopher Capener