Gloss white frame

[+Rafe+]

Hi all, happy Friday!

I haven't delved into much pre-finished mouldings and I have a job in at the moment for a large A0 print that is quite bold and predominately red and i am thinking of going high gloss white and quite chunky. I don't fancy making this one up from bare wood.

Can I get your thoughts on what you have experienced?

I have so far had a look at -

Centrado - 0164WH
Lion - mono range but this is flat white
Larson Juhl - 150220127

It seems that the Centrado option fits the bill...

However without getting a sample (not sure you can ) it's hard to tell from a website image / description. I am really keen for any first hand experience please of this or indeed any other options.

Have a good weekend.

[prospero]

I avoid gloss whites like the plague. If a customer insisted, I would direct them to someone I didn't like much.

You can create them on bare wood (seen a bit but never done it) with about a squillion sprayed coats and a lot of polishing.

[+Rafe+]

Cheers for the tip / warning Prospero...

[Not your average framer]

Learn a lesson from the automotive manufacturing industry, the is twice as much paint on a white car to any other colour of the same car. White paint takes a crazy amount of coats to get a completely uniform finish of just about anything you want a completely white finish on. If you really must do a gloss white hand finished frame, you will need a chalky emulsion base coat with several layers, which you can burnish down to a very smooth finish using progressively finer abrasives, to get a dead smooth finish. Any defects with be very obvious with a gloss white finish on top.

Next thing, if you are intending to spray gloss white with a rattle can, orange peel spray effects are very hard to get rid of, when the colour is gloss white. They factory finished high gloss white mouldings are spray painted in a vacuum swurl chamber. When you next get the chance to look at the thickness of paint on a high gloss white moulding look at how thick the paint layer is! It's probably a lot thicker than you might be expecting.

Perfectly white paint usually has a far bit of titanium dioxide in it. When painting a moulding with titanium white, which is titanium dioxide it takes forever for each coat to dry, because the titanium pigment particles are not gas permeable and the oxygen in the air is necessary to set the binder in the paint. Also each layer dries a lot thinner, than when the paint was wet and like I said when painting a totally white finish, you need a lot of coats to get a fully uniform result. Totally white hides nothing, blemishes always show!

After all that the final top coat needs to be a self leveling lacquer finish. Added to that titanium white is a relatively easy finish to flex a crack the paint. If you look closely at some white laquer mouldings, you will often be able to discern a very pale hint of yellow, that it not by accident, there is a chemical additive in main of these paints used for white lacquer mouldings. Hand finishing totally !00% perfect white high gloss mouldings, not for me thanks! It can be done, but it takes for ever and the labour time adds up to a lot more than you can charge for it.

I generally don't do anything whiter, than antique white, which I like because it's simple, quick and easy. If you want a really good high gloss white lacquer moulding, buy a top quality factory finished one and be careful not to buy a cheap one. It's true that when it really matters, you do get what you pay for!

[Tudor Rose]

Nielsen do a fantastic high gloss range and it includes a bright white. You can buy it chop if you need to. Lengths come with a protective film applied. Presume it would be the same with chop but we’ve not had it chop so can’t confirm that. It cuts and joins really well and is good to work with. We’ve matched it with slips in bright colours or bright metallics with great results.

Moulding number W600649 is 40mm square.

Don’t forget the option of high gloss white metal frames too.

[+Rafe+]

Thank you Mark for the detail and yes I am aware the great lengths required to get a high gloss finish. Im just not set up to be able to achieve that or indeed have the time.

Jo, thank you for the pointers I will take a look and thanks for the recommendations for the slips too! I had thought of metal frames, however its a float mounted piece.

Thank you again all!