Whatever you end up using I highly recommend sifting the sand so it's as clean as possible and the washing and drying it.
If you buy a small bag of fancy sand from a craft store it's probably ready to use, but a bag of sand from the hardware store isn't.
This is one of those seemingly "good" intuitive ideas that in practice is a nightmare; sand won't stay in suspension in paint and falls off of brushes and rollers...any that ends up on the desired surface gets pushed around by the applicator and leaves streaks and bare spots.
The way you do it is-
>Paint on a heavy, uniform base coat >immediately after and before it begins drying, liberally apply a layer of clean, uniform sized sand or other particles >let it sit until the paint under it is 100% dry >carefully remove the excess sand/particles so as not to scrape off any that are stuck to the paint...blowing with air is a good method, or a soft brush...no hard bristles >immediately apply a layer of paint over the glued down sand to lock it in place.
When that layer is cured you can fine tune the grit/texture with more coats of paint, do color treatments, etc.
This is the way you do non-skid textures using sand, walnut shells, etc. to get uniform coverage.
Sand mixed into wet paint and then applied looks like shit.
Mix sand in paint in a small cup, apply thin coats of it. Wait for it to dry then apply one or two last coats of unmixed paint with a roller to lock the sand in and hide the brush strokes.
I can confirm this firsthand. Made a shitty wood ramp for an old dog and tried mixing sand with paint. It went on like shit and was impossible to get even remotely even. It just wanted to clump up, even with constant mixing. Didn't really matter if you used a brush or a roller.
I later needed some non-skid surface for some metal trim on a staircase. Primed it normally, sprinkling on sand from a ~12" or so above it. Worked way better, and adding subsequent coats of paint meant most of the grit remained attached, even after daily use by groups of students. Would have been better if I'd used a more durable epoxy paint, but that won't matter so much for something that isn't being stepped on dozens or hundreds of times a day.
Tl;dr: Apply adhesive and sprinkle sand, don't mix sand and adhesive.
sand in general does not add much magnetism to metal.
I don't want sand to add magnetism, but for aesthetic reasons. Plain metal would result in an ugly table.
Put like a fake wood wallpaper on the metal table and then coat it with some kind of varnish
3m super 77
thank you! That is exactly was I was looking for (I hope)
No it isn't. Aerosol spray adhesive is universally shit. Buy some contact cement, thin it, roll it on with a paint roller.
Why sand? That sounds messy and annoying. Can't you glue down a thin sheet of cork board or contact paper or something along those lines?
Just glue sandpaper to the metal using glue
Sand to lauan. Lauan to metal. Most wood glues hide in sand pretty well. Superglue the lauan to the metal.
Whatever you end up using I highly recommend sifting the sand so it's as clean as possible and the washing and drying it.
If you buy a small bag of fancy sand from a craft store it's probably ready to use, but a bag of sand from the hardware store isn't.
I would add sand to paint and paint it on. If you glue it it'll keep falling off and making a mess constantly
Probably the closest to a good answer ITT. I would add; clean the steel with acetone first, then use an etching primer before the textured paint.
This is one of those seemingly "good" intuitive ideas that in practice is a nightmare; sand won't stay in suspension in paint and falls off of brushes and rollers...any that ends up on the desired surface gets pushed around by the applicator and leaves streaks and bare spots.
The way you do it is-
>Paint on a heavy, uniform base coat
>immediately after and before it begins drying, liberally apply a layer of clean, uniform sized sand or other particles
>let it sit until the paint under it is 100% dry
>carefully remove the excess sand/particles so as not to scrape off any that are stuck to the paint...blowing with air is a good method, or a soft brush...no hard bristles
>immediately apply a layer of paint over the glued down sand to lock it in place.
When that layer is cured you can fine tune the grit/texture with more coats of paint, do color treatments, etc.
This is the way you do non-skid textures using sand, walnut shells, etc. to get uniform coverage.
Sand mixed into wet paint and then applied looks like shit.
Mix sand in paint in a small cup, apply thin coats of it. Wait for it to dry then apply one or two last coats of unmixed paint with a roller to lock the sand in and hide the brush strokes.
I can confirm this firsthand. Made a shitty wood ramp for an old dog and tried mixing sand with paint. It went on like shit and was impossible to get even remotely even. It just wanted to clump up, even with constant mixing. Didn't really matter if you used a brush or a roller.
I later needed some non-skid surface for some metal trim on a staircase. Primed it normally, sprinkling on sand from a ~12" or so above it. Worked way better, and adding subsequent coats of paint meant most of the grit remained attached, even after daily use by groups of students. Would have been better if I'd used a more durable epoxy paint, but that won't matter so much for something that isn't being stepped on dozens or hundreds of times a day.
Tl;dr: Apply adhesive and sprinkle sand, don't mix sand and adhesive.
Phil Swift here,
Id consider our exciting new line of Flex Seal™ Glue.
I always use bog standard PVA for basing sand around miniatures on pennies which seems to work quite well even on large artillery bases.
hairspray