Matthews Acrylic

[Mark Summers]

Has anybody used Matthews Acrylic along with the brush/roll
additive? How well does it roll and brush? How is the smell?
Thanks for your help.

Mark

[ericmalicoat]

Just to be sure I’m talking the right product, I assume we are talking about Matthews Acrylic Polyurethane.

I use Matthews Paint regularly and have had to figured a lot out on my own. Hopefully, I can help you out. I don’t work for them and would not call myself an expert, but have used the product for a couple years on a wide variety of project types. It feels like I have run into every problem imaginable. Anyone with better knowledge is welcome to help and set me straight.

First thing to note is that you are in a different state than me, so some of the challenges I face may not apply to you. Specially, there is a special catalyst for using when brushing and rolling, but it is not available in California. If you use the regular catalyst and brush additive in the ratios on the Mathews web site, it’s a truly miserable product. If you use extra brush additive to make up for the missing properties in the brush/roll catalyst, it becomes rather workable(6:2:1). At this point, it flows well when brushing and bubbles from rolling usually can be worked out by rolling back over softly around 15 minutes after applying the coat.

Now that I’ve covered the good, I should cover the bad. First, it tends to be much thinner than 1shot and as such usually requires 2-3 coats when rolled and 1-2 brushed over contrasting colors. Letting the paint sit and thicken helps this, but is a gamble until you really get to know the paint. Second, if you roll your second cost within the first few hours after the first, it lacks surface tension to keep the new paint from flowing over the edge. Giving more time between coasts and using thicker(older paint) helps this. Finally, the satin Matthews shininess does change with additives, reduction, and application method, most notably when airbrushing where it is dead flat.

As for smell, it mostly smells like the rest of the Matthews Paint system, which is to say, more odorous the PPG, HOK, or 1Shot. I find the smell acceptable, but I also never spray it without a full face mask and it burns my eyes. Brushing and rolling, the smell is tolerable by most people used to painting.

As a last note, take the free class from Matthews. The system has a few quirks and the information on the website does not always provide you with all the information you need. Their training team is pretty responsive though.

[Mark Summers]

Thanks Eric. Yes MAP was the discussion. Nice to hear the
real story.

Mark

[ericmalicoat]

By the way, if you let the matthews cure a couple days, 1Shot lays down on it nice. We rarely do so because speed is the bosses priority.