EXPERT ADVICE
after company had left and the dishes
were done. I striped the crosswalks and
stop bars at a well-known big box store. I
remember seeing people standing in line
waiting to get into that store. It was early
morning and had officially crossed over
into Black Friday. I’m sure they thought
I was nuts. I remember spraying the first
crosswalk in halves. That was unneces-
sary, even during cool weather. I striped
the others and blocked the entire lane.
The traffic was obviously light, but, again,
acetone dries rocket-sled fast and I had no
tracking issues. I love the paint. It extends
my season at both ends. It’ll extend yours,
too.
Come Clean With Xylene
Another thing to know about using ac-
etone is that the cleaning agent is xylene.
In my town, xylene costs as much as the
paint and you can’t simply dispose of it.
But these issues have easy fixes.
To mitigate repetitive costs and disposal
issues, I don’t clean my machine. Many
stripers don’t. The first time I chose not
to clean my machine was on a 400-car
restripe. Half the job was slated for Mon-
day, the other half for Tuesday. Monday
night, after the job, I didn’t sleep well.
But, Tuesday morning, I pulled the trig-
ger and all was well. Here’s some added
advice, do not travel with 4 gallons in an
open paint bucket. It’ll splash. I only trav-
el with a few inches of paint in the open
bucket.
There are a few tricks to delay skinning
over, but I rarely employ those. I do, how-
ever, have a strict rule when it comes to
changing from latex to acetone (or the
other way around): Never let water touch
acetone, and never let xylene touch latex.
Here’s the routine: Flush out the latex us-
ing water. Then push out the water using
xylene, before installing acetone. When
the opposite is needed, start by pushing
out the acetone using xylene. Then push
out the xylene using water, before install-
ing latex. One time I pushed out water
with acetone paint. Silly string came from
my gun for the longest five seconds of my
life before the acetone showed up. As a
rule, I only let the cleaning agents touch
each other.
Bottom line: Acetone based traffic
marking paint is my go-to cool and
cold weather paint. Yes, the paint may
turn a slight green color under very few,
select circumstances, and it does cost
a little bit more overall. But, with ace-
tone’s lightning fast drying rate and its
lack of tracking issues - it extends my
season and adds to my bottom line - I’ll
take those trades.
American Striping Company
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