Paint transfering to wood

[redwood]

So, I'm making some signs and I've actually done quite a few and for some reason I'm having a particular problem with this last one. I'm profiling using a V bit, then painting the wood to fill the V profile. I then pocket everything about 1/8", leaving the profile cuts a little less then 1/16" deep. I thought it was bleeding, but now I'm not so sure. I use a sanding sealer and primer before I spray paint. This is the 4th one of these signs I've done. I could see the swirls from my 1/4" down cut endmill. I then inspected the bit and it had a fair amount of the color (red) on it. I then ran the same tool path with another clean 1/4" endmill and it mostly cleaned it up. The paint had dried for 12 hours before I pocketed the sign. The spray can says dry to the touch in 1 hour. It certainly seemed dry.

My question is, how do I avoid it? Would a upcut endmill be better?

[martin54]

With any type of paint dry to the touch means just that, you can touch it & it won't transfer to your hands. Curing fully on the other hand is another thing altogether, just because it is touch dry doesn't mean it is fully cured & that can take a while depending on lots of different factors. Try leaving it for longer, how much longer is hard to say though

[redwood]

Well I did let it dry for at least 12 hours.

[highpockets]

I've had good luck with this procedure.

Before v cutting I spay one to two coats of shellac to help with the fuzzys.
Next I spay one to two coats of shellac to seal the v cut areas.
Once dry I then use a paint brush to paint the v cut areas. I don't worry about painting only inside the v cut areas.
Once the paint drys (paint an area that will be removed later so I can test dryness of paint).
I then either block sand, pocket plane the surface or run through the planer.
Final coat with shellac or other finish.

[PhilJohnson]

Here is a how to video I made for painting v carved areas perfectly.