Painting may seem like the easiest part of the construction project, but many people over look all of the proper preparation steps. Missing some of these steps could end up making your final product look bad, but missing these steps could end up giving you lung cancer and give your children brain tumors, and many more horrifying diseases. Think I’m full of BS? Look up ‘Renovate Right’ there is a whole book and movie on the health problems paint dust can do to children and adults alike. Here are some easy and may seem obvious steps to maintain quality and safety.

You will want to wear disposable plastic gloves, a half-Face respirator with a HEPA filter, and goggles or some other form of protective eyewear. You will also want to wear plastic disposable full body clothing such as a lab coat, and rubber boots or foot coverings.

You will need a good place to apply the spray paint. Hopefully you have a room with good ventilation. However, you don’t want to be in an area where there is a breeze and dust is blowing around.

Put a finger at opposite corners of the chip and carefully move it around so that the pads on all sides line up with the device legs. This takes some time to do, so be patient. It is important to line it up accurately at this stage.

You also want to find a brand that can offer some reliability of the nozzle. There is nothing worse than having a nozzle that clogs and sputters out large blobs of paint.

Well, on to the spray painting of the stencil. First, you want to secure your stencil to the object to be painted and cover all exposed areas outside of the stencil with newspaper. If you don’t use an adhesive on the back of the stencil as described above, then tape down all the outside edges so that your stencil will not move during the entire process of painting.

The challenge with spray paint stencils is getting crisp edges and clean lines. Most commonly the end result is a fuzzy image. That is just the nature of spray paint. If your project is going to be OK with fuzzy edges then you’re in business. In fact, if that is what you are trying to achieve, then you should know that the further you hold a stencil from the surface the fuzzier it gets.

With workshop safety, when it comes to your eyes, your hearing, and your lungs, there is no excuse not to take the proper precautions. Remember the damage you do won’t necessarily be immediate, rather it will be cumulative. The protection is inexpensive and easy to find… so use it.