Zinsser BIN is a Shellac based interior and spot exterior primer and sealer. It is known for its exceptional coverage and stain blocking ability. it can also be used on a wide range of surfaces including wallpaper, wood, ceramics, varnish and more. But what about aluminium? Can you use Zinsser BIN on Aluminium? Well, there’s only one way to know for sure and that’s to test it. Luckily I already had an aluminium finger plate up at the workshop, so let’s get it painted.
Can you use Zinsser BIN on aluminium?
Yes, you can. In my test, Zinsser BIN covered really well on Aluminium and also adhered exceptionally well. Even after a vigorous scratch test there was zero chipping or peeling with the Zinsser BIN on aluminium.
Zinsser themselves say that BIN can be used on aluminium although it is not the main primer they would recommend. They actually recommend 123, but in my testing, this performed worse than BIN. See the below illustration for a full guide to Zinssers recommend paints. If you are unsure of which Zinsser primer to use then check out our guide.
The Test
For my testing, I will be painting an aluminium finger plate, the metal plate that you push open a door with. I will be testing the Zinsser BIN against two of its stablemates, Bulls Eye 123 and Cover Stain. Bulls Eye is Zinsser’s water-based primer and Cover Stain is oil or solvent-based.
Here is the piece of aluminium before it was painted with the three Zinsser primers.
Painting
The Zinsser BIN painted onto the aluminium really easily and covered. I am always amazed at the coverage you get with BIN compared to how watery it is. It feels so watery out of the tin that you always think it is going to do nothing. But time after time it covers so well.
here is the same sample now painted. Ignore the few pit marks in the BIN, these were nothing to do with the paint but rather an unfortunate episode with a fly…
Scratch Test
So now the paint has had time to fully cure, I left it for around a week, I came back to my sample piece to do some scratch testing. For this, I used a piece of rough-cut c16 timber.
I like to use this method as I feel it is a thorough test for the paint while not being overkill. I don’t want to use something too soft which is not representative of the challenges the paint will face and I also don’t want to use something too hard. If I used a really hard material it would just scratch every paint and not give me any usable results.
here you can see the wood that I will be using. I will also be doing the same test on the Zinsser Bulls Eye 123 and Cover Stain samples so we can see how they get on in comparison.
Results
So you can see the after image below to find out how the BIN got on in the scratch test.
No chipping or peeling at all. A fantastic result for the BIN. It actually did better than the Bulls Eye which Zinsser recommends for Aluminium. You can see that the Bulls Eye had a few minor scrapes in the below image.
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Can You Use Zinsser BIN on Aluminium?