Home › Work activities › Apply protective or decorative finishes to workpieces or products
O*NET detailed work activityApply protective or decorative finishes to workpieces or products
Stays humanHands-on work
19 jobs31 tasks
This is physical, in-person work with real objects, tools, equipment and places that change from day to day. AI can't do it for you.
Part of Apply protective solutions or coatings, under the O*NET work activity group Handling and Moving Objects. Individual tasks below can carry a different label when their own wording calls for it (0 AI-ready, 0 AI-assist, 31 stays human).
Tasks built on this activity
- Apply coatings, such as paint, ink, or lacquer, to protect or decorate workpiece surfaces, using spray guns, pens, or brushes.
- Brush, spray, or hand-rub finishing ingredients, such as paint, oil, stain, or wax, onto and into wood grain and apply lacquer or other sealers.
- Spray prepared surfaces with specified amounts of primers and decorative or finish coatings.
- Finish completed products or models with shellac, lacquer, wax, or paint.
- Decorate baked goods, such as cakes or pastries.
- Apply glazes, icings, or other toppings to baked goods, using spatulas or brushes.
- Apply rust-resistant undercoats and caulk and seal seams.
- Apply paints, dyes, polishes, reconditioners, waxes, or masking materials to vehicles to preserve, protect, or restore color or condition.
- Use brush to hand-paint areas in need of retouching or unreachable with a spray gun.
- Plate articles such as jewelry pieces and watch dials, using silver, gold, nickel, or other metals.
- Expose workpieces to acid to develop etch patterns such as designs, lettering, or figures.
- Dip, brush, or spray assembled articles with protective or decorative finishes, such as stain, varnish, paint, or lacquer.
- Stencil, gild, emboss, mark, or paint designs or borders to reproduce the original appearance of restored pieces, or to decorate new pieces.
- Apply primer over any repairs made to surfaces.
- Sand and apply sealer to properly dried finish.
- Paint or lacquer patterns.
- Finish patterns or models with protective or decorative coatings such as shellac, lacquer, or wax.
- Apply Masonite, formica, or vinyl surfacing materials.
- Apply solutions or paints to wired electrical components, using hand tools, and bake components.
- Place workpieces in electroplating solutions or apply pigments to surfaces of workpieces to highlight ridges and grooves.
- Brush bleaching agents on wood surfaces to restore natural color.
- Spread graining ink over metal portions of furniture to simulate wood-grain finish.
- Brush or wipe acid over engraving to darken or highlight inscriptions.
- Apply pigment to layout surfaces, using paint brushes.
Tasks where it is part of the work
- Prepare workpieces for etching or engraving by cutting, sanding, cleaning, polishing, or treating them with wax, acid resist, lime, etching powder, or light-sensitive enamel.
- Immerse objects to be coated or plated into cleaning solutions, or spray objects with conductive solutions to prepare them for plating.
- Clean and paint completed tires.
- Mix and apply glazes to pottery pieces, using tools, such as spray guns.
- Install dies onto machines or presses and coat dies with parting agents, according to work order specifications.
- Mix pigments to match patients' skin coloring, according to formulas, and apply mixtures to orthotic or prosthetic devices.
- Paint metal surfaces electrostatically, or by using a spray gun or other painting equipment.