Spray Finishing 101

[bob sheppardo]

Hi,
I am completing a queen size bed made from Poplar. My plan has been to equip and learn to spray a white paint covering. However, now I am overwhelmed and considering brushing.

Could anyone provide info on a good HVLP system to buy (home depot, Lowes, etc). Price range 100-200.

I've done some reading and am not completely in the dark,.

Questions:
1. Is the result worth the effort?
2. What types of water based paints will I choose from.
3. Recommend Good starter spray equipment for paint now, maybe lacquer finishes later. I have a 33 gallon Sears compressor I'll be using.

ANY feedback/comments will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Bob

[Jim Becker]

Bob, if you have a good compressor for your shop, you can certainly buy an HPLV conversion gun within your budget that can be used with water borne finishes like Target Coating's EM6500 white product. But it's also not something best secured from a home center...check out Homestead Finishing and other finishing specialty outfits for a gun that will fit your budget. I personally use a Wagner HPLV conversion gun that's typically available for about $130 in its most basic form and there are similar guns in the $100-200 range under other names.

[Bernie Kopfer]

Bob, Target EM6500 finishes appear from all the blog posts to work ery well, but they are expensive! Check out the the info about BenjaminMoore Advance here on SMC. You might find that it is worth the extra recoat time and be able to easily get the product locally and tinted quickly etc.. Ijust finished several large and small furniture pieces with wife pleasing results. That includes 6 dining room chairs with all the round parts that are a nuisance to get paint sprayed on evenly. Really flowed out well. And the large flat areas are as smooth as a baby's bottom. Good luck and have fun learning to spray.

[Jim Becker]

BM Advance is a very nice finish. That said, it doesn't spray well with inexpensive gear in my experience and limited thinning is available with any water borne finish. It's not necessarily inexpensive, either. Slightly less than EM6500, depending on available promotions or discounts. The big downside to the Target product is the shipping cost, unfortunately. It's a conundrum!

[Mike Monroe]

I can't give you recommendation on a HVLP unit for spraying paint, but I faced this very dilemma not long ago, though it was a night stand and bed headboard. I made the nightstand first and spayed it with Sherwin-Williams (SW) water based primer and top coat using my ancient Wagner Finecoat HVLP ( a 850 watt unit). Results with the Finecoat were acceptable, but not what I would call anywhere near perfect. I had to thin the primer and top coats and play around with settings to get the products to spray nicely. For the headboard I purchased a handheld Graco airless unit. The Graco airless does an excellent job spraying the SW products. Any flaws in the finish were due to operator error. And the Graco unit really puts out the paint - 10 minutes tops to lay down a coat of paint on the headboard. At first cleanup of the Graco unit was onerous, but after a couple times the cleaning went much smoother and faster. I should point out that I practiced with the Graco by painting an old Adirondeck chair with some relatively cheap paint. I would encourage anyone that has never used the Graco airless sprayer to do the same because the amount of paint that thing shoots out is a much more than the Wagner HVLP.

[Mike Monroe]

I should have mentioned I have also brushed on SW water based products in the past with very good results, but brushing just takes a lot longer than spraying. And on that headboard, I did brush one area, the underside, and I bet it took me about the same amount of time to brush a small 3.5" x 50" area as it did to spray the entire headboard with the airless unit.

[John TenEyck]

As Jim said, most paints and pigmelted topcoat are too viscous to spray with low end sprayers. One exception is Aqualente, which has a viscosity of about 35 seconds. You can spray that with a low cost gravity feed HVLP conversion gun with a 1.4 mm N/N, even HF'S cheap purple gun for less than $20.

John

[bob sheppardo]

THANKS for the great info. I was just preparing myself to pay $179 for the Wagner conversion HVLP. Since it's highly recommended, and I can't really find it cheaper, or anything comparable in a conversion gun.
But $20 sprayer, now has me wondering.
-Bob

[John TenEyck]

Here's the gun I'm talking about:



And here's how it sprayed EnduroVar (45 second, #4 Ford cup)



I had the gun set at about 30 psi inlet pressure and about 2.5 turns open on the fluid flow, fan wide open, cheater valve wide open (always). This gun sprays shellac great, too, at about 20 psi and 1.25 turns open.

John