painting cabinets with airless sprayer

[pascal young]

Hi there, continuing to reflect on my first few cabinets I posted here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...t-warp-to-them

The one cabinet which is painted I did with a graco 360 airless sprayer. BIN primer with Sherman Williams snapdry on top. The results are decent, I can't seem to get the "waves" out of the finish - you can see the pulsations of the unit in the finish. Also the cleanup of the bin was a pain, but I suppose that is part of the effort.

couple things I could use help with:

1) how to shoot with this sprayer without leaving the "waves" in the paint
2) I'm suffering from significant overspray and can't seem to get it dialed down. I see videos of people using indoors with minimal tapping, I am nowhere near that!
3) for my built in closet I would like to shoot the cabinet indoors, unfortunately i just don't think I can pull it off without getting paint everywhere.

any help would be appreciated! I also have a Graco X5 which we use for painting the larger rooms and an HVLP I used to use for painting motorcycles (race bikes) - its a decent gun, I might be able to get needle sets for it and use it for paint.

thanks

Pascal

[John TenEyck]

No help on your airless, just a comment about BIN. Which BIN product did you use? I use BIN white pigmented shellac based primer and it is a dream to use. Sprays great, dries in a few minutes, and sands to powder in an hour w/o globbing up on sandpaper.

John

[Wayne Lomman]

For what you are doing, you will be better off resurrecting your hvlp gun. The 360 and others like it are ok for painting a fence but not much else. The x5 is a good unit but to do what you want, you would be better off with an air assisted gun which is expensive. So use the hvlp. You will have better control and better finish.
The overspray issue is always there with airless spraying. These days the airless (Graco X60) is only dragged out if the job is big enough. Cheers

[pascal young]

No help on your airless, just a comment about BIN. Which BIN product did you use? I use BIN white pigmented shellac based primer and it is a dream to use. Sprays great, dries in a few minutes, and sands to powder in an hour w/o globbing up on sandpaper.

John

looks like I was mistaken - I used Zinser oil based cover stain - I now remember having reservations about the fumes from the shellac.

[pascal young]

For what you are doing, you will be better off resurrecting your hvlp gun. The 360 and others like it are ok for painting a fence but not much else. The x5 is a good unit but to do what you want, you would be better off with an air assisted gun which is expensive. So use the hvlp. You will have better control and better finish.
The overspray issue is always there with airless spraying. These days the airless (Graco X60) is only dragged out if the job is big enough. Cheers

thanks, I might pull it out and give it a try.

[John TenEyck]

Shellac stinks a lot less than oil based products, and it dries in a few minutes instead of a few days.

I'm not familiar with SW's Snapdry paint. Can't find it on their website either. Got any info. about it?

John

[Ole Anderson]

I have the Graco X5 and have done tons of 6 panel passage doors and some raised panel kitchen cabinet doors using SW Classic Acrylic out of the can which tends to self level. Excellent final finish for a water based solution. I wouldn't try to use it in a closed cabinet with a back on it though. You really need to keep the gun moving to avoid sags, it puts out a lot of paint, but once you get the hang of it, it is really fast, but that can be said of most spraying solutions.

[Mike Jungers]

I don't think there's going to be a solution using your equipment that you can safely spray inside. If you can spray outside, I'd also suggest the HVLP gun, white BIN, and any one of several low formaldehyde lacquers like Campbell's MagnaMax. The lacquer costs about the same as the paint and can be tinted, and gives you the best chance of getting a good finish with a small gun. I have sprayed SW Pro Classic on casework though using a fine finish tip and airless rig, but you have to move FAST and overspray is horrible. Good luck!