Spray finishing with oil based paint

[John W Johnson]

I built a small set of cabinets to augment a recent kitchen remodel for a friend. The current cabinets were recently redone with new doors and drawer fronts. They were spray finished and the lady has plenty of matching oil paint (Benjamin Moore if that makes a difference). I have a 10-12 year old Fuji sprayer that I haven't used in the five years since I relocated my shop. All my previous spraying came with lacquer or water based finishes. I have a couple of questions. The first is how long can I leave the paint in the sprayer between coats. It's a very small job, just the single small island and a half dozen new doors for her pantry, but my shop is not big enough to spread every thing out. The second involves whether or not the paint should be thinned.

[John TenEyck]

I think you can leave the paint in your gun as long as you want unless it's satin or flat sheen. In that case, it would be best to remix it before each coat, though you could easily do that without cleaning the gun. But there's no way I'd spray OB paint in my shop. The over spray will be like fly paper where it lands. I would take the paint color to BM and have them mix you some Advance in the matching color and sheen. Advance is a WB oil modified paint, and comes in every color BM offers so there has to be a match. It takes a long time to dry and cure, too, but at least clean up is easy and the over spray makes much less of a mess. Advance is very durable when cured, and sprays like a dream. You may need to thin it somewhat, however, but I don't know how much for a Fuji gun.

FWIW, I sprayed some cabinets with Advance and they came out great. I used BIN shellac based pigmented primer, and then two coats of Advance. The BIN can be tinted, too, to get the color close to your paint color, though I didn't do that.

John

[Jim Becker]

Please take into consideration that spraying is best done with fast drying finishes...and oil based anything isn't in that category. If you choose to use that paint, be aware that you can end up with a pretty good mess from sticky overspray, etc.

I'll also recommend you consider getting the Benjamin Moore Advance tinted to match and use that instead. It's an emulsified alkyd finish with a water carrier and is a great choice for kitchen cabinets.