HVLP spraying of Acrylic

[Jeff Cord]

I purchased some Dunn Edwards Permasheen today to spray some shelves I'm building.
I told the guy at DE what I planned to do (spray with an HVLP conversion) and he said "Permasheen".
The label on the back does say that spraying is one of the methods of application but it also says to limit thinning to 8 ozs per gallon.
I gave it a quick viscosity test and it ran through my Ford #4 cup like honey (a few minutes and it still wasn't empty) so I believe thinning will be required.

I've purchased Charron's book and have read it, especially about prepping the coating.
One of the problems with "over thinning" is that the finish may take more coats to build and it may lighten the finish.
Since I'm planning on painting white acrylic and I'm not worried about having to make multiple coats should I just thin the paint until I get the correct viscosity? Or should I spray the paint at the current viscosity?

thanks,
jeff

[Leo Graywacz]

Go to your local HD and get yourself a Husky pressure pot gun. It is about $55 and works great for all thick paints. I have one and use it for all latex acrylic paints and some lacquer primers which tend to be pretty thick and high solid contents.

[Joe Pelonio]

I've sprayed thicker acrylic with my HVLP and it works, with higher pressure, but it takes ages. You won't get nearly enough volume, so on small items it's fine but on a larger area it's very time consuming. I'd prefer several coats of thinned paint, so you don't have issues with it drying spotty from poor coverage.

[Jim Becker]

The problem with thinning water borne finishes is that it's not the same as thinning solvent based products with their reducer. The water is only a carrier for the finish. Over-thinning with water borne products can really make the end result look horrible.

From what I've seen in my own shop of acrylics available from the paint concerns, these are a bit tougher to spray with HVLP than products like Fuhr International and Target Coatings produce. The latter were designed primarily for spray application using a normal gun with a normal projector set. The thicker materials minimally need a larger projector set in the gun and even then, as Joe mentions, you have to work hard to get the right pressure and gun settings to spray evenly without what I'll call "sputtering".

I've never heard of the product you speak of, but I will say that I wasn't happy with my recent experience spraying Benjamin Moore acrylic on a project with my HVLP conversion gun. I ended up finishing the finishing with a good brush...

[Curt Harms]

I sprayed a cabinet saw mobile base I built with water based acrylic enamel from General Paint & Finishes. I thinned it a little bit with water and sprayed with a P-C PSH1 gun. It looked like CRAP when it first went on, blotchy and beady and ugly. After it dried, it looked GREAT like I actually knew what I was doing. Best advice for any new finishing protocol-try it on scrap first. If it doesn't work, you're not out much. If it does, you're a genius!

HTH

Curt.

I purchased some Dunn Edwards Permasheen today to spray some shelves I'm building.
I told the guy at DE what I planned to do (spray with an HVLP conversion) and he said "Permasheen".
The label on the back does say that spraying is one of the methods of application but it also says to limit thinning to 8 ozs per gallon.
I gave it a quick viscosity test and it ran through my Ford #4 cup like honey (a few minutes and it still wasn't empty) so I believe thinning will be required.

I've purchased Charron's book and have read it, especially about prepping the coating.
One of the problems with "over thinning" is that the finish may take more coats to build and it may lighten the finish.
Since I'm planning on painting white acrylic and I'm not worried about having to make multiple coats should I just thin the paint until I get the correct viscosity? Or should I spray the paint at the current viscosity?

thanks,
jeff