So what do you Guys know about spraying?

[jackfinzo]

I bought the apollo 3 HVLP sprayer on black Friday as it was at a great discount. It's something I always wanted to try out and teach myself. You know how it is when you see a good deal it's hard to leave it behind! Anyways I opened it about 3 weeks ago for the first time and sprayed a can of water just to try it out and see what it was like. So far so good. I make a fair amount of MDF units that get handpainted and the idea is to be able to spray them once I get the hang of it. Also, I have two small solid popular tables that I'd like to spray either cream or clear not sure which yet!

I think what I am trying to say is if I was to go to the paint shop tomorrow to get whatever I would need from start to finish in order to, 1. Spray an MDF unit cream. 2. spray the popular table clear or something along those lines?

Please spell it out as clearly as you can as I have no experience with spraying!

Thanks a mill, Jack.

[Jronman]

@jackfinzo always, I repeat always clean out your sprayer. Never leave your sprayer dirty. That's the biggest thing to remember when spraying and arguably the most important. If you don't remember anything I tell you make sure to remember to clean out the sprayer. A dirty sprayer doesn't spray as well or even doesn't spray at all. The way I was told to clean em at school was with mineral spirits. Just spray some through the gun and also wipe the gun off as well. If the build up gets too much you may have to run it through a special gun cleaner. Another thing to watch out for is runs. If you get runs you may need to brush em out. You'll also wanna make sure and remove all the air in the container holding the finish or paint before spraying. This is also a good test to ensure the gun has a good vacuum seal to spray the finish. I hope this helps.

[jackfinzo]

Thanks for the heads up Jronman. Anything and everything will help me as this is completely new to me.

[KnarlyCarl]

Yep, cleaning is soo important.

You can put about anything through an HVLP. Hopefully yours came with a way to test if it's too thick to spray as is, and if so, to thin it down with whatever the paint instructs you to do with.

 

I sprayed water based paint, oil based poly, lacquer through mine and cleaned everything out after done, the inside, that is... the outside of the gun looks well used LOL

I cut the paint with distilled water, it did very well.

I didn't have to cut the poly or lacquer, tho.

I loved it from the minute I started using it.

 

I think the biggest thing is that you just need to practice to get the feel for it. Scrap wood or an old shed or something... 

 

[rdst_1]

I was gonna order a Ferm HVLP sprayer today too, but all the window frames have already been installed at my house and I will have to go with either brush or rag to apply the finish I want whether I go with Poly or Varnish in the end.

During the little research I did today, this is what I came across -

1) Clean the system that comes in contact with the liquid thoroughly with whatever thinning substance you used. That would be water if you used a water based finish and NC thinner if you used oil based finish.
2) In the end clean the whole system with acetone. This is very necessary if you are gonna shift between water based and oil based finishes.
There are other environmental friendly alternatives available for Acetone as well. Something by the name of Kleen-Ex something which is a Soyabean Oil based solution that does the same job as Acetone.

3) The viscosity of the solution that you want to spray should be according to the standards specified by your manufacturer. You'll have to thin your finish accordingly till that viscosity is achieved.

Setting up and cleaning the system can seem like a chore and hence many people only prefer to use a sprayer if they have to work on a lot of objects. For finishing just a single workpiece, a brush or a rag will always be much quicker.

[jackfinzo]

Unfortunately, nothing came with the system for testing the thickness of the paint.  So I guess ill just have to try it straight out of the tin and keep diluting it until its sprays correctly.

[Jronman]

13 minutes ago, jackfinzo said:

Unfortunately, nothing came with the system for testing the thickness of the paint.  So I guess ill just have to try it straight out of the tin and keep diluting it until its sprays correctly.

You could make a chart or something to write down your findings for how much finish to thinning agent you need to get proper viscosity for the sprayer. Could have a column for type of finish, a column for type of thinning agent to use, and a final column for the amount of thinning agent to add to x amount of finish. You should get proper viscosity for the sprayer almost every time if you use the right amount. I hope your spraying turns out well.

[jackfinzo]

Yes that sounds like a good idea! So you are telling me any standard water or oil based paint I have at home I can run through the sprayer? I just may need to lower the viscosity

[Jronman]

On 1/31/2017 at 8:34 PM, KnarlyCarl said:

You can put about anything through an HVLP. Hopefully yours came with a way to test if it's too thick to spray as is, and if so, to thin it down with whatever the paint instructs you to do with.

@jackfinzo