Expert: Greg Scholl - 11/9/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello!
I am looking for some advice on painting furniture using a spray gun.  Can you help me with this?
Thank you!
Julie

ANSWER: Hi Julie, What type of paint and what type of spray equipment?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I am using Olympic's no voc semi-gloss latex paint and I just bought a Kobalt small gravity feed spray gun.  I am painting a dresser that was finished with a stain, so I sanded it and sprayed primer on it first.  I attempted to use the new spray gun and it turned out aweful!  I couldn't seem to adjust the pattern and fluid control to give an even spray.  I ended up re-sanding and priming again and have since been practicing on scrap wood.  I bought some Floetrol from Home Depot after reading some recommendations online, but it didn't seem to help much.  I like the finish you get with a sprayer versus rolling or brushing and you can really get in all those detailed areas.  I am just not sure if I don't have the spray gun adjusted correctly or if the air compressor isn't set at the right psi's.  Any advice you can give on the subject is GREATLY appreciated!
Thank you so much for your time!
Julie

Answer
Hi Julie, I see why you're having issues. First off I would never use latex on furniture through a spray gun...it's not meant to be. Latex is just too soft for painting furniture, you'll want to use an Acrylic enamel, at the very least and acrylic latex. Air guns really aren't designed for spraying thick paints, they can however, spray oil based enamels quite well. This has to do with the fact that oils are thinnable to more of an extent than waterbased paints, and oils flow out and level much better because of the solvents and binders in the paint. Their slower drying nature means the paint film has time to flow and level out before the "flash" or tacky point of drying starts the cure of the film. Impeller type guns work better, ( like a Wagner), and are designed for shooting heavier bodied, viscous paints like house paint, heavy stains, etc. Even with a bigger air cap and nozzle, you'd be hard pressed to get a good, smooth finish with a conventional air gun and any waterbased paint. An HVLP system is also more suited for this, but these are quite expensive, and again since air and atomization is involved with applying with this method, it will start the drying process too quickly with an air dry finish. Water based paints just don't lend themselves to being sprayed on, they don't flow out like solvent based finishes and dry (or "flash")too fast. This is especially true for a "no VOC" paint as these have very little solvents and additives that help the finish flow out and go on and dry out smoothly. Acrylic Urethanes are more suitable for spray finishing furniture and cabinets, and you'd want to look for one that was specifically designed for spraying. This isn't something that someone can just decide to do however, learning the techniques, methods, and materials to apply these finishes is fairly difficult. If you're just doing one dresser, you'd be much farther ahead to just use a good spray enamel, like Krylon, (at under 5 bucks a can), and then clear coat it. A very nice, smooth, professional finish can be done with spray cans, but that also takes good technique.Hope that helps a little, post back if need be.