Spraying water based paints

[michael evans]

Hi all ,thinking of setting up a mini spray station in my 12x12 shop.Any of you good people had any experience with water based paints and electric sprayers? I don)t want to spend more than $100 dollars i guess, on a small capacity spray gun.Seen a bosch gun here in the uk got good reviews but i need to know about recomended mixing ratios,ie paint to water and also varnish to is it thinners ?I am totally in the dark with spray finishes and what makes it more difficult i live in the uk, so some in fact alot of the USA products not available here.[Whats the general do's and don'ts guys and gals?]Also don't want to go down the road of air powered sprayers.My finish lets me down i must admit especially paints and varnish not to bad with oils and stains .Here's a thought [KREG REP] what about a kreg spray station? KREGERS i am at your mercy .

[Gary roofner]

Rockler has wagner hvlp for $89.  Anyone know anything about these sprayers

[James P. Cottingham]

I've not used them but Apollo Sprayers are highly rated. See The Finishing Store or Apollo Sprayers.

[John Schaben]

Being in the UK with different electric an all, I'm not sure what is available to you. I believe Earlex is made over there and I have one of their entry level sprayers. It does a pretty good job but water based paints take a lot of thinning. I usually start thinning with a latex extender/conditioner/lotsa names for the stuff. (Need to find a good paint store and ask.) It's a product that extends drying time. After I get to max recommended with that stuff, I start adding bottled water until I get atomization similar to an aerosol can. Usually by this time it is so thin you need to go over it several times to get coverage.

All that is not nearly so bad as it sounds.  The subsequent coats can be applied almost immediately as things tend to flash off pretty quickly, just a matter of waving the gun several times over the same spot before moving on.

Oil is much easier to apply IMHO.  Good Luck.

[John Schaben]

Looks like a single turbine, basic HVLP unit. I've got an Earlex 3500 which is a very comparable sprayer. You can get good work out of but it has got limitations, particularly with heavy bodied latex paints. Here's some more info which may be helpful

http://www.gleempaint.com/wagner-control-spray-plus.html

Gary roofner said:

Rockler has wagner hvlp for $89.  Anyone know anything about these sprayers

[justin waldron]

Michael, I spray stains, paint, poly etc.  All I use is an HVLP gun from Woodcraft ($40) and my air compressor set to 40 psi. 

[Jens Jensen]

Justin what size tips are you using ? And Gary I bought a Wagner airless 20-26 yrs ago and used it when I had a building restoration company and it still works today

justin waldron said:

Michael, I spray stains, paint, poly etc.  All I use is an HVLP gun from Woodcraft ($40) and my air compressor set to 40 psi. 

[ray vile]

I just bought a hvlp spray gun at harbor freight on the advice of a good friend of mine (Jens) and I haven't used it yet but I'm going to build a couple of radiator covers for a rental property and I have no idea about mixing or size needlles do what I know with practice I could figure it out but I mostly want to spray stain and poly or lacqer with it

[Jens Jensen]

http://www.finishwiz.com/viscosityandwetmils.htm

iI just ran across this. I do no Jay uses HF guns and he has helped me out with the settings  but have never sprayed latex yet

ray vile said:

I just bought a hvlp spray gun at harbor freight on the advice of a good friend of mine (Jens) and I haven't used it yet but I'm going to build a couple of radiator covers for a rental property and I have no idea about mixing or size needlles do what I know with practice I could figure it out but I mostly want to spray stain and poly or lacqer with it

[Jay Boutwell]

As jens said above, I have used Harbor Freight hvlp guns to spray paints and had good results.  I have sprayed lacquers, stains and enamels as well as water based latex.  As long as you can get the paints to a thin mixture of water up to the viscosity of something like a light oil, it will spray.  My reason for using the Harbor Freight gun is that not only are they cheap in price but if you are spraying multiple colors of paints you can afford to buy one for each color and save you the time of clean up of the guns.  It is also nice when you need to do a quick job and do not wish to pull out and set up spray equiptment then have to clean up.  If you mess up one of the guns you are not out alot of money.  For my high end production work I use a large  professional grako cx8 turbine gun with seperate paint pot and gun.  This was the "wet hose" is about 6 feet long and the clean up of the gun is the onlything you have to do.  I have is set up for lacquer to avoid contamination of the hose and gun.  If I change and want to spray a color finish, like I often use automotive paint, i use a seperate paint pot and gun.   The guns I use on the hvlp are "SHARP" brands.  The harbor freight guns I use are the "central pneumatic" brand  20 0unce gravity feed cup  that are rated at  6cpm  item#'s 47516/67181 and 47016 .  I run a compressor pressure of about 40 to 60 lbs and changes depending on the tip size.

[justin waldron]

I use a 1.4 tip for poly and water based stains and I use a 1.7 for latex paints.

[ray vile]

Thanks Justin, that gives me a place to start from, I know I'll figure it out but this spraying stuff is really new to me. I'm making radiator covers for my rental house and I'm going to have alot of painting to do

[justin waldron]

No problem at all Ray, spraying is the only way to go to be honest.  Especially when trying to stain Maple/Cherry etc.  Paint looks so much better too.