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View Full Version : Milwaukee M4910-20 vs. Milk Paint.... Fight to the death



Russell Smallwood
04-05-2010, 7:22 PM
Oh the carnage

So.... I have two sets of bunk beds to finish, for economy's sake, I decided to go with Poplar and a super neato cool old fashioned milk paint finish. I have never used Milk paint before, but the concept sounded good and at the price they charge for it, it had to be awesome right? Ordered a couple of gallons (well, enough mix to make a couple of gallons).

Meanwhile, I came across this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=133451

And thought... hey! That sounds like a great way to apply all that expensive Milk Paint I just bought. So I picked one up.

First, to be fair, I have to admit that I have trouble buttering toast, so finishing is not an intuitive thing for me, nor do I have any experience at all, so my first inclination is to assume that I'm doing something wrong but after trying almost everything I can thing of, I am still having a heck of a time getting this combination of equipment/material to work.

First, I can only use the sprayer in airless (paint my house) mode, forget about HVLP, it just expedites the problem. No matter how much I thin the paint, the sprayer continually loses its prime (in both modes) and I have to re-prime in order to get paint to come out of the nozzle. After priming and switching back to spray mode, I will get material (sometimes) but it won't last very long before I lose pressure, some bad things happen and I have to re-prime the pump and cross my fingers that it sprays paint when I put it back on "Spray".

The milk paint itself is very foamy, and I'm wondering if that is contributing to the problem. I have some circumstantial evidence of this because when I clean out the sprayer and put the suction/siphon in a big bucket of water, it seems to function the way I would expect it to. It sprays and sprays without complaint in both HVLP and Airless modes. So I'm almost, but not entirely, absolutely convinced that it is the nature of the material.

So, after all that, does anyone have any experience with this stuff? Is this absolutely the wrong type of equipment to use for the task? Am I doing something wrong?

Any input appreciated.


Thanks!

Joe Chritz
04-05-2010, 9:46 PM
Never used milk paint but try this.

Grab a can of left over latex house paint and try to spray that in airless mode. Any airless should handle paint right out of the can. If that works and water works than it is obviously the paint.

I can spray proclassic that has been thinned 15-20% in my HVLP so it is definitely a possibility to make it work.

I'm going to do some painted project to use milk paint just to say I've done it. ;)

Joe

Jeff Jewitt
04-07-2010, 11:01 AM
If you are talking about the powdered milk paint that's mixed with water - this is horrible stuff to spray. I wouldn't judge any spray system by it's ability to spray real milk paint. Best you try one of the synthetic subsitutes like General Finishes. The pigment will be more stable and finer - plus it doesn't have any calcium hydroxide (lime) in it which isn't great for aluminum and metal components.

Russell Smallwood
04-08-2010, 10:40 AM
Joe - Thanks for the idea. The more I work with the paint, the more I think it is the paint and not the equipment.

Jeff - Thanks! You have confirmed my suspicions. Funny, the place I bought it (yes the powder with lime) says the best way to apply it is to spray it. :confused:

Jeff Jewitt
04-09-2010, 1:05 PM
Since the specs say the turbine is 2 stage, you might have some problems getting a good finish with acrylic latex or synthetic milk paint (both pretty thick). A thinner viscosity pigmented lacquer like General Finishes, Crystalac or Target Coatings may work better.