HVLP issues spraying drawer/cabinet interiors?

[scott vroom]

I'm about to laydown $900 for a Fuji 4-stage HLVP system. I was warned recently that HVLP is difficult to apply in tight areas, such as drawer and cabinet interiors. I'm building a bunch of office furniture (cabinets/drawers) but am now concerned that I may run into difficulty spraying those tight areas. Anyone with experience in this area that can offer comments/tips? I guess I could spray prior to assy, but that seems like a lot of extra effort with high risk of marring the beautiful finish.

[Tony Bilello]

"I was warned recently that HVLP is difficult to apply in tight areas"

I was led to believe the same thing, fortunately, It is not any more difficult than conventional guns.
I have an Earlex 5000 which has the air coming out the front all of the time whether the trigger is pulled or not. This is supposedly where the problem. In actuality, it has not slowed me down a bit.

[Bruce Wrenn]

We are currently refinishing a set of cubbies for the local "Y." There are 144 individual cubbies which are nominally 16" high, 16" deep, by 16" wide. I originally built and installed these in 1998. Then I used a standard gun, sprayed without back being mounted, and most importantly OUTDOORS. On the second set I built, I bought an Apollo HVLP gun. I use water born Poly from Varathane, which still costs $50 a gallon. My HVLP gun cut my quanity of poly in HALF! On refinish job, we put down drop cloths, and wife holds a "big gulp" which is connected to a HF blower, with exhaust piped outdoors through 4" sewer pipe. Always spray your corners first. (Apollo guns have a setting for doing narrow surfaces, like corners and edges.) Then turn the fan of spray on your gun to match which surface you are coating. I use horizontal when doing bottoms and tops, and vertical for the sides.

[scott vroom]

Bruce, it sounds like you did the refinish job with backs attached. Were you able to spray the corners without sag or runs? You mentioned Apollo guns have a setting for doing corners; do you know if the Fuji gun has the same feature? I can afford the Apollo gun, but Fuji gets great reviews and is $200 cheaper. What was the deciding factor(s) for you in going with Apollo Vs Fuji 4-stage?

Many thanks

[Clisby Clark]

unless I would be spraying in an area with people upstairs or on the other side of the wall. When I'm spraying my Fuji 4 stage regular turbine I never even notice the noise. I do keep the turbine about fifteen feet away from the action as recommended. YMMV, but that's just my opinion. Also make absolutely sure you get the whip hose when you place your order. You'll love whichever Fuji you get.

[Jamie Buxton]

My experience (with a 3 stage Accuspray) is that it does not spray inside drawers or inside cabinets very well. There's a lot of blowback that carries most of the finish out of the cabinet, and what's left is rough. I finish cabinets without the back, and attach it later. I finish drawers without the bottoms, and slide them in afterwards, just like an 18th century drawer.

[Matt Meiser]

I was led to believe the same thing, fortunately, It is not any more difficult than conventional guns.

So both are difficult? :D

[Erik Christensen]

I have a 15 year old commercial 3 stage HVLP setup that has sprayed hundreds of gallons of water poly. It works just fine for drawers & cabs. Like many tools there is a learning curve. You get more overspray the tighter the space you are trying to coat so you have to learn to judge how much finish you have actually laid down before moving on. I tend to do corners last as they seem to get finish from overspray from adjacent surfaces - so I spray the flat surfaces first till I have a finish layer thick enough to settle out without running (part of the learning curve - you won't always get it right) then if the junctions seem a bit thin I will adjut my pattern and give then a bit more finish. I get drawer interiors as smooth as a table top - just takes a bit more effort is all - more hand sanding between coats and more finish wasted in overspray but it can be done.

A nice multi-stage turbine HVLP rig will open up finish options that you would never have otherwise - for example putting a coat of shellac on top of a dye so you can glaze with stain - not possible with a brush as the brush will lift dye when applying the seal coat of shellac.

It's a new tool - how can that be not a good thing :D

[Mark Rakestraw]

I do as Jamie does. Finish cabinets without backs and drawers without bottoms, then finish assembly.

[Curt Harms]

but if I didn't want portability, I really like the P-C PSH1 conversion gun for small and confined spaces. Even the modest turbines put out something like 50 CFM, the conversion guns something like 10 or 15 at 10 PSI. I just got the Earlex 5000 and it does a nice job but there's a LOT of air compared to the P-C conversion gun. Overspray doesn't seem to be an issue, just a lot of air blowing drop cloths. The P-C is a nice gentle mist, again with virtually no overspray.

[Howard Acheson]

In the shop I was involved with, we initially sprayed using high pressure equipment. In the early 1980's we switched to HVLP equipment. Spraying inside enclosed carcases and items like drawers did require some change in techniques. Blow-back was much more of a problem with the HVLP and we changed some of our construction techniques to deal with it. The first thing we did was to build some mock-ups and used cardboard boxes to see how best to do things. For most items the answer was to leave the backs off until after the inside was sprayed. In other cases we sprayed some sub-assemblies before mating them to other parts. For many projects the finishers were part of our initial meetings where we discussed how we were going to proceed on the project.

For the small shop, it is always a good idea to think about the finishing process when doing the initial engineering and planning.

[glenn bradley]

I do as Jamie does. Finish cabinets without backs and drawers without bottoms, then finish assembly.

+2 on backs off and bottoms out.

[Chris Padilla]

+2 on backs off and bottoms out.

ditto ditto :)

[Chris Friesen]

If you can take out backs/bottoms then of course it will be easier.

Otherwise, do the corners first and then plan the order such that the most visible surfaces are done last to reduce overspray landing on them.

For doing the corners most guns have a fan width adjustment and an airflow valve--turn it down to a narrow fan and reduce the airflow as much as possible while still getting a good finish--this will reduce the amount of air blowing around. You may need to adjust fluid flow as well.

[Jeff Gunter]

+1 on the whip hose
+1 on not forking over the money for the extra quiet model unless you plan on spraying enormous projects. I have a mini-mite 4 and it's not much louder than an upright vacuum. In the grand scheme of things the time spent with the pump on is miniscule compared with, for example, surface prep.
+1 on abusing some cardboard boxes to learn how to manage inside corners.

The nozzle on the Fuji can be set to spray fan horizontal, fan vertical or approximately circular, at least on the "old" model from a few years back.

IME, all spray guns have problems in corners, I'd rather spray with HVLP than a regular high pressure gun though. There is no good way to spray a tire rim without some blowback -- no matter what gun you use.

One nice part of HVLP is that I've never had to fight with condensation in the lines.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Original cubbies were sprayed with the backs off. Refinish job is with backs on. On new construction, I spray the sheet goods "in the flat. Then cut them to size, dado and assemble. I chose my Apollo gun because we had a very good dealer here. He does shows all over the world for Apollo, including the "fly in" at Oshkosh. (Airplane guys use a paint that costs $1200 (twelve hundred) a gallon.) Gus ( my dealer) used to do demo at trade shows where he painted one of those little baseball bats in front of a white piece of paper. He also painted the inside of a styrafoam coffee cup, while holding it in his hand. Now he is ALMOST retired.

[scott vroom]

I went ahead and purchassed the Fuji Q4 yesterday. I decided to pay the extra $ for the quiet model since my shop is in a garage attached to the house and I'm trying to keep things as quiet possible for the family. I paid $919 to Homestead plus $25 shipping. I could have purchased from Amazon for the same price and no shipping, but I figured being a newbie I'd get more than $25 of guidance/technical support from Homestead. The owner, Jeff Jewitt, took the order over the phone and was very helpful and informative. Seems like an decent company to do business with (no affilliation).

I also purchased the 6' whip hose...makes good sense for tight areas (like down on all fours refinishing built-in base cabs). Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for all the advice on spraying tight corners. Sounds like the way to go is to spray before installing backs/drawer bottoms.