Turbines and Shellac

[Paul Canaris]

Can you successfully spray shellac with an HVLP turbine setup (no orange peeling)? The reason i ask is some comments from a few pros on Woodweb that seem to indicate that anything with a solvent base is best done with a Spray gun/compressor combination as the air does not get heated. I'm not so sure about the wisdom of this as I have sprayed solvent based Polyurethane's and varnish with reasonably good results but to date I have not tried Shellac. I currently have an older Fuji that I think is a two stage..any comments on topic are appreciated.:o

[Casey Gooding]

I have sprayed shellac with a turbine setup many times and had no problems.

[Chris Fournier]

Contrary to the Woodweb pros I would say that there are many instances where spraying solvent based finishes with an HVLP is THE way to go; think colder or humid conditions! I have both types of spraying set ups and the compressor rig should really be for sale; the much higher transfer efficiency of the HVLP makes me feel guilty about using the compressor rig! Rightfully so.

[Neal Clayton]

i spray shellac with an earlex turbine, no problem.

[Tony Bilello]

I spray pre-cat Lacquer with an earlex with no problem

[Paul Canaris]

Thanks guys, I feel better now about trying.

[Curt Harms]

i spray shellac with an earlex turbine, no problem.

I wonder if that might be an advantage in some situations of the 2 stage turbine in the Earlex. The air coming out of the hose is barely warm, even if it's been running for a few minutes.

[Jason Roehl]

If you have problems with your turbine air getting too warm, there are a couple things you can do, either individually, or in combination. One, get a longer hose (or add another hose), or two, coil the hose in a cooler filled with ice water.