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Thread: Spraying questions/advice

  1. #1
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    Nov 2020
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    Spraying questions/advice

    So I want to get into spraying. A little background. I'm a 100% hobbiest who started making picture frames for my girlfriends paintings. As I have gotten a feel for the router table and wood working I am much more apt at coming up with my own designs. This leads to any number of nooks, crannies, curves, etc. that I feel would benefit greatly from a sprayed on finish or paint/finish. I also want to get away from the brush strokes when using artists brushes to give the frames a more uniform finish. And lastly, my girlfriend can mix up any color I want from the primaries. So what I want to do is get a touch up spray gun to run on my pancake compressor - 2.3cfm @ 90psi/3.4 @ 40psi. I have been playing around with the 10$ harbor freight touch up gun just to test out spraying and I feel fairly confident I will have enough air for what I want to do. I was originally thinking to get an air brush but as I looked around more I found HVLP touch up sprayers, specifically an Iwata LPH80 - 1.2mm tip/2.2CFM @ 14psi. Finishes for raw wood will be shellac or poly. I've got no problem thinning these down, time/product consumption really are not much of an issue. As far as paint, I am still trying to figure out what to use. I've just been thinning down heavy body artists acrylic with water to play around. So that all being said, does this seem like a viable set up for painting/finishing picture frame size projects? The 1.2mm tip is a bit limiting from my research but I'll be alright using rattle can primer for now. I know for the money of the Iwata I can get a decent 2 turbine HVLP set up. My train of thought is to upgrade my compressor down the road and get one of the nicer detail guns now instead of a middle of the road turbine HVLP set up. Thank you for the help/ advice. I've been researching this for a while and just want to make sure my idea is not going to flop before I pull the trigger.

  2. #2
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    Applying waterborne finishes to nooks and crannies in wood can be frustrating. The water in the finish raises the grain, so you need to resand after your first few coats. Solvent borne finishes don’t require resending. The downsides to solvent borne are the flammability and the disposal of solvents after you clean the gun. But if you’re spraying relatively small projects like picture frames, maybe these issues aren’t a big problem.

    If you spray, you want finishes which dry quickly. For instance, don’t spray varnish. A good possibility for you is lacquer. You can still buy it in one-quart cans. You’ll also need lacquer thinner. That’s difficult to find in some states.

  3. #3
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    Along the lines of what Jamie already mentioned, you need to choose a gun that's appropriate for the kind(s) of finish you intend to use. Waterborne finishes tend to be more viscous and don't spray well with many of the inexpensive detail guns out there. Homestead Finishing (Jeff Jewit) has a version of their LVLP and HVLP gun that is capable of working with these safer to spray finishes while offering a smaller cup including the 3M PPS system which is both convenient and easier to control waste. I have the larger HPLV version currently as my primary gun, but am considering adding the smaller version for some of the smaller and more detail oriented work I'm doing with my guitar projects and other things off the CNC for clients that are not "big things".
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #4
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    I have an LPH80, and love it. It will spray your frames, and you won't have to touch the finish after it's sprayed. I don't know how a pancake would do though.

  5. #5
    For picture frames, a compressor based gun or an HVLP turbine are overkill. Too much set up and clean up for the amount of finish you'll be applying. You'll probably end up wasting some too.
    An air brush is great for details and bursts and touch ups, but are kind of a pain for painting an entire frame.

    IMHO, the best is to just buy spray cans. You can get some great lacquer finishes from Mohawk/Behlens or Deft. You could do several frames with a single can. No clean up, no waste. You can even get spray poly, but IMHO for picture frames, lacquer is the best looking.

    Mohawk also makes toners in multiple colors.

  6. #6
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    A small gun will run on a pancake compressor fine. If you get a small PPS cup for it your waste will be nil, like a few ml. You can even store unused finish in the liner/lid.
    John

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Prashun Patel View Post
    For picture frames, a compressor based gun or an HVLP turbine are overkill. Too much set up and clean up for the amount of finish you'll be applying. You'll probably end up wasting some too.
    An air brush is great for details and bursts and touch ups, but are kind of a pain for painting an entire frame.

    IMHO, the best is to just buy spray cans. You can get some great lacquer finishes from Mohawk/Behlens or Deft. You could do several frames with a single can. No clean up, no waste. You can even get spray poly, but IMHO for picture frames, lacquer is the best looking.
    I agree about the spray cans on picture frames. Used with sensitivity, the results can be quite good. It’s my wife’s preferred method.

  8. #8
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    I do a lot of frames and spray cans of shellac or lacquer are what I prefer. Done and put away in the time it takes to set up a sprayer. Doesn't seem as macho but its a time saver.

  9. #9
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    I think the spray can advice is good for picture frames. Spray cans are a Lot better than they used to be.

  10. #10
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    Yea, come to think of it, most of the frames I've built were painted black from spray bombs.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  11. #11
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    Nov 2020
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    New Orleans, LA
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    I have checked out the Homestead finishing mini gun, have not been able to find any exact numbers but it seems like it runs on roughly 4cfm which is about double of the Iwata. Did some testing today and with the harbor freight touch up gun I get 30sec continuous spray with 50psi at the gun and 60 sec continuous with 20 psi at the gun. 30 sec to recharge from 120 to 165psi and the compressor overcomes the gun when I stayed on the trigger at 20 psi. Certainly not my dream set up but it should work with what I want to do right now. I have checked out the PPS system and will be springing for it when I get a spraying system set up. The spray cans were a thought but two things turned me off from them, not being able to mix my own colors and the cost. The two matching frames I am working on now need 4 colors total which would be $30-$40 of decent spray paint that probably do not match exactly what I am looking for. I will be sticking to spray can primer as it does not seem doable with a small set up. Once I get a coloring system/paint dialed in I can just buy primaries and mix my own colors. I tried some basic latex paint today thinned with water and floetrol and it gave me the exact results I was looking for. Everything I have read on the internet points to this not being possible out of a .6mm tip touch up gun, am I missing something? Is there a different kind of paint I should look into? For frames that do not get paint, I've only used shellac flakes and varathane oil based poly. Both have worked well unsprayed so I have not really ventured out much. I was planning on sticking with the shellac. I work outside so as long as I am good with a respirator I would give lacquer a go, they do sell lacquer thinner where I live. Tinted lacquer has interested me because I like the thin shell look, but not the candy look I see in most pictures. Is it possible to make cans of red/yellow/blue lacquer, mix your own colors and add something to take down the gloss? I started all of this over the pandemic bit by bit figuring out what I actually want my product to look like. I feel like I get ahead of myself. This whole thing started with an idea that I can slap some trim together and make some frames. Now I have something close to a whole wood shop in the back house that I break out onto the patio when I get the time. Thank you guys for the tips.
    Last edited by Cassius Nielsen; 11-19-2020 at 8:48 PM.

  12. #12
    "This whole thing started with an idea that I can slap some trim together and make some frames. Now I have something close to a whole wood shop in the back house..."

    LOL! Cassius, I laughed out loud (with you, not at you) when I read this. I doubt there are very many readers who haven't had this exact experience. I admire your persistence though in experimenting with actual frames. I've reached the point where I do all the reading, YouTube watching, and researching only to decide: nah, too much like work.

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