I like the durability of BM's Advance but hate how long it takes to dry and cure. Last week I got a job to refinish some kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts. I was thinking of using SW's ProClassic but as I was discussing it with the sales tech at SW's he recommended Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel as a more durable product. I actually knew nothing about it; only about Emerald house paint which is nice stuff but a completely different product. ProClassic isn't the easiest thing for me to spray well so I decided to try the Emerald Urethane. For primer, he recommended their Extreme Grip Primer on the factory finished Masonite type doors/drawer fronts which were still in great shape and original to the 1950 house. I spent a good bit of time cleaning the doors with TSP in water, followed by a light hand sanding with 220 grit, and then filling the dings and holes that didn't below.
The Extreme Grip Primer sprayed just OK after I thinned it with 6% water; should have thinned it more. But it dried to a thin, flat film and looked better than I expected. It easily sands to powder w/o clogging the sandpaper, too, and the bond seemed very good. Overall, I think it's a winner, but it needs to be thinned quite a lot even with my pressure assisted HVLP gun.
Today I sprayed the first coat of the Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel. I went straight to 10% thinning after stirring it in the can. It sprayed beautifully through a 1.5 mm N/N with 6 psi on the 3M PPS cup and 30 psi gun pressure. Great atomization, beautiful coverage and very nice flow out; much easier for me to spray than ProClassic. It dried to the touch in about 90 minutes and can be handled in less than 4 hours, which is the stated recoat time. Not as fast as ProClassic but much better than Advance.
BM Advance uses an oil modified alkyd resin; SW Emerald Urethane has a urethane modified alkyd resin. Both are waterborne products and smell pretty much the same. I can't yet speak to the durability of the Emerald Urethane but I can report that it sprays beautifully, after thinning, and dries more quickly than Advance with faster recoat times.
John