Spray Painting Cupboard Doors

[Hey You]

Am in the midst of making new doors for kitchen. Since I have a small compressor went out and bought a Porter & Cable spray gun. Compressor has very low SCFM, so does the gun.

Using SMART START primer, filtered right out of the can, have sprayed a bunch of the doors. Got mixed results, the finish on the maple was acceptable, the finish on the MDF wasn't. Very hard to get uniform coverage and MDF requires extra sanding between coats due to raised hair effect.

Using a latex semigloss top coat, again just filtered from the can, have applied sereral top costs. Am now totally discouraged as I am having a number of different problems a) fan pattern from spray gun is only, at best, about 2 inches high so there is a lot of back and forth to try to cover the area (not too bad on rails & styles but murder on the MDF) b) inconsistent finish on maple - sometimes getting puddling due I guess to the way that I am spraying, also with last coat applied today is not smooth is quite bumpy - I guess it is what could almost be called a splatter finish c) inconsistent finish on MDF - after trying several different methods have found that doing a small circle motion seems to give best coverage but still raising hairs on the MDF

Have looked for links for spray painting cupboards with paint rather than varnish but can't seem to find anything, so if there are some links can you please pass them along.

Also any suggestions re painting using a small sprayer, impact of thinning paints, tips and techniques would be greatfully appreciated. Want to explore some more before I toss in the towel and go back to brush and roller.

Thanks Keith

[Keith]

[Keith]

While I was pondering my finish problems I remembered back to when I was a kid with a wooden sailboat and all of those hours I spent wet sanding the hull to get it glassy smooth. So I dug up some wetsandpaper and tried it out.

It did a decent job with a bit of elbow grease, didn't damage the edges at all.

Then I cleaned and cleaned and recleaned the gun, shook and shook and reshook the paint and tried another coat.

Used the box pattern or whatever it is called and the result was better than before but still a patchy look to the finish - will this go away if a spray a clean varnich finish ontop? Did a couple of doors with primer and they are definitely better than before.

Wife looked at my efforts last night told me a was a dummy - I used the wrong paint - I used the old kitchen paint not the current kitchen paint, so I need to respray now anyways.

Any suggestions on how to improve?

[Bob]

Keith,

Use a flow agent (FloTrol for latex) and thin as per instructions for spraying.

I'm assuming you're spraying latex ? If so, good luck unless you have a high-end HVLP setup. Lot's of cussin' and discussions on spraying latex. My experience was a disaster and ended up using a good brush and the flow agent. The flow agent is not a thinner and do not thin more than what the instructions say.

Good luck,

Bob S.

[Keith]

Thanks for the come back Bob

I did go out today to HD and buy theFloTrol and it did make a bit of a difference on the primer, got good consistent coverage, quickly and easily with minmal splattering. The top coat however is a different matter, seems that I only get good coverage and sorta smooth finish when I keep the gun about 4 inches away from the surface but then that reduces the fan/spray to about 2" which means a lot of strokes back and forth - still not happy.

You mention using a brush with the flow agent, does the FloTrol help reduce/eliminate the brush strokes?

[Bob]

Yes, that stuff works great. I used the max per quart along with the max amount of water for thinning the latex and brushed it on. Do not go back over it to smooth it out, the FloTrol will do that. Do a test piece then you'll know what to expect. If you over thin it, you can change / ruin the paint. Not a chemist but I did it per the instructions and you can't see a brush stroke on the doors.

Spraying (not HVLP) was another matter and it sounds like you're having better luck than I did though. Maybe try spraying it on, then quickly hitting it with a wet brush may do it.

Bob S.

[The Guy]

FloTrol works very well when brushing on latex. Using a foam brush helps too. The paint will self level very well and provide a nice finish.

Tim

Keith wrote: