Hi,
I want to spray enamel on a boolshelf I made, but I don't know how much thinning the enamel would take.
Is there a limit to how much I can thin the paint? I want to use a low pressure of about 10-15 psi, but that is not enough to create a fine spray unless I really thin the paint. So that is my dilema. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Tip/nozzle combo and cap size have a bearing on how thick a finish you can spray. What's your gun? Is it a conversion gun or are you using a 3 or 4 stage turbine?
David
Gustavo E Tenrreiro wrote:
What one does is contact the gun maker and find out what needle/nozzle size is to be used for what is being sprayed, what kind of viscosity cup to use, what the flow rate through the cup should be, then thin as necessary until that flow rate is achieved.
Short of that you just spend a lot of time and material testing various combinations of thinning and gun settings.
I usually start out by adding 3/4" of thinner in the 1 quart gun cup and fill the rest of the cup with paint. For latex I add about 1/3 water and or flotrol and fill the rest with paint.
AZCRAIG
Has anyone used Penetrol for thining oil based paint? I need to paint some metal work outside the house. I'm curious about using thinner and Penetrol. Does it do better than just thinner?
Bernie
Give the paint manufacturor a call and ask them. The MSDS will most likely say not to thin the paint. I ran into this with some Benjamin Moore oil based enamal for time work. It said don't thin, but it was way to thick to spray. I called their tech support line and told them I wanted to spray with HVLP but needed it thinner. The nice lady said off the record I could thin up to 50%. I asked why that wasn't published and she said it exceeded the VOC regulations to spray the thinner. Moral of the story is that you can do more than what the published specs say.
I didn't get the paint as thin as I wanted based on the viscosity cup, but I used a 2.0MM tip and cut down on the material flow. I used a 4 stage Apollo and had no problems. It came out looking great.
Just remember, apply very thin coats. In my experience, if I think it's covering well, I'm probably spraying to much paint, hahahaha.
Bernie
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