Tip: Really really cheap spray "equipment"

[C & S]

My Swmbo is openning a small retail establishment in a couple of weeks. Consequently, I have become "fixture-boy" for the last 6 weeks.

I just completed 12 feet of 7'-high shelving with 1/4" luan backs, basically 3 large bookshelves. My finishing schedule calls for sealcoat (shellac) fillowed by a coat of thinned poly.

I don't own any spray equipment, so brushing that first coat, especially onto the thirsty luan was going to take some time.

On a whim, I decided to fill up a regulay spray bottle (like the kind for ironing or misting your plants). I'll be damned.... it worked astoundingly well. It's probably not suitable for a finish coat but perfectly acceptable for a sealer.

For $2.50 I don't even feel like I have to clean it (although I did).

FWIW I thinned the sealcoat to a 1# cut.

-Steve

[nailshooter41]

Steve - might as well quit screwing around with it.

Go to HD and buy their utility garden sprayer for $9.99. It holds two gallons of material.

Buy your poly (gloss is best for sealing, semi for finishing), thin by

50%, and adjust your little spray nozzle to the desired pattern. Pump her up and let her go.

I used to seal closet shelves, backs of factory cabs that were really rough and unsealed and anything else I needed to reduce moisture movement or give just a bit of protection.

This pump sprayer application method always resorted in gasps of disbelief by the unknowing, though. The key is the really thin poly, it will shrink so much there is no sign of what sprayed it.

Since most deck finishes are applied only on one side, this method is a great way to seal the unseen side of the wood as well and takes only a few minutes.

As long as the top side stays open for a couple of months before applying a finish, the moisture will migrate to the top of he deck boards (wicking up as the exposed top dries out) and you won't have a problems with peeling.

Robert

[Robatoy]

Hell, yes. A friend of mine sprayed his whole privacy fence that way. Worked great. He used a piss-coat of Cetol, thinning it to about 50-50 then repeated it a few days later. That was 5 years ago. Looks pretty darn spiffy today.

[nailshooter41]

Well there ya go.

I think that when applying finish there is too much "stuff" in most folks minds. For simple finish materials, there isn't much more than solvents, carriers (sometimes the same thing) and resins. Not much to go wrong.

Robert

[rnrbrogan]

Yep. I installed a wall of tongue and groove, bead board in our home years ago. I wanted an oil finish so I loaded up a pump-spray bottle with tung oil and it worked well. I soaked the wall well with the bottle in one hand and followed with a well soaked rag in the other.

2-3 coats and it looked great. As nailshooter suggested, there is a lot of "stuff" being offered to replace simplicity.

RonB