Just my opinion here, Pat. But remember, one man's ceiling is another man's floor.
I have seen many claims about this gun, but never seen results first hand. By the design of its sprayer and spray nozzle I don't see how it could be used for a lot of finishes.
By design to make the gun work properly they limit the nozzle/needle size, and of course the air. When you have those limitations, you can see how it worked well with your oil bases stain. The stain is high viscosity so it shoots well from this gun. In the same light, I have heard from a reliable source that the critter shoots lacquer well, but with it thinned to almost water consistency.
I think it is a pretty spiffy little gun within its limitations.
But I think by the time you get to the point where it would shoot heavy varnishes (especially the ones with flattners) and the like you would face problems with your material desegregating in the cup.
By the time you get latex thin enough, you will definitely see the difference in your final product. When you over thin latex not only do you ruin its ability to wear, you will also wind up with another color! DAMHIKT.
I the needle size on the critter is something like 1.00 to
1.2 mm. I don't know for sure, but I do know its small. A good all around tip size is 1.4mm for shooting oil based enamels, shellac, sealers, lacquer, varnish etc.
I cannot get latex to hang well and retain its color with anything less than a 1.7mm. Optimally, I would like a 1.8 - 2.0 mm for latex for a small project gun. Larger nozzles/needles/aircaps mean less thinning, more product on the project and less coats with less chance of runs or sags.
As always, just my 0,02.
As a sidebar I am looking at starting a small project to see how it will float that will have me making display cases for high end goods. If I do that, will probably buy a Critter for the exact purpose you found it useful. All the display cases will be made from maple, but stained, then finished.
If I have the Critter set up, I can keep all my stains in jars and then just screw the head on the color I want and go. Sounds pretty easy.
What brand of stains are you shooting from your Critter? Are you thinning any? How many psi are you using with the gun to shoot the oil based?
In addition to what Robert said, another limitation of this gun is that it can only spray a round pattern. In this day and age even most of your better $3 spray cans will spray an oval pattern, and I wouldn't have much use for a spray gun that couldn't do the same.
I've used it with oil-based primer and alkyd enamel to good effect. I thinned it just enough to shoot, to minimize runs on vertical surfaces. The self-leveling properties of the paint covered my technique. I was shooting interior "gates" with a lot of open work. Would use my el-cheapo HVLP if I had large surfaces to coat.
I've also used it with shellac. Makes me an even bigger fan of shellac.
If you want to spray, then you might try a good interior/exterior polyurethane in gloss. No flattners in gloss, and you can get them tinted. Polyurethane is sneaky stuff as it seems a lot more viscous than it should be. Since the gloss stuff is almost all resin/carriers and solvents, I am thinking that you could thin it enough to get it sprayable with that gun without compromising your finish.
I read once what rattle can paint cost compared to a quart can... nasty. Besides, unless your project is really small, you won't get a lot of material on anything with cans anyway. For director's chairs, you would probably use 3 - 4 cans a chair to get a nice finish on them.
In an industry publication I read a couple of years ago, it was estimated that the average rattle can delivered on 35% of material to the target. How's that for inefficient? I still use them on really small stuff or in a pinch, though.
Thanks, Pat. I appreciate that.
Here's something to look at concerning the Critter gun. I noticed that they weren't too critical overall as they are selling the same gun in their stores:
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saw the reference in this thread to the Wagner gun. I actually used a Wagner Power Shot Professional (model number unknown) and it worked great for me shooting latex paint.
I was finishing up a workshop for a client, and he was worried about getting his Hardie plank painted before a large group of storms were to hit. He and his son were to do the painting, but that was a project slated for several days away. I told him I couldn't do it as my airless was tied up on another job (big shop!) and rolling cement plank was not a good use of time.
He told me he had a sprayer as well. He went into the garage and pulled out one of those Wagners that had a slingpack for the paint feed as well as the quart cup. I wasn't interested. But he made me an offer I couldn't refuse (hey.. I'm not made of stone!) so I decided to give his gun a whirl.
I was spraying Glidden deep tint base paint in a deep brick red. The gun acted up a lot and sputtered and spewed. It was as bad as expected. I goofed with it a bit, then watched as my client looked broken hearted when I announced that the gun didn't work.
I got to thinking, I remembered that years ago I had a painter work for me that carried one of these around. He only took it out of the truck if he had a lot of latex enamel to spray on doors, or if he had louvered doors. His work always looked presentable.
So I cleaned the gun thoroughly, which was easy. I cut the paint by
10 - 15%, and loaded it up again. It performed flawlessly. I put on two coats of paint on his entire shop, and shot about 7-8 gallons of paint through it. No problems at all, and the finished product looked nice.
A few things I found out about the Wagner gun. First, buy the most powerful one they make. The others are a joke. Second, the gun MUST be kept scrupulously clean. And I cannot stress how important it is to have your paint as clean as a freshly opened can. This gun clogs easily and the filters just don't work well. Third, make sure you thin, no matter what the baloney says on the box about not needing to do so.
I have used mine now and then in a pinch, and have no qualms about using it. I only use it for latex application, interior and exterior, enamel and flat wall. But I have better equipment (airless, cup guns) for latex application, so it is rarely used.
Like the Critter, they have a place, you just have to practice a bit with it and decide what that place is in your repertoire.
I think personally if I were in your shoes and wanting to use your existing equipment on the director's, I would look at a tinted poly in your Critter gun.
Don't think you are alone. Almost no one I know realizes there is a difference, and I have had more than one lunch purchased for me up providing proof. The interior stuff tends to dry harder, and is more scuff resistant. It has no UV protection.
The exterior is just the reverse. Being outside requires that the finish be more flexible to accommodate the expansion and contraction of the substrate in climate changes as well as UV resistance.
You should be able to get a lunch bet our of someone on that one, Pat!
There are several manufacturers of tinted poly products. Minwax is certainly there with their polyshades, but ZAR, Varathane and others make their own as well just to name a couple. I think that Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams will also tint gallons of their stuff for you if you have a commercial division batch mixer in your area.
Excellent!
These tinted coatings are made for speed, no necessarily for fine finishing. I think deck chairs (and anything that needs a fast, better than average finish) and the like are the market in which these products shine.
They aren't designed for fine finishing.
Here's a tip I learned with tinted lacquer. Apply a first coat as evenly as possible. Apply a second coat to even out the appearance of the first coat.
If the sum of your two coats is even in appearance, make your subsequent top coats clear so that you won't have to worry about the color blending as well as the actual application.
One more comment. These colored finishes work best on naked wood. If you sand previously finished wood down and apply them over it, you take a huge risk of color blotching. Most of the finishes on store bought furniture are some kind of UV treat related lacquer or a catalyzed component finish of some sort. Your colored finish will skate right over these, with the more sanded areas grabbing more finish and color while the less sanded give the new finish no traction to adhere.
Better to clean the surface, sand it, then apply old faithful Bull's Eye sanding sealer over it before starting. Sand only enough to even out the surface, not exposing any raw wood or old surface material. Doing this will even out the texture of the surface and in turn even out the application of the colored material.
I will be looking for pics where we all can see them on photobucket, imageshack, etc.
I'll make a visit down to the commercial Sherwin Williams place in the next few days. Do you happen to know if you can do this in pastel colors like blue,white,green,etc,etc ???
(paint, high resin enamels, etc.) coatings as a final finish. It is shellac based with zinc oxide added for stain blocking and color bleed control. It works like a champ for recoats and color changes in all opaque finishes. It also makes a dandy sanding sealer.
Since it is white, I tend to use it like this: Sand your project to the desired grit. If you apply the white sealer on the sanded project, under a light you will see every single defect with ease when you sand. You can then sand them off, and recoat with the sealer. Depending on your feathering technique when spot touching, you will only have to reseal the spots you sanded.
and purposes in this discussion it is clear. In contrast to the BIN which sprays out white, this goes on clear and you can easily see the grain of the wood under it after application. It is a good sealer and to me the best choice for clear or tinted lacquers, varnishes, shellacs, polys, etc.
Think about it this way:
Top coats of paint or other paint-like coatings that obscure the grain of wood: BIN.
Everything else: SealCoat.
As far as the colors of poly go, I can't say for sure. I know they used to have a Mahogany kind of finish at SW, as well as that gawdawful white pickled stuff. After that, unknown.
Don't be afraid of the Minwax. When properly applied, it works just fine. I know it doesn't bring out the inner craftsmen in the guys that are trying to connect to the ancient woodworkers of the past, but it works well.
You can try it on some scrap with your equipment, then if you don't like it, take it back to the store and get your money back. THAT is something you won't get at a SW, Benjamin Moore, etc. You buy it and open it, it's yours.
I know EXACTLY what you are talking about, Leon. I had two and took them both back. I NEVER would have tried another one if that guy hadn't had one in his garage.
#1, they don't operate the way they say they will. You do have to thin to spray
#2, they don't turn forgive a grain of material in the system. It clogs over the smallest stuff. For me, it just pissed me off. For someone that doesn't take extra care to keep their materials covered and sealed all the time it's a disaster
#3, they don't leave the kind of finish that makes their use worthwhile. And since they are pretty inefficient in spray pattern and material application, that makes their best use latex paint in open areas.
#4, the only reason to have a low capacity cup (1 qt.) is to do small projects or fine finishing. These guns are adept at neither.
On reflection, I am thinking that probably the only reason that guy's gun worked out (sigh... he bought me one as a bonus on for painting his shop so fast on short notice - it hasn't been out of the box in 3 years) is that I was spraying outside with new paint I bought, thinned and put in the satchel carry pack and sprayed all at once.
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