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Tell me about spray painting

| Posted in Construction Techniques on July 15, 2003 03:07am

I moved east from the midwest, and out there in flyover land, the painting contractors all used spray rigs to do interior trim.  Depending on job size, a couple days or so of masking went on, then the sprayer suited up and gunned the whole house in usually less than one day, multiple coats.  The walls were then hand cut to the trim and sprayed and backrolled, and it was paycheck time.

Where I am now, no one knows what I am talking about.  So I am thinking of doing it myself for my current project.  I can hire and train the masking help, and I’ll do the spraying.  I have done a lot of small-scale spray work, when I was heavily into radio control model planes.  Dopes, acrylics, two-part epoxies, ridiculously involved masking schemes, I have done a lot of those on six and seven foot wingspan planes, so I think I can step up to the plate on house paint.

I want my trim scheme to be done in waterborne finishes, not alkyds.  Point me toward the resources that I need to get educated, equipped, and trained.  HVLP, airless, or whatever.

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  1. User avater
    james | Jul 15, 2003 06:01am | #1

    if we are going to spray we usually spray the trim first with no masking to the wall, then we mask off the trim and spray the walls, it seems like a false economy to spray the trim then roll the walls.

    having said that hvlp is nice ( less overspray, easy to come back and do touch ups etc) but it all can be done with an airless.  for trim we use something like a green grayco 411 tip and thin the paint down considerably with flowtrill to get that very monolithic look of oils, then we do the walls with something like a 515 or 517( depending on the paint ) or is the job is textured we use a wider bore tip, we also go bigger if the site is clear and we are  going to cover large areas.)

    hope this helped.

    James

    ps fine homebuilding had an good article on spray painting last year or before, you should check it out #134

    1. Danusan11 | Jul 15, 2003 02:11pm | #4

      Masking off walls to spray trim eliminates flashing on walls when you paint them after.

  2. User avater
    goldhiller | Jul 15, 2003 06:20am | #2

    HVLP - Depending upon how much you want to spend and how much portability you'd like, you might consider a turbine outfit. You might find this article enlightening.........

    http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/w00051.asp

    Homestead Refinishing is a good resource for info on HVLP conversion guns.

    http://www.homesteadfinishing.com

    Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
  3. Piffin | Jul 15, 2003 06:42am | #3

    All I'm gonna say on this one is that you'll get fortyu different opinions with almost none of them agreeing 100%

    .

    Excellence is its own reward!

  4. TomT226 | Jul 15, 2003 02:30pm | #5

    Go airless. HVLP is good for cabinets and furniture, but you don't need that kind of quality for walls and trim. I own and use both. Additionally, HVLP is much slower. Go with a good Wagner (or similar) 3/4 HP on wheels.

    The airless works good on acoustic ceilings too. You don't have to thin most latex or acrylic stuff if you use airless.

    Be sure to exhaust the overspray if you can. I use a box fan set in a window with the screen removed, and move it from room to room.

    Shut the doors and drape them. Turn off the heat or AC. Spread drops on the floor and tape them down near the casing because the airless will lift them as you make passes. Remove switch plates. Tape or remove light fixtures.

    Airless guns shoot a lot of paint, so be careful of runs on trim and untextured walls. It teally blows the paint into a textured wall, so additional rolling is generally not needed.

    Wear a good mask, hat, gloves and long sleeved shirt. Put vaseline on your face. Makes the paint come off easier.

    Hope this helps.

  5. RW | Jul 16, 2003 01:21am | #6

    Regarding the trim, You have several options. If you want a pump, the little Graco 440 is all you really have to have size wise. You can go bigger, but for what you're looking at doing, it is sufficient. The down side is you said waterborne, and IMHO pumps and waterbornes don't do well together. Lots of them however do work fine out of a cup gun. When I spray waterbornes, I hook up the compressor to a pressure pot. I think that's about as efficient as you're going to get, both time wise and transfer efficiency.

    An HVLP will push the material out if its got enough juice, but waterbornes dry so fast as it is, you can end up drying part of the material as it comes out when the unit heats up. Then your finish still sucks.

    As to using them in a house, experiment before you jump in head first. Waterbornes are coming along, and some products are great these days, and some are still lagging. The poor performers are still brittle enough when dry that kicking a baseboard or slamming a door could make it craze and flake.

    Look into Kem-Aqua from Sherwin. Newer product. Sealer, top coat. Acrylic. It's a little more flexible than some of the others and doesn't dry as fast. You let the sealer dry for about 4 hours, scuff sand it, then you hose the debris off with compressed air (wiping the trim will lodge white dust in the pores), then top coat it. Very durable stuff. Bottom line, stick with old fashioned lacquer in a pump, go cup gun or pot on the waterbornes. Good luck.

    "The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb "      lyrics by Roger Waters



    Edited 7/15/2003 6:22:50 PM ET by RW

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