Reply by Jerry

We lacquer all of our kitchens with the same set up you are speaking of. Blushing was already mentioned, but to speak more on it… if you are spraying in hot humid condition your spray finish may appear to be “cloudy” in apppearance because the lacquer dried so fast it trapped water under finish. When you exp this cloudy look, just splash in retarder in your lacquer mix. Then spray another coat over the cloudy finish and the moisture that was trapped will be released and the retarder mixture will allow the finish to dry quickly enough while not trappping moisture, leaving you with a nice finish. I find that i often get much better results when using retarder when humid.

I buy our lacquee from Sherwin and routinely get excelllent results. I always mix my gallon to about a 55/45 or 60/40 lacquer to lac thinner ratio. I open the new gallon, pour contents into bucket, then refill that empty gallon can to about 80% full of thinner and then stir thoroughly to get all lac mat that may have been left in the can mixed into thinner, then pour this thinner into bucket and then i do a slow thorough stir of lac and thinner, thereby producing about 1.8 gallons of lacquer mixture. This mixture always works very well for us.

We also utilize a sand/sealer step before the final lac finish us applied that lets us hand sand to very soft smooth feel.

I spray with compressor set at 40 lbs more or less. Exp some with your setting to see what will properly atomize your material. Ensure your compressor is up to task. No less then 4 gallon tank and probably no less then 4 cfm at 90 lbs rating. Smaller then what i just recommended and your compressor will fall behind. An insufficient compressor will allow you to spray good for a small window of time but then when you are not realizing it you end up getting orange peel from insufficient air flow. Just a pitfall to avoid.

In short:

1. Cloudy look is moisture trappped, correct with retarder mixture.
2. Orange peel look or looks like you are spraying texture, air flow setting needs adjuated or gun needs to be cleaned out thoroughly.
3. The gun may tend to clog some when used extensively and may require periodic cleaning as needed.

-- Jerry Nettrour, San Antonio, www.topqualitycabinets.net