Spraying latex with hvlp?

I haven’t had a lot of luck myself with the same HVLP unit .. so I’m interested in any thoughts as well.

-- Easy to use end grain cutting board designer: http://www.1024studios.com/cuttingboard.html

rut, I learned a trick about spraying latex from Earlextech so I copied his advice and see what you think. The molecules in latex are like spagetti, long and thin, imagine trying to get spagetti to line up so that you can spray it through a 1.5mm opening, nearly impossible, right? Using the mixer in a drill will shear the paint and it will chop up all of those long stringy molecules. All airless systems use this to their advantage by hiding a shearing blade inside the head unit and chopping the paint as it goes through. Hope this will help you spraying latex.

-- John @ http://www.thehuffordfurnituregroup.com

I forgot to mention; for the Earlex, he only thins latex about 10%. I don’t know if that will work for the Rockler HVLP, but using a mixer instead of just stirring the latex, I would probably start by thinning about 10% and practice on some scrap and go from there. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

-- John @ http://www.thehuffordfurnituregroup.com

Had same problems, I used paint mixer on my drill and really mixed up very well and thinned it some and then used a paint strainer before it went into the cup. Made a few needle adjustments and all worked out well.

-- What we do in life will Echo through Eternity........

Interesting. I actually have been using a drill mixer anyway but still had to thin probably by 25% to get it to spray. I finally decided to give it up and purchased a graco airless sprayer that is supposed to be able to handle latex unthinned. Well see.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll let you know how the graco works.

Rut

Just an update. I think I finally found the secret to a smooth latex finish. Using the graco truecoat airless sprayer with latex I was able to spray my cab faceframes and they dried nice and smooth.

The graco really throws out the paint. So much so that I was sure I would have way too much. It even looked a bit orange peelish after first spraying. I think the real secret was the addition of floetrol to the paint. I added almost a quart of floetrol to a gallon of paint. This allowed the paint to stay wetter longer and the paint smoothed out and dried nice and smooth.

While others may have luck with an hvlp setup, I think I’ll do it this way. I actually believe you can get it smooth just using a brush with the floetrol added. It really helps.

Rut

I use GF Milk Paint in mine with good results. Thinned about 20%. Haven’t tried latex. It just looks too thick. The Milk Paint is actually acrylic or so I’m told.

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