I have built wainscoting for the dining room--poplar, raised panels, with a chair rail above. I just bought the little fine finish Finish Max sprayer at Rockler. I want to spray the primer on to the assembled units out on the driveway against a wall (covered with plastic), then install the wainscoting, finally paint it with a brush using a water-based enamel that matches the rest of the room. Does anyone have a recommendation for a water-based primer that is compatible with this sprayer? I suspect that it will need to be thinned.
NO, use shellac. It sprays beautifully and is compatible with pretty much any finish. The exception is NC lacquer which is a obsolete, though common, finish.
I use BIN White Shellac primer under painted projects. The viscosity is surprisingly low and sprays with typical gravity feed spray guns. I looked at the manual for your gun and the recommended viscosity range matches the BIN product w/o thinning. The viscosity cup with your gun looks just like a Ford #4, so I'm using that as the basis.
The BIN white shellac primer sprays great and you can sand it smooth. It gives you a nice opaque surface so you need fewer coats of paint on top. Also, the shellac seals in any resins from knots, etc. so it won't bleed through later.
I would not use WB primers. They will raise the grain and require a lot more work to get a smooth surface for painting. The BIN shellac primer cleans up easily with ammonia in water and/or DNA.
John
Thanks JR1 and John. Exactly the advice I needed.
John, do you recall what the viscosity is for the BIN?
Hey Bill. I think it was right around 30 seconds. Surprised me that it was that low considering all the pigment in it. It sprayed great with my pressure assisted HVLP gun with a 1.0 mm N/N. I think with a gravity feed HVLP gun you could spray it with a 1.4 or 1.5 mm N/N.
John