07-23-2016, 04:11 PM
I have a painted bath project that I hope I can spray, but with the possibility that I might have to apply the final coat by hand, I needed a paint that can both be sprayed and painted. There are several good choices but I settled on BM's Advance water borne alkyd paint. I brushed a sample specimen a couple of weeks ago and was amazed how well it flowed out after applying it with a cheap foam brush. I was impressed.
As I got ready to spray today I measured the viscosity first and it came out about 500 seconds through a Ford #4 cup. This is thick stuff; almost as thick as SW's acrylic Pro Classic. I bought my pressurized cup Qualspray HVLP gun specifically with hopes of being able to spray these products w/o thinning so this was going to be a good test. The largest N/N that comes stock with the gun is 1.5 mm, so I installed those, poured the paint into the cup and shot a test panel. Using the stock air pressure of 29 psi, cup pressure of 5 psi, and fan control setting of 1 turn open I use for nearly everything, and a typical value of 1.5 turns open on the fluid flow, it sprayed beautifully. I opened the fluid flow to 2 turns open and it was just perfect. The gun laid down a very smooth coating of paint and after a few minutes it flowed out great. (I used BIN pigmented shellac primer under it, which also sprays great, but with the 1 mm N/N set because it has a viscosity of only 35 seconds.) The coating seemed thinner than when I brushed it but had complete coverage and no tendency to run. I was spraying a lot of large vertical panels so that was very important.
The paint was dry to a light touch in about 90 minutes. Time before you can sand it and apply another coat, however, is 12+ hours so it's not for anyone needing to push product through their shop. It has very low odor and clean up is simple soap and water. I hope to be able to shoot the final coat tomorrow, and then it will sit for almost a week to hopefully cure pretty well before I install it.
If you have a cabinet paint job coming up, I recommend you consider BM's Advance paint if you want to brush/roll it or have a sprayer capable of spraying it. It's good stuff.
John
As I got ready to spray today I measured the viscosity first and it came out about 500 seconds through a Ford #4 cup. This is thick stuff; almost as thick as SW's acrylic Pro Classic. I bought my pressurized cup Qualspray HVLP gun specifically with hopes of being able to spray these products w/o thinning so this was going to be a good test. The largest N/N that comes stock with the gun is 1.5 mm, so I installed those, poured the paint into the cup and shot a test panel. Using the stock air pressure of 29 psi, cup pressure of 5 psi, and fan control setting of 1 turn open I use for nearly everything, and a typical value of 1.5 turns open on the fluid flow, it sprayed beautifully. I opened the fluid flow to 2 turns open and it was just perfect. The gun laid down a very smooth coating of paint and after a few minutes it flowed out great. (I used BIN pigmented shellac primer under it, which also sprays great, but with the 1 mm N/N set because it has a viscosity of only 35 seconds.) The coating seemed thinner than when I brushed it but had complete coverage and no tendency to run. I was spraying a lot of large vertical panels so that was very important.
The paint was dry to a light touch in about 90 minutes. Time before you can sand it and apply another coat, however, is 12+ hours so it's not for anyone needing to push product through their shop. It has very low odor and clean up is simple soap and water. I hope to be able to shoot the final coat tomorrow, and then it will sit for almost a week to hopefully cure pretty well before I install it.
If you have a cabinet paint job coming up, I recommend you consider BM's Advance paint if you want to brush/roll it or have a sprayer capable of spraying it. It's good stuff.
John