GF Endurovar - I just kind of made this finishing schedule up

[Worthing]

I recently switched to GF EV as a finish for the furniture I make for our home. I got tired of the long dry times of GF oil polyureathane and thought I could spray the GF with my Rockler turbine spray gun. Yeah, not so much. Either I suck, the gun sucks, or both. So when it came time for the top of the cabinet I just finished, I did this.

Remembering Flexner talking about wipe-on finish (just slather it on, don't worry about consistency or missed spots) and using the foam brush like an airplane coming in for landing or taking off as you place or lift the brush, I put 5 coats of the GF EV basically as fast as I could on the 92x30 top of the cabinet. Went fast and furious to keep as wet an edge as possible, there were some brush marks where sections overlapped, but I just kept at it. Lightly sanded with 320 between coats.

After 5 coats it looked pretty...eh. A few dust nibs (nowhere near oil based poly thought), some brush marks, some overlaps...not a great finish and about what you'd expect with as fast as possible. Cool thing is those 5 coats took 1 day, not 5 like oil. I loved that.

I let it sit for a week.

Then the fun part. I purchased a set of micro-mesh 6" with holes sanding discs directly from the Micro-Surface website. Sanded with Abralon through 600 grit on the orbital sander, then went through the MM grits. Mist the surface with water while sanding, wiped down with my hand and then a blue rag with DNA after sanding.

Around the 3600 grit I was wondering what the hell I was doing because it was super satin (it was white opaque...). Power through and hope it turns out okay.

Well, by the time I was done, took about an hour or so, the top surface feels and looks like glass. My wife loves it more than any other finish I've done. There are a couple spots where it's still a little dull, maybe some polishing compound (I ordered 3M Finesse It for next time, something Jeff Jewitt recommends on the GF site), but all in all, it turned out real nice.

So, even though it turned out great imo, what did I do wrong? If anyone has a try this or try that to make it even easier or better, I'm all ears.

But I thought I'd share because I found something that for me is the easiest finish quality:work ratio I've ever done. Don't know that I'd do it for the rest of the casework of the cabinet, but for the show, the top, I like it alot.

-Shane

[jteneyck]

I know nothing about that system, but you can't expect a lot from a $100 outfit. You can get great results with a $15 HF gun, but I don't think low end turbine units do as well. EnduroVar is not the easiest thing to spray either; too little and it comes out rough and dry, too much and it runs, too low pressure and it orange peels. GF's Enduro Clear Poly is much easier to spray, and you may want to give that one a try before you throw out that sprayer. It's almost as durable as EnduroVar, too, and quite a bit cheaper.

Learning to spray is worth the effort. You can't get a spray finish as smooth and perfect as a rubbed out one, but you can came come very close in a lot less time, with a lot less finish, and a lot less work. I usually spray a coat of Sealcoat shellac first and then a maximum of 3 coats of EnduroVar. One day, done.

I've never tried rubbing out EnduroVar but it's good to know it can be done. Thanks.

John

[Mr Eddie]

I used EV on my work table - sort of like a big test piece of wood. I wanted to learn to spray and thought I can't really hurt a work table so . . . but like John said there's a learning curve because the EV can be a little touchy to get it right. I got orange peel from too heavy a coat but learned a lot about spraying and EV.

I used a painter's pad to apply the EV on the face of the vise and it worked so good, no fat edges! I used a 1000 grit Abralon polishing pad wrapped around my sanding block and wet sanded it with water. It was smooth as glass after just a couple of passes. Still experimenting but I think the wet sanding has some real potential.

Lonnie

[jteneyck]

Keep practicing; it will be worth it. If you have a gravity feed HVLP gun try using a 1.4 mm orifice and turn the pressure up to around 30 or even 35 at the gun inlet. Open the fluid flow up quite a bit because a 1.4 mm orifice is technically too small. Open the fan control all the way. Make sure you can see the wet line as you spray. Put the gun about 8" off the work piece and pace yourself so that the coating looks just a little less than totally covered in one pass. Don't try to get complete coverage or it will orange peal. Overlap your passes by 1/2. The finish will flow out to a complete film in a couple of minutes after you're done. Add a couple % water if you have to, or GF's Extender if it dries before flowing out.

I'm certainly no expert, but it can be done. I did this with my old 1.8 mm gravity feed gun:



and this with the purple 1.4 mm HF gun:



My new air assisted HVLP gun from Jeff Jewitt makes it a lot easier, however. I can use a 1.0 mm orifice with it because of the pressurized cup, and that gives much finer atomization so it's easier to get a smooth finish.

As good as EnduroVar is performance wise, it's not that much better than Enduro Clear Poly, and that spray only product is a LOT easier to spray. Clear Poly is also about $25/gal cheaper. It's the product I use most of the time now. You might want to consider it as an easier to use alternative.

John

[Worthing]

Thanks for the reply and info John. Do you know the item number of the HF gun. There are three or four different purple HVLP guns at HF's website.

Also, will my Makita 5200 compressor be enough? 6.9 CFM @ 40, 6.5 CFM @ 90.
TIA,
Shane

[jteneyck]

I don't remember exactly which purple gun it was. I gave it to a friend who lives outside the country much of the year. I do remember I bought it on sale for $9.99, which is why I bought it. I wanted to see if a gun that cost so little could spray a decent finish. It can. I think any of the purple guns will work fine. The one I had had a 1.4 mm orifice, and all the purple ones I've looked at at HF also have a 1.4 mm orifice. I already had a mini regulator, but if you don't, I would either buy the gun that comes with it, or buy one separately. You really want to be able to regulate the air pressure close to or at the gun inlet.

6.5 CFM at 40 psi should be plenty for those guns. I typically used 20 - 25 psi for Sealcoat shellac and 30 - 35 psi for EnduroVar.

John

[Worthing]

Gave it a go with the HF purple gun tonight. It was sputtery. The only way I could get anything even close to a full coat was turning the fan control all the way down and the pressure all the way up to 40 PSI on the regulator attached to the gun. And then it would throw so much at the small area of the fan that it would run in spots.

I'll try again tomorrow. If I open the fan control all the way like you said and lower the PSI to 30-35 I think it's going to sputter again. Maybe I just need to go slower so it coats a little more and flows out like you said?

[jteneyck]

That sounds strange. Your gun has a 1.4 mm tip, correct? It should say right on the air cap. If it has a little filter on the inlet of the gun, below the cup, take it out and throw it away. Just filter your finish before you put it in the cup.

Your results were with EnduroVar, correct? Fan control wide open, air pressure 30 - 35 psi, fluid control maybe 2.5 - 3 turns open, cheater control next to the air inlet wide open. 8" off the work and move the gun about half a foot/second - slower than you think. You should get about 90% coverage, and it will flow out to a complete film in a couple of minutes. If your humidity is really low you may need to add Extender so that it can flow out before it sets. I've never had to but I live in NY. The temp. needs to be at least 60 F, too, but not above about 85F. You can add up to 10% H2O if needed, but start with 5% if none of the above helps.

If it's sputtering you don't have the fluid valve open far enough. If you have it wide open and it's still sputtering, add water. If the finish feels rough move the gun closer to the work.

Good luck,

John