First time spraying advice

[DaveBozeman]

I want to try spraying a clear finish on some cabinets for my hobby room.. 

Any suggestions on a finish that I should try as a first timer?

[WoodTinker]

I want to try spraying a clear finish on some cabinets for my hobby room.. 

Any suggestions on a finish that I should try as a first timer?

I would recommend shellac. Get some filters to strain before using.

It is pretty easy to clean the gun with denatured alcohol after.

[fredhargis]

Generally speaking, if you choose to go with a waterbourne finish, pick one that's labeled for spraying. The brushing formulas have to be thinned to spray, and with a waterbourne you can't just add thinner like you would with an oil based finish. You are usually limited..it varies some but about the most I've seen allowed was 20%, some as little as 10%. Most of them (waterbourne finishes) are fairly good anymore, but you can't go wrong with the stuff from General Finishes. Shellac does spray well, but wouldn't be my first choice for cabinets; a water born would be much more durable. Should you choose shellac, clean with household ammonia...it absolutely destroys the shellac. It's pretty good for cleaning up after using a water born finish as well.

[jteneyck]

I would take both recommendations above and use them.  I use WB finishes almost exclusively; the only exception being shellac.  And I use shellac because it sprays great, seals the wood, imparts an amber tint, and espectially because it doesn't raise the grain, something many WB's have a nasty habit of doing especially on grainy woods like oak.  

A typical process for me is to spray a light coat of Sealcoat shellac, which is wax free.  Do not use shellac with wax in it or you risk the WB topcoat not bonding very well.  After the Sealcoat has dried a few hours I scuff sand it with 400 grit to remove any dust nibs and then spray my WB topcoats.  

HF's purple spray gun, typically on sale for $10 sprays Sealcoat beautifully.  It also will spray some WB clears very well with minimal thinning.  GF's Enduro Clear Poly and Lenmar Duralaq-WB (available at your local BM, and a lot cheaper than Clear Poly though not as chemically durable) will both spray well with only a little thinning.  For a first time sprayer I'd go with Duralaq-WB because it's cheaper and sprays very well. 


John

[Turner52]

As stated above use amonia for cleaning, Before I retired my painters sprayed over a thousand gallons of alcohol based products per year.We used it mainly for getting rid of smoke odor after a fire.Much cheaper and actually does a better job.Plus being in business we had so many gallons of various thinners left from cleaning that we had a service pick up full 55 gallon drums of the stuff several times a year. Did not need to seperate the types. Have no idea how they recycled the stuff thatway, but that is what they did. Only problem was it cost us more to get rid of used solvents than it did to buy the stuff originally and you all know how expensive some of them are.

[ajkoontz]

I want to try spraying a clear finish on some cabinets for my hobby room.. 

Any suggestions on a finish that I should try as a first timer?

I'd suggest waterborne but that's mostly because it is easier to clean the equipment. I use an Earlex HVLP (ie- the $100 Rockler HVLP gun) to spray. I've used Minwax waterborne and thinned it up to 10% +/- with water and been happy with the results. It ain't a fine finish, but it's pretty good and pretty hard to screw up too bad even for an amature like me. I've also used Mohawk pre-cat lacquer, but to me the smell and clean-up are not worth it. You should probably follow the advice of the other posters here for more high-end finish advice, but I wanted to add my 2 cents as a complete amature. I'd tell you pick something cheap(ish) and readily available and give it a go. Practice on a scrap board or two and then go for it.

[Bill Wilson]

Diluted ammonia does work great for cleaning up shellac.  Just be careful using it for cleaning any aluminum parts of your spray gun (like the paint cup).  It will discolor it and may etch the surface....or so somebody told me....

[DaveBozeman]

thanks all for the replies!

[Stwood_]

Generally speaking, if you choose to go with a waterbourne finish, pick one that's labeled for spraying. The brushing formulas have to be thinned to spray, and with a waterbourne you can't just add thinner like you would with an oil based finish. You are usually limited..it varies some but about the most I've seen allowed was 20%, some as little as 10%. Most of them (waterbourne finishes) are fairly good anymore, but you can't go wrong with the stuff from General Finishes. Shellac does spray well, but wouldn't be my first choice for cabinets; a water born would be much more durable. Should you choose shellac, clean with household ammonia...it absolutely destroys the shellac. It's pretty good for cleaning up after using a water born finish as well.

Cabot's WB Poly Brushable 8082 sprays just fine, with no thinning in my HVLP guns.

[DaveBozeman]

For the water based finishes... just because of the easier cleanup.. what pressure should i try to spray at?
It's a low cost (cheap) Harbor Fright HVLP gun.. it has it's own regulator on it as well

I tried spraying around 40psi on the gun regulator, when the trigger is depressed, the gauge goes to about 20.. this seems to be working ok.. just double checking to see if i'm way off base.. lol