Again it depend what products you plan on using. Right tool for the job ..
Cabinet Airless Spray Approach - Acrylic
What’s up guys?
Been visiting this site for a while now for insight and tips, etc. Ton of knowledgeable folks, so thank you for that.
Straight to the point—I’m wondering what is everyone’s airless spray process for spraying cabinet face frames in the vertical/installed position. I just went through hell spraying virgin soft maple with California Ultra Aquaborne Ceramic in satin. I sprayed on a coat of SW wall and wood first and then the California and it was all just downhill from there.
210 FFLP tip. Without going too much into detail for the moment, I tried a different approach for every coat, each of which were one or two days apart, and I was never able to keep the paint from sagging. Like, almost immediately.
I sprayed the doors horizontal, one side at a time. They came out beautiful.
But yeah I’m completely stumped and it’s extremely frustrating for me when I can’t track down the cause of a problem.
If you want to know more about my approach, I’d be glad to answer questions but I’m sure I’ll get a ton of good advice by just hearing how some of you prep and shoot your cabinets.
Thanks guys.
Been visiting this site for a while now for insight and tips, etc. Ton of knowledgeable folks, so thank you for that.
Straight to the point—I’m wondering what is everyone’s airless spray process for spraying cabinet face frames in the vertical/installed position. I just went through hell spraying virgin soft maple with California Ultra Aquaborne Ceramic in satin. I sprayed on a coat of SW wall and wood first and then the California and it was all just downhill from there.
210 FFLP tip. Without going too much into detail for the moment, I tried a different approach for every coat, each of which were one or two days apart, and I was never able to keep the paint from sagging. Like, almost immediately.
I sprayed the doors horizontal, one side at a time. They came out beautiful.
But yeah I’m completely stumped and it’s extremely frustrating for me when I can’t track down the cause of a problem.
If you want to know more about my approach, I’d be glad to answer questions but I’m sure I’ll get a ton of good advice by just hearing how some of you prep and shoot your cabinets.
Thanks guys.
1 - 12 of 68 Posts
I like your approach on this. I have thought of doing the same thing. My only concern is having to to thin the paint so much for the hvlp which may end up looking different than the doors, unless you thinned everything the same..We often spray the boxes with an HVLP. If you have it dialed in, you can move pretty quick with it. Plus, it is so versatile. You can make adjustments on the fly. I have a remote pot that we use with it probably half the time, depending on the kitchen. It's nice to not have to deal with the cup. I usually use an airless on the doors. For doors, the time savings adds up.
That ED655 seems pretty cool and compact. Would the Envirolak stuff spray well from a turbine hvlp I wonder? It seems to me that an hvlp would be ideal for boxes(with a pressure pot), although an airless is fine and much faster. Definitely Straight up airless for the doors.I have been rolling with straight airless out of the ED655's. It's more of a paint to haul all the extra equipment around, but the gun and pressure control is so much better on AAA. Wish I had the funds to get a CA Tech complete setup.
So Envirolak just released a new 1k one coat topcoat, saw the video on facebook, its like 800 series? Granted they were spraying with a compressor system, cross hatched the shiz out of it, but white over black was pretty nice.
Ya I've had my eye on that 9.5 for some time. Would definitely be a good addition to the quiver.😍There are other HVLP’s on the market, but the Graco 9.5 is worth looking at…it is an investment, but is good.
I really like the adaptability of this unit, and the gun in particular. Haven’t heard anyone talk about it much. I am not a production painter, so this unit (and HVLP specifically) appeals to me.
It is 5 stage turbine, so it is powerful enough to push Acrylics (I think 4 stages are underpowered, requiring more thinning). The gun uses a disposable cup liner that allows fast, easy clean up. It can be sprayed upside-down because of the liner system, which creates a vacuum that sprays better (more consistently) than traditional cups. The gun can be converted to gravity fed, or can be used with remote cup in the ‘pro comp’ model.
*The soft start and auto on/off is really nice feature in the ProComp model: Automatically turns on when you pull the trigger, and turns off after idle for about 15 seconds. And of course like most HVLP's, the trigger can be feathered.
I spray my doors at the shop, so would normally spray boxes first with airless, then transport full of paint back to the shop which is a bit of a pain..Ideally would like to have 1 person onsite spraying boxes, while I can be working on doors at the shop. Do you run your primer and topcoat through the same rig? So many options! 😅I mean if you are going to have to mask all the box interiors and surrounding items, might as well go airless on everything. I spray all on site, doors outside in a booth, then dried inside, then spray cabinets. The ED655 is great, super easy to carry around unlike any airless with a diick.
Sounds pretty much how we do things also. Although a lot of times we are doing demo and carpenrtry/modifications also, so normally will block off 2 full work weeks per kitchen and just overlap them. Although having a turbine hvlp seems appealing for the site work atleast for the priming. I hate cleaning my airless on site and switching between products. Cross contamination etc..You ever do or consider that? Obviously more equipment to haul around also..For sure, I do everything with a particular product on the same day. My typical kitchen is this:
Day1. Pull hardwared, doors and drawers, label for re-install. Clean surfaces, and sand
Day2. Masking
Day3. Primer, caulk and putty when dry
Day4. Full sand, finish coat on backs
Day5. Finish on fronts and boxes
Day6 Put back, clean up
I run a 60 gal tank at my shop and it kicks in every 3 doors. The bigger the tank the better.Those of you spraying HVLP, what size compressor do you have? Mine is 30gal, 5scfm @40 psi but most guns require 9-10 cfm. Can I function even on smaller projects?
Those quickshots do look pretty handy. What will one of those cost?All I can add here, is that for good atomization of waterborne paint, turbine HVLP is still cumbersome compared to airless/AAA.
I have had great success on a number of kitchen paint/repaints with the ED 655. Most standard kitchens require at most a gallon or two, and the doors are usually done off-site or in an on-site portable booth situation. The unit seldom gets close to overheating.
The ED 655 is very light, powerful enough, and super easy to clean.
If using with a reversible tip set-up, one has to be careful about 'gun spit'. This means careful planning of stops and starts when doing the boxes. While I think the Tri Tech tips have somewhat superior spray pattern to Graco or Titan, the spit that occurs when triggering 'off' is a bit more noticeable than the Graco FFLP tips.
One workaround is to invest in a Graco clean-shot fixture, and learn how to optimize it with the coatings you like to spray.
The only downside to this piece of gear is that it makes the gun a little longer, and bulkier, which can be tricky inside smaller cabinet boxes.
Latest piece of technology on stage is the Graco Ultra Quick Shot. If it delivers on the promises, it could become the new standard for kitchen painting - maybe boxes only and standard airless for your doors if necessary.
Now that you mention it, I decided to measure the fan on 308 fflp today from 12' and the pattern was indeed about 8-9"..I have several Graco 308 tips and all of them, when measured, actually have a fan that is close to 9 - 10 inches. My Tri Tech 308 tips are consistently closer to 6" fan.
I was doing some small boxes last week and elected to use a Graco 208, because it actually has a fan pretty close to six inches, and I feel the Graco tips are bit better with lower gun spit.
Has anyone else come across this with the Graco 308 tips?
Yep. Gun spit has always been a nuisance. Happens on all airless models too from my experience. I shoot alot of Advance, and spits seem to flow out thankfully. I've never had any luck spraying latex with the hvlp either. (At least on flat surfaces)I would think that the urethanes would maybe atomize a little better. For example, Stix is a urethane primer, and thinned about 10% sprays really nice from a cup gun. BIN sprays like a dream. Going to test spray some Envirolak soon, as I just got a shipment for testing. Very excited about it actually. If it sprays well from an hvlp I may actually consider a turbine model for cabinet boxes, fireplace mantels, furniture, etc. with the pressure cup of course..Which may seem like a detail for some, but if you are working in really small boxes, as I was last week, too much material gets onto adjacent surfaces, and the potential for sags goes up. I ended up using a 208 Graco to finish the project, because it actually came up very close to the Tri Tech 308 fan width.
One would think that Graco would have the bandwidth to clean this up?
I've been looking at gun spit on Tri Tech vs Graco but there is no real consistent pattern. With the Sayerlac I shot last week, the Graco tips showed a bit less crap when I shut off the trigger. Today, I did a comparison on the two manufacturer's tips with a dark color, BM cabinet coat (it was not my choice to use this product), and there was no real difference.
Part of this may be because Cabinet Coat atomizes like a total dog, and is soft and useless as a 'cabinet coat' into the bargain. It does not behave well with any airless/AAA combo I have ever tried, and wonder if it is even possible to get good results with HVLP.
I might add that most wouldn't be spraying CV in people's houses either. And a 513 tip for cabinets?I think most people on here would agree with you on that. I think the obstacle there is just cost.
I guess it depends what product and surface you are painting, but most guys I know doing cabinets are using a 308. Feel free to fill out your profile and introduce yourself to the gang so we know what you're all about. Appreciate your contributions!What's wrong with a 513? I used to use the 411 but it got jammed up way too much. Switched to the 513 and haven't had a problem since.
1 - 12 of 68 Posts
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