As one other person said, part of the problem may be your technique.
You do not want to get the nozzle too far from the sprayed surface.
Latex is difficult (based on my experience and what others have
written). You definitely need to use floetrol up to the maximum
dilution as the main thinner to maintain gloss and then add a small
amount of water if needed.

A second point is temperature. You should be spraying at a fairly low
temperature such as 65-70, and definitely nothing over 75 degrees or
it dries too quickly.

Oil is much easier to work with and as far as the distressed look, my
piano is a distressed knotty pine and is of course clear finished in
laquer. Even if it were painted I certainly wouldn't want it to be in
latex.

You took on a major project for a first time using HVLP. There seems
to be a fairly short but steep learning curve. Don't get discouraged.

wendi wrote:

Joe,

Yes, I have a HVLP spray gun and 10 cfm compressor. I have to thin the
primer and the paint down; otherwise, the nozzle tends to get clogged up
easily.

Oil-based paint is probably overkill for the look that I'm going for. I'm
going for the distress look, not the super, duper smooth look. The BEHR
paint actually levels out very well when using paint brush and in its
original form (not water down). I'm happy with the hand brush job. It just
take too long. There're a lot of trims. The spray gun is sooooo much
quickly. The drawback of the spray gun is that it gives a little bit of
texture. And the most disturbing thing is the sheen of the satin paint is
gone!?! I'm not sure if it's a result of the thinned paint or it's the
texture or both...

I'd use L&P if they have the color I want. But, they don't. I was planning
to try Sherwin Williams tomorrow. But someone mentioned that SW is not good
enough either? Please rate these stores...
1. Bejamin Moore
2. Vista
3. Edward Duncan

thx in advance
-wen

"Joe Bobst" wrote in message
...
How can I maintain the satin sheen with spray gun?

Use the right kind of spray gun. For heavy latex paints airless sprayers
are
often the best choice. If you have a large enough compressor and the
correct
nozzle assembly, an HVLP spray gun might do the job. Many painting
contractors
use HVLP systems with dedicated compressors.
If you are using an old fashioned internal mix spray gun, experimenting
with
paint type and thinning might get you decent results, but for that set up
an
oil based paint may work better when thinned for spraying.
I'd suggest finding a dedicated paint store where the professionals buy
there
stuff, and ask the counter chaps for their best advice. Good luck.

Joe