In article ,
Renata wrote:

Last but not least, how 'bout some resources where I can read up on
how to use this thing

That would be like a correspondence course in boxing. Practise is all
that matters.
A well-practised sprayer with a mediocre gun will get far better results
than a novice with a $3000.00 Fabialucci* gun.

I have sprayed one gawdawful amount of doors, panels, crown, kicks,
cabinets etc. in my life and, at the risk of sounding cocky, I'm ALMOST
all done making mistakes. G
I recently bought a Husky (Home Depot) HVLP for just over CAN$ 130.00.
That gun should be under US$ 100.00.

I sprayed an 8-foot cherry headboard with MinWax Polycrylic with
excellent results with the Husky. In my previous life, after literally
thousands of litres of catalysed lacquers through a serious DeVilbiss
Pro pot-fed system, I was pleasantly surprised. (Maybe The MinWax people
don't talk about spraying Polycrylic because of legal issues with the
Fresh Air Police.... it sprays just fine, right out of the can. Just
don't shake the ca,,,,we don't want to spray bubbles.

Without the air being connected, open the fluid metering adjustment by
pulling the trigger, till you get a small stream of liquid flowing from
the nozzle. You get that when the needle pulls back away into the nozzle
opening it up for fluids to pass.
THE nicest feature from a gravity fed gun.
Now the job of the air, is to do two things. Blow the stream apart
(atomize) into a mist, and transport that mist onto the work
-piece.

Start off with about 40 PSIg at the gun.
Add the air so that you get a vertical stripe of paint (called 'the
fan') about 6"- 8" in height when you hold your gun about 12" away from
the target.

Make sure you don't vary that distance as you move that 'stripe' from
side to side covering the area you painting. Initially, you may want to
spray just water just to see what happens when you twist what knob which
way.

The tricky part is moving the fan over the work in an even speed and
even distance then with just enough overlap between sweeps not too wet
in the middle of the previous pass and not too dry so that 'banding'
shows up.
Overlap is the practice part. And keep that gun pointed perpendicularly
to the work and don't move it away from the work just because you're
running out of arm. Do NOT follow an arc.


You CANNOT use water base in just any gun. The needle and parts have to
be stainless steel. I still like shooting some alcohol through the gun
after my soapy warm-water cleanup, followed at the end with some soft
mineral spirits, such as Varsol.... just enough to coat the parts.
Use 3 coats. Re-coat when the previous coat is just dry (1-2 hours). If
you plan on sanding between coats (sometimes nice to get rid of dirt or
suicide bugs) wait 24 hours.











*Don't bother DAGSing Fabialucci, as I made up the name illustrating a
generic top-of-the-line device.