I gave up on Verizon and resubscribed to newsguy, so hopefully I'll be
a more regular visitor again.

Now, onto the kitchen.

The gremlin living in my basement is finding a whole rash of ways to
make my life miserable. Mainly dealing with the finishing, but let's
not forget the drill press (which I haven't yet checked out the new
replacement headstock for run-out).

And, I'm finding that I probably should've set up my shop a bit
differently, at least for this operation. Stuff like storing the wood
not in the tool room would've made a big difference (though another
location was problematic as well).

Plus, I really did put out of my mind how much work building cabinets
and redoing a kitchen entails.

OK, here's my situation.

I'm using Hydrocote Resithane and an Apollo HVLP. Thought I had it
figured out, but no-oo. If it's not one thing, it's another. In
fact, the gremlin (maybe he has his friends along to help him? ) has
been a busy little beaver finding new annoyances after I address the
old ones.

Oh, BTW, apparently Dial liquid soap contains silicone. DAMHIK.

At least I think it does since I've been adding a bit to the water I
use to spray thru to clean the gun, after which I spray thru either
paint thinner or lacquer thinner.

Also, seems like no matter how clean I think the room is, some little
particle finds it's way to my doors when the finish is wet.

Now I read that Hood (the people I bought the hydrocote from) has a
handy little instruction sheet for this product that they DIDN'T
include with my order. Can't find it on their website either. Gotta
give them a call...
Though, I must say, otherwise I'm quite pleased with their service.
The stuff arrived in a day! 5 gallons pus another gallon of gloss and
ONE day shipping (I mean it was from practically next door, Jersey not
being too far from MD), but I was still impressed.

Anyway, I guess what I'm looking for is some general practical advice
and hints of any sort from those of you who regularly spray your
finishes so I can have doors on my cabinets instead of curtains;-)
Plus, am I cleaning the gun appropriately? Etc.

My plan is to do a coat of satin, a coat of gloss, finishing w/a coat
of satin. Should I lightly sand the gloss coat or leave it alone? I
actually have the gloss coat sprayed, but it needs to be stripped due
to the fisheye.

I better stop for now.

Thanx in (obviously) advance
Renata

I'm using Hydrocote Resithane and an Apollo HVLP. Thought I had it
figured out, but no-oo. If it's not one thing, it's another. In
fact, the gremlin (maybe he has his friends along to help him? ) has
been a busy little beaver finding new annoyances after I address the
old ones.



Anyway, I guess what I'm looking for is some general practical advice
and hints of any sort from those of you who regularly spray your
finishes so I can have doors on my cabinets instead of curtains;-)
Plus, am I cleaning the gun appropriately? Etc.

A shift in gun cleaning may be the 1st way to go. Make a trip to an
automotive paint supply house and ask the best (and low cost) way to
clean the gun based on the stuff your spraying. The generic product
is called "gun wash". Most of these people don't recommend laquer
thinner as it's 'too' aggresive and it's residue can cause issues in
the work. You can leave the gun wash in the gun after use but it
should be cleared out before re-use. Clean the gun just before using
again with alcohol to remove resides.

Befoe spraying, wash the parts (the work) down with alcohol and wipe
off with a clean rag and keep turning the rag. Even laquer thinner
leaves a reside. This assumes you have not already applied an
alcohol finishing material like shellac.

These are the things I do before painting automotive finishes on my
work. Same should apply to oil stains, alkyd paints, and urethanes,
using the appropriate gun cleaners for the material being sprayed.

Pete

Renata wrote:

Anyway, I guess what I'm looking for is some general practical advice
and hints of any sort from those of you who regularly spray your
finishes so I can have doors on my cabinets instead of curtains;-)
Plus, am I cleaning the gun appropriately? Etc.

My plan is to do a coat of satin, a coat of gloss, finishing w/a coat
of satin. Should I lightly sand the gloss coat or leave it alone? I
actually have the gloss coat sprayed, but it needs to be stripped due
to the fisheye.


I don't use the same brands as you, but they should act very similar to
the ML Campbell Ultrastar I use. All of the following applies
specifically to my experiences with WB lacquer, and may be different
than NC lacquer.

- If water doesn't clean as fast as you like, use a dash of ammonia in
the water. Rinse it all with SLX to chase away extra water.

- I typically do satin cabinets with one coat of sanding sealer, and
two coats of satin. I don't see a difference in a finish of this
thickness in using gloss for only an inside coat. If you have to rub
off some orange peel, or some other defect, you may cut into the gloss,
ending up with weird spots.

- Clean all of your equipment with SLX denatured alcohol to lose the
soap residue.

- I usually lightly scuff the second to last coat with nonstearated (or
_specific_ tested OK by me stearated (Norton 3x and Mirka)) 400 grit and
a hard felt block. The dust is removed with clean, lint-free cloth that
is very slightly dampened to help retain the dust.

- Make sure the finish itself is at least 70F for proper flow out. I'll
often place a gallon can in a bowl of hot water before spraying in my
60F shop.

- Spray full, wet coats. Do not spray tack or dust coats with WB.

- Use a window fan on low to clear the area of mist

- Do not add water, or anything not made specifically for the specific
waterborne finish. Setup the the HVLP gun properly to spray as the
manufacturer intended (check your finish's docs)

- Set some halogen tripod lights to shine across the work to better see
the coat you're laying down.

- Let screw-ups DRY before dealing with them, unlike solvent lacquers.
Drips are best fixed with a sharp card scraper.

- It is very possible to over build a finish and make it ugly and less
durable. Check the mfg's docs for suggested coating and build level tips.

I'd be surprised if it contained silicones as it has been suggested by
several finishers including Jeff Jewitt. I had a self induced problem
cleaning a gun for spraying water based finishes when I reached for
the can of lacquer thinner and got some paint thinner instead. Fought
fisheyes for a week then asked Target Coatings some questions and
found out paint thinner is a definite NO-NO with WB stuff. It was
THEN that the narrow side of the gallon can got big letter marking of
LAQ, MS or ALC for identification. Fuhr makes a cleaning solution
that is used by a number of people also. Another effective cleaner is
acetone. I use paint thinner sparingly now. Grew up with oil based
finishes as water based wasn't around then, unfortunately.

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:21:20 -0500, Renata
wrote:

Oh, BTW, apparently Dial liquid soap contains silicone. DAMHIK.

At least I think it does since I've been adding a bit to the water I
use to spray thru to clean the gun, after which I spray thru either
paint thinner or lacquer thinner.