• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Spraying Latex

O

OADesign

New Member
Hi All,

We have a series of small jobs in which we paint some Acrylic with latex. In the past its only been square and rectangle shapes, painted second surface and backed with vinyl to protect the paint. Foam roller, set to dry over night, done deal. Now we are adding some elements to the project that require first surface paint. So we got the Plastic primer squared away.

My question is about spraying latex. I was just going to just go to the hardware store and pick up a hvlp detail spray gun. But I have this sinking feeling that attempting to spray latex with this gun is just going to be a bad idea.

Any tips on spraying like this?
 
letterman7

letterman7

New Member
HVLP's will cause some spitting with latex unless it's thinned way down. Look at the wall of any commercial building inside - they've been sprayed (usually) with a HVLP system. Pressure pots work well, but they, too, will need to be thinned.
 
M

Mbookamer

New Member
Not too often that I see a question here that I feel I can offer constructive help with, but I guess I need to do more than just lurk and soak up knowledge!

In my previous shop, my tool of choice for cabinet finishing was my trusty HVLP guns. I made a foray into pressure pot spraying and had some really nice spray guns, but ended up using the $70 home depot gravity feed guns the most. My "good" guns were purchased with only the pressure pot in mind so they didn't work for cup spraying. I "stopped" at the gravity guns on the way to the pressure pot in my evolution, but when I started spraying paints with an airless rig, my finish quality and film thickness truly stepped up to professional quality. You just can't get a great quality finish easily out of latex or acrylics with a mid to low cost HVLP system.

I preferred the gravity cup later over the pressure pot because of all the extra clean up and material loss in the hose. The airless rig has a similar problem but it's still my recommendation for your situation.

If you are going to do a lot of the spraying, but on smaller projects, i.e. less than a quart or two, there is a "new" alternative. I recently purchased a handheld Graco airless sprayer that feeds from a cup. I think I paid $250 for the trucoat plus. It isn't the same quality as the larger models, but darn close, and you're not painting houses with it. The really cool part is that you clean the gun and the cup, not all that hose! The price tag may be a bit much for a single project, but this opens up the opportunity to quickly apply the paints without modifying them or compromising film quality.

So I heartily second the recommendation for airless. I ended up using the HVLP for thinner clears and stains.

Good luck!
 
E

Eric H

New Member
We are starting to change over to water based paint and recently tried the Benjamin Moore aura. Shot it with one of the cheap harbor freight gravity feed hvlp guns and it came out awesome. It sprays and levels nothing like their other latex paints. I did thin it a little but I don't know that I needed to. I am used to spraying high gloss enamels and I am very picky and couldn't have been happier. I don't know if a detail gun will work or not the tip may not be big enough without over thinning the paint. Are you set up for spraying? You will need a decent sized compressor.
 
GP

GP

New Member
Mbookamer said:
If you are going to do a lot of the spraying, but on smaller projects, i.e. less than a quart or two, there is a "new" alternative. I recently purchased a handheld Graco airless sprayer that feeds from a cup. I think I paid $250 for the trucoat plus.
Click to expand...

Something like this?

https://www.cjspray.com/products/reconditioned/graco-truecoat-handheld-sprayer-258870.html

Last time I was in the paint store - the guy recommended one of these outfits for small jobs. He, of course, hadn't used on - but he was awfully excited about it.
 
M

Mbookamer

New Member
That is the base model, I'd jump at that if you need it! The plus model is supposed to have a pump coating that is supposed to double the life if the gun. I forget their life expectancy, it's "short", by that I mean not thousands of gallons and it can't be rebuilt.

I used mine to repaint our house in Arizona. I was able to paint the wall color and the trim in two half days. That included the porch ceiling with exposed rafters and bead board, as well as a decent finish with the trim color on a "found" metal patio table. This was a one story 1300 sf house though.

It's heavy but then again so's a fully loaded gravity cup gun.

I haven't tried it on a sign yet. I was planning on going with ronan, but in my little backwater mexican border town, the closest suppliers that I know of are in Phoenix or San Diego, 3 hours away. The option to take advantage of the custom colors at the local Sherwin Williams is very appealing. It is a new revelation to me that sign backgrounds don't HAVE to be 1-shot or Ronan.
 
signmeup

signmeup

New Member
I use a siphon feed detail gun... non HVLP. Cheap Chinese is the brand name.(just kidding... it's name brandless)
 
O

OADesign

New Member
Awesome! Thanks for the tips.

I think that Graco (truecoat pro II) system is the one!

Top features for us:
Easy to clean.
No thinning
Repairable!

We shall see how it goes.
 
eahicks

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
You can get latex put in a spray can at Benjamin Moore..... doesn't last very long but does pretty good FME.
 
Last edited:
S

Salmoneye

New Member
Some of the accrylic is thin and will spray with the HVLP of but they have a cup gun both at Lowed and at Home Depot that is both an HVLP and a Pressureized cup gun in one. You just switch a valve any you are on syphon with HVLP or switch to pressurized cup and you spray latex nicely all day long. They even come with an airless tip but I found that to not be as useful. Only like $80-90
 
O

OADesign

New Member
Mosh said:
What about a foam roller?
Click to expand...

Yeah, Second surface. No problem do it ALL the time. But try it with 100 2" tall laser cut letters. Or just doing 2 - 12"x12" signs first surface. Doable, yes. Effect on the man hour/or easy to clean up. Not so much. At least the way we are currently set up.

eahicks said:
You can get latex put in a spray can at Benjamin Moore..... doesn't last very long but does pretty good FME.
Click to expand...

We do this sometimes. But running back and forth to the paint shop, especially during the off hour, when you only need 1/2 a can... it gets kinda tough.
 
Joe Crumley

Joe Crumley

New Member
I've used just about every kind of spray equipment on the market and have found an easy solution. It's known as the "Critter" and can be purchased from Amazon for about $29 bucks. We have two of them in our shop for Latex, Sikens, and Sculpt Nouveau.

This is the best buy I've found for this kind of work.

Joe Crumley
www.normansignco.com
 
Joe Crumley

Joe Crumley

New Member
I'm also fond of the little touch up guns but they won't spray heavy paints without significant dilution. They also have a rather narrow spray pattern. To paint a larger sign, it would take lots of time with many coats.

Joe Crumley
www.normansignco.com
 
signmeup

signmeup

New Member
Mine sprays a 6" wide fan with good coverage at the edges of the fan. It sprays latex thinned down with no troubles. I mostly use a roller on large sign faces but spraying is great for applied lettering and such. I find spray takes fewer coats than any other method for even coverage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top