My wife and I are really into finding free or extremely low priced furniture and painting it then reselling.

I I don't want to get the reputation for having low quality pieces so I need come advice.


I've sprayed latex paint which doesn't seem like a very durable finish.
I've used spray paint in an aerosol can which works pretty well but is expensive and takes more time.
I suppose you can thin oil paint and spray it but I've only brushed it and it is far superior than the others. totally durable and amazing. The thing with oil paint is that it is a pain in the butt to clean up, and I assume cleaning a sprayer would really suck.

So, I came up with this plan to cheat. use flat latex paint and spray poly on top. sound legit?

Any advice would be great. We are trying to increase our production and we want to do it as efficiently as possible, inexpensively as possible and, we don't want to have to sacrifice quality. GEEZ! we just want everything!

 

Poly works as long as you're not using oil based over a light color, as it will add some amber.

My first thought would be a waterborne enamel paint.

 

I also prefer the waterborne enamels. Oil base poly over latex paint may deepen the color and will [as Mitch stated] turn white [and many light colors] yellow.

What kind of spray equipment are you using? Do you know what types of finish you are applying latex paint over? Depending on the existing finish, latex may not adhere well. A solvent based primer normally solves that issue.

 

Well it depends what I'm painting over. Some pieces are not already painted and are stained with a finish, perhaps lacquer or equivalent. Other times, the piece I need to paint is already painted with who knows what.

As far as my spray equipment, I've got two separate outfits. The one I paint with is a graco spraystation 9 something. Simple, 100 dollar box store setup, shoulder hanging compressor and hand held sprayer with bottom mount hopper. (siphon feed I think it's referred to as)

My other outfit is a standalone compressor and hvlp or lvlp siphon feed sprayer. This setup is used to spray lacquer on antiques I'm restoring.

I guess I'm just overwhelmed with all the painting options out there and I've got minimal experience. My only real requirement is that I am able to apply everything using a sprayer. So, I can spray cheap flat latex paint but MinWax Polycrylic says it's only for brush application. I can spray thinned SW oil based paint but it's a pain to clean. I've honestly never heard of waterborne enamel paint before. is that the same as acrylic enamel? so many terms!

 

Waterborne enamel is a relatively new product. A low tech description is it's oil base paint but the solvent has been replaced with water. I've sprayed waterborne with airless pumps but have never tried to spray it with a conventional unit. I have several HVLP conversion guns [operates off of air compressor], they work great for solvent based finishes but not very good for latex. I'm not overly familiar with true HVLPs [like your spray station] that use a turbine for power but if they spray latex ok, it should also do ok with waterborne. Personally, I don't think cleaning up a cup gun from solvent based coatings is any more trouble than cleaning up from latex.

If you want to do quality work and create a good reputation you need to learn more about what you are painting over. Latex paint/primer applied directly over oil base poly/enamel or lacquer is subject to chip and peel. Sanding and applying a solvent based primer eliminates that issue. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/pa...latex-oil.html

I'm not sure why Minwax recommends against spraying the Polycrylic, it might be they don't want it thinned any. While I've sprayed a lot of oil base poly/varnish, I don't think I've ever had occasion to spray any of the water based versions. Water based poly can be brushed over latexs paints and will give a sheen and a little extra scrub-ability to flat latex. Not sure it will add any durability.

 

What's a good solvent based primer which I can spray?

 

As far as I know all solvent based coatings can be sprayed, most can be sprayed using a conventional gun [w/compressor] Most aerosol cans of primer are solvent based.

Most paint store brand enamel undercoaters would do a good job, most of the solvent based Zinnser primers would also be a good choice.