Painting Nightmare!

I am in desperate need of advise. I have been working on this bedroom suite for way too long (2 months worth of weekends) I have tried to attach some pictures in hopes that someone will know what type of material I am painting, but it isn't letting me. The furniture was used and in need of a make over. It's pretty light in weight. There is some Real Wood on parts of the pieces, usually the coners with all of the detailed work. The tops were almost like a thin piece of countertop. The dresser had a white with gold flakes countertop like top. The night stand was the same material without the gold. The flat part of the sides are about 1/4" thick. So in preparation before painting them. I sanded them with 120 and then 320. I got all of the real wood work patched in places and sanded and then I sanded all of the fake 1/4" thick with just the 320. I wiped all of the pieces down so there wasn't any dust and also aired them down just before I primed. I primed it with Kilz Original in an air gun. I thinned this down 1/2 paint thinner and 1/2 Kilz. Put on 3 or coats of this and re-sanded all pieces real and fake with 320. Wiped it down again really good and then aired it down right before I painted it. I used a more expensive latex paint semi gloss. I thinned it down as well. About 1 quart paint and 1/4 cup water. I used a gravity feed gun on this as well. I have never used a sprayer before or painted furniture before. So I am not for sure what I am doing wrong. The paint and the primer were mixed really well but they are not as smooth as a thought they would be using a sprayer. I have tried sanding after the 2nd thin coat of latex paint but it is rolling. (see picture) Is this normal? Am I doing this all wrong? Did I use the wrong paint? I would like this paint job to last a long time so I was going to apply 3 or 4 coats of Minwax Polyarclyc once I was done painting, and sanding with 600 grit inbetween coats. But I am so disappointed that it isn't going like I planned that I have stopped working on these pieces. Any advise would be appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forums!

pics might be helpful - http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...-pictures.html

Most paint manufactures specify that their coatings should not be thinned more than 10% although a small conventional type gun can have difficulty spraying thick coatings and even more trouble spraying latex.

If the paint is coming off of the piece during sanding it is probably because it was thinned too much. Also latex enamels don't deal well with aggressive sanding. The heat generated with the sandpaper tends to 'melt' the latex enamel.