[Ikneweskimo]

I make fitted furniture, and whilst being experienced in the joinery side of things, I have just taken up spraying.

I've bought a graco ultra airless spray gun after using my friends HVLP system which seemed to struggle to keep up with amount of paint I needed to spray (think the compressor didn't have enough power)

I have been experiencing orange peel when spraying water based paints, namely Tikkurila Helmi. I have read loads of reviews about how good the paint is, and I didn't experience the problem when using it with the HVLP system. But when I spray it with my graco I'm getting an orange peel effect. It does settle quite a bit after drying but it's still there when viewed in certain lights/angels. I've tried making sure the paint isn't too cold. Standing further away when spraying, putting the gun on a low pressure, putting the gun on a high pressure and have run out of ideas now. Has anyone else experienced this issue? I did read watering it down may help but I spray MDF and worry what it would do in terms of grain raising . I know people spray water based with airless sprayers and get a good result, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong and it's getting quite demoralising now. Here are some pictures of the paint when first applied and after 16 hours dry time.


On a side note, do all airless prayers put out a ridiculous amount of paint? I changed to an ffp3 212 tip to reduce over spray but the gun just eats paint.

 

[mark sr]

There is a barely any comparison between an airless and any conventional spray gun [including HVLP] Airless pumps are designed for volume. Using a small tip and turning down the pump will help but an airless wouldn't be my first choice for spraying furniture.

 

[SPS-1]

I am more of a rookie than you are, so I am not sure how much advice I can give, but I just got an Ultra also. I had a couple of recommendations of an FFLP 310 tip for cabinet type work, so that is what I am using. I am not familiar with the paint you are using. I am using a white latex (BM Regal Select) that perhaps is a little on the heavy side (viscous). I am not thinning at all, but perhaps you need to thin the paint ? Use the lowest pressure that gives you a uniform pattern. For me, its 7.5 pump speed for this paint. 12 inch seems to be recommended distance. Positioning my workpieces vertically (i.e leaning up against wall) didn't go so well, so now I lay them flat horizontal. Paint seems to be laying down and levelling nicely, but I am still in process on this project.

I agree that the airless is putting out a lot of paint, and I am using a smaller tip than you. My spray booth table top sure accumulates a lot of paint. But not sure how much of the problem is the operator.

I am still struggling with clean up. If I follow the cleaning directions exactly, I know its still dirty internally. Never quite sure when to stop flushing it. Instructions say to pour 2 ounces of pump armor into the pickup port, but only about a quarter ounce goes in, then is full.