Current Cabinet Finishing Project

[tiralie]

That was the tricky part about this whole unit. The tops on the base units and the tops on the window bench. I want considerably more material on those than on the verts. That is the beauty of aaa...nice balance of piston pump pressure with hvlp gun refinement and with a smaller piece in your hand.

Good tip, thanks. Never thought about it like that. Always try to get the same amount on all surfaces.

I still love hvlp, but it would have been much more difficult to do cabinet grade of this scale with.

Agreed. I have no patience spraying latex or pigmented lacquer with a Turbine HVLP. I know you can thin up to 20% but I think it really compromises the finish quality. I didn't mean to say I didn't like AAA, just not sold on the Graco brand per se.

 

[Scott B.]

That was the tricky part about this whole unit. The tops on the base units and the tops on the window bench. I want considerably more material on those than on the verts. That is the beauty of aaa...nice balance of piston pump pressure with hvlp gun refinement and with a smaller piece in your hand.

Good tip, thanks. Never thought about it like that. Always try to get the same amount on all surfaces.

I still love hvlp, but it would have been much more difficult to do cabinet grade of this scale with.

Agreed. I have no patience spraying latex or pigmented lacquer with a Turbine HVLP. I know you can thin up to 20% but I think it really compromises the finish quality. I didn't mean to say I didn't like AAA, just not sold on the Graco brand per se.

You're welcome, Tim.

Yes, awareness of vertical vs horizontal is something to keep in mind for sure. The horizontals have a much harder life than their vertical counterparts, so I try to make sure they have more protection. Plus, they need tactile appeal because they are the pieces that people touch when admiring the craftsmanship and finish.

Thinning to 20% is a bad deal, because it sacrifices some 'tooth' and really adversely affects sheen. The fundamental problem with hvlp in waterborne is that warm air is inevitable, and its murder on tips and guns full of waterborne. With aaa, the air is cool because the compressors are rather sophisticated. We even dunk the aaa gun in room temperature water and toothbrush the tip assembly down when we see drying starting to occur around the tip. Wetter is better.

As to the Graco brand, we haven't had any problems. One gun repack, which is to be expected. However, we did bring in a Titan equivalent in December. We shoved the Graco out of the shop and into the field and have been running the Titan MultiFinish 440 in the shop. Its more efficient to master the machine idiosyncracies in the shop before relying on it to produce flawlessly in the field. So far so good, although the Graco G40 gun has a slight edge at this point. The pumps, compressors, hose systems are extremely equivalent, and there are some aesthetic differences between their control panels and cart designs. Ultimately, a matter of personal preference, and that is subjective. These are the two most commercially available aaa, and they fall in the same price range, which is considerably less than the K fleet over in France. I think I have posted some Titan aaa footage that you have probably seen.