Any painters here?

jsnake

Eulogy

I might take a look at renting a professional grade paint sprayer. I know it would be nice to own one, but getting a high quality one might make the process easier and they can be rented at Home Depot.

Echambers

Eulogy:

I might take a look at renting a professional grade paint sprayer. I know it would be nice to own one, but getting a high quality one might make the process easier and they can be rented at Home Depot.

I second that, but seriously if all you are doing is a door you might be better off just hiring someone to do it. Their big labour will be cleaning their paint equipment but it will only take them ten minutes to do a door if you already have it taped.

onestrangeone

If you can find a place that rents them check out the HVLP setups, I use these for cabinet work, you need to thin and strain the latex but it is possible to get an automotive quality finish with some practice. it will take longer to clean the gun than to paint one door though. If you have a compressor that will maintain 5.5 to 7 CFM at 40-50 PSI you can buy a cup gun that will shoot latex and do a decent job for less than $100. A good quality brush (Purdy) is about $20-25. A good brush and a lot of practice will produce a smooth finish. Have you thought about using Oil-base there are additives that will help it "lay down' once again the right brush is the Key.

First Warrior

I have a HVLP system and I regularly shoot lacquer. Don't shoot paint though. A good brush will do the job on a large flat surface with paint. Two or three thin coats are better than one heavy coat. Use a sanding block with 220 between coats.

Amos Umwhat

jd50ae

Now I remember, its a paint brush.....been using it for dusting,

honorknight7

jsnake

Thanks fellas. It is a metal door with a window. I am open to other paints. I actually used Floetrol on my doors and trim on the basement finish I did. It turned out pretty nice but I maybe should have used a bit more. I had trouble with one door. The roller ended up getting lint and crap all over on the second coat and it was a high end Purdy roller. Not sure what I should have done different. I may just go that route again on this door. I guess a good primer is in order first? Seems the factory primer isn't that great since I easily scrapped most of that gel paint right off.

honorknight7

Usually I would say to make sure you wash out any roller skin before you use it, but if it worked good on a first coat, then falls apart on a second or more coat's, it is usually because it is starting to fall apart - this usually happen if its not washed out and left to dry out after every use. Don't know if you did this or not but a lot of people will just leave the roller wet and wrapped in plastic or just left on the paint bucket, this can allow a roller skin to start to deteriorate - the longer the wait the worse it can fall apart, the Purdy (White Dove) is a good standard cover if your not willing to fork out 10-15 bucks on a good lambskin (that you wash out and can use many many times) - all I will use. Also as far as primer/pre primed items, companies that pre prime items bid out for there primer materials to the lowest bidder, and you don't always get good primer (or coating process) because of that, AND a primer coating is basically a double tooth coating, it "bites" to the surface its applied to and also has a "tooth" to bite to a finish coat that will be applied to it, the problem with any pre primed item is that a primer coating is only good for 30-60 days tops before the "tooth" starts to fail, at this point it will need to be lightly sanded to remove the old failed/chalked tooth, cleaned and a fresh coat of primer reapplied, and though pre primed items do help to keep the item in good selling shape, you never know just how long ago it was originally primed to begin with-usually way more then 60 days. Also I mentioned the solvent based D.T.M. well Benjamin Moore paints has a great Latex D.T.M. also (Benjamin Moore M29 (((semi-gloss, believe the gloss is M28)))Latex D.T.M. - Direct to Metal) It is a little bit different to work with then standard latex house paint as it seems like its a little thinner viscosity as well as seeming to be metallic or pearlescent in appearance while its "wet" and make you think its totally the wrong color while painting with it, just make sure they dry a spot on the lid for you at the paint store and know that your job will turn out the same color when dried, you can also add the floetrol to it too, and it goes on right at 6 mills wet each coat - you can ask the paint store for a mill gauge if they have them, and remember when doing paint job's, it takes 28 days for (Any/ALL) paint coatings to totally cure, the color should be good after a few hours dry time, and the sheen can (depending on weather/humidity) take up to 3-4 days to even out, and though the surface film dries first and seems good, it really is 28 days for total cure

jsnake

I washed that roller out after only 1 use. It was brand new. Let it dry over a day or two and got all sorts of junk on the door on the second coat. Paint was brand new too. Think I will look into those lamb skin rollers you mentioned.

honorknight7

jsnake

My neighbor up the street painted his entire 2 story house by himself in 2 days. He was finishing the back today so I stopped to talk to him. He has an $1800 sprayer and I watched him quickly finish a bunch of painting very quickly. He is going to come by tomorrow and look at my door. Most likely I am going to remove my garage to house door, front door, and rear door and use his sprayer to prime and paint the rear and paint the other 2 the same. Better then the cheap handheld Wagners and I will get the nice look I want. Kind of excited because I may use his sprayer to paint my house in the spring and save some serious cash. Not sure what kind of sprayer he has but it looked like a nice set up. I was thinking he spent $800 or $900 but he invested $1800 back when he painted houses for a living. Has me also thinking about painting the interior of my house this way.

honorknight7

jsnake

0patience

jsnake

Definitely wood. Common builders grade stuff used here in KC for 20 or 30 years. Backside looks like plywood

honorknight7

jsnake

I appreciate you taking the time to give me all that info. Very good info. House painting will be next spring and doors soon. I'll try to post some pics.