Fun with the Earlex...

Art Mulder

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3,383
Location
London, Ontario
I bought an Earlex 5000 (HVLP sprayer) last summer. I shot a few test pieces to test things out, but as a low-volume hobbiest, I haven't really given it a huge workout.

On the weekend I gave the shop a serious cleaning and got set up to spray a run of cabinet doors I've been making. We have these floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the family room that my wife wants covered, as they look messy. So I've built 8 fairly large cabinet doors to cover these shelves. Each is about 16" x 44"

Yesterday evening I was finally ready to spray... and I was done one side in about 20 minutes. Couldn't believe it. 45-60 minutes later I could flip them over and shoot the front side of all eight doors. I usually would use a foam brush with water-base varathane. I've done that for the past 10 years and gotten pretty good at it. Still - 8 doors of that size would have taken me hours to brush.

On the other hand, I totally emptied the 1 quart (946ml) can of finish, and actually ran out on the last door... So sure things go quickly, but the finish goes quickly also! (The can had been about 2/3->3/4 full when I started, I thought there would be plenty.) LOML is going to pick up another can today -- the 3.78 liter (1gal) size this time! I think I'll want to tweak the flow rate a bit, perhaps I was shooting too much.

Still, wow that was fast! I'm liking it!
 
Great news Art. So what was the finish like. Any chance you had before and after pics?

No pics, sorry. It's only the first coat. The finish was pretty rough -- but I attribute that to the red oak, which has REAL trouble with getting a smooth level surface. Also the first finish always raised the grain, so it needs a good light 220grit sanding to smooth it down. The third coat is where I generally impress myself -- but that was with brushed on, we'll see how it goes with sprayed on.
 
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