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Thinning latex with window wahser fluid?

Rennie Heuer

Rennie Heuer

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Been fussing with the paint job on the pantry cabinet. Working through some issues I decided to do a little research. Came across this video where the latex paint is thinned with washer fluid. Sounds crazy, but he seem to get OK results. Anyone ever try this?

 
No but . . . I sprayed Zinsser Bin Advanced Synthetic Shellac Primer when I painted my dust collector ducting. I used a 2 stage Earlex 5500 and just thinned the material a little with distilled water to get the Ford reading required. Oddly I had better results spraying that paint than I did spraying WB poly recently. Different needles but the same rig. If you are having flow problems with paint, Floetrol or the like still works.
 
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I decided not to play games with it and just use water. The mfg specifically said not to use flotrol, though I was tempted to experiment. Primer is on and, outside of a little roughness where some overspray landed, it turned out well. Giving some thought to my process and technique before moving on to the finish coats.
 
Hmm sds says "methanol 80%" .. so it would be "thinner" and dry faster. I'm a little dubious because there are almost certainly surfactants, dyes, and who knows what else in the washer fluid so I guess if I was going to experiment I'd use a purer source of methanol..

Flotrol sds claims it's water and "Vinyl acetate/butyl acrylate copolymer" ... which I thought was just latex in a water emulsion, so there's probably "more not listed" there..
 
I use this product. At a Ben Moore store I was talking to a few different people there and they recommended THIS product. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Flood-F...nvBLio8T_WBdKaDdT4hoCArMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I use it all the time on these new acrylic paints. They dry soo doggone fast. The Floetrol is supposed to help the paint "layout" better. There is definitely an improvement. Certainly NOT like the paint my dad taught me how to make -- back in 1973!! White Lead and linseed oil were the largest volume of ingredients. But - Wow - I have never dipped my brush into anything better than that lead paint. The Ben Moore Aura is near to that in quality level, but is an entirely different material.

Even with that said - it can use some help. The Floetrol moves in the direction of better, but!!

Ohhh , and YES I DO use water as a thinner.

DNA certainly sounds intriguing!!
Drying faster in my shop is not an issue, so that is not a plus for me.

Still - I am certainly going to try that one fine day.
 
Back in the day when I made "A" frame signs and sold them to sign shops I used a super white latex from Ben Moore and they had me add Floetrol and it did lay on nice when I sprayed it. The A frames had to be super smooth so the printed vinyl would lay on it smooth.
 
larry merlau said:
are you using target products, if so jeff will help you out
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No, not this time. Customer's choice was Farrow & Ball. Primer was $100 gallon, paint is $125 a gallon. Kinda makes ya a little nervous spraying that around. o_O I just thinned with water per manufacturers directions. After some initial issues on the doors the cabinet primed just fine. I start the finish coats tomorrow.
 
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