Art Mulder
Member
- Messages
- 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!
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!