Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Spray Gun Blues

We decided to start spraying the corner china cabinet we are "rehabbing" last Sunday. We would have started on Saturday, but Mister spent the entire day being cranky and building sawhorses for the doors. Which, of course, I totally appreciate, but I think they ended up being unnecessary, since the gun only sprays at a 90 degree vertical angle. How do you spray the tops of stuff? If Holly wasn't so ridiculously busy, I would email her and ask. 

This is the gun we bought:


The directions did specify that we needed to water down the latex paint based on the recommendations of the paint can. The paint can just said "no more than one pint per gallon". Hmmm... What if you won't need the whole gallon? That goes into a whole realm of Math that I do not care to contemplate. I hate Math! I only have two classes left to get my Bachelors and I haven't done it, because they are both Math classes. Oh, and my employer would pay. That is how much Math confounds me, people. I don't even know how much a pint it, it's not on my glass measuring cuppy thing.

So we winged it (is winged a word?).
Long story short, we must not have watered the paint down enough initially, which clogged the tip. Then we kept watering down the paint, because nothing was happening. Then we cleaned the tip. And watery paint came out. Grr.

 I figured watery paint was fine (there were no drips), I would just do three layers instead of two. Well, Mr. Mister (who hates to paint, does not help me paint, and thinks there is no reason to ever paint anything wooden) decided that my first layer didn't have enough coverage and sprayed it again. While it was still wet. And it ran. Bastard. Then it still wasn't dry three hours later, so I cleaned everything up and called it a day. Now I have to sand a lot of it down and try to even it out.

Oh, and while he was taking over my project, he dropped the paint gun and broke the volume control knob off. They don't make parts for these things apparently. BUT they do have a three year warranty. So I have to go back to Lowe's and get a new one.

7 comments:

Kristina P. said...

That sounds like more work than help!

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

What a pain!

Sara @ Russet Street Reno said...

This is why men cannot help us, ever!

BTW - what kind of compressor do you have? We have a smaller one and I'm pretty sure we don't have enough PSI to use a gun attachment....but I would love one!

Chateau 809 said...

I tried using a paint sprayer once too and couldn't get it to work. Hang in there!

Oona Johnson said...

Sara -

It's a Quincy F206, but I have no idea what that means is relation to PSI and capabilities.

Hannah said...

This pretty much sounds like my life when it comes to home improvements. My Mr. also hates painting with a passion.

Good luck on the next gun!!

Morgan said...

I've never used a spray gun... but I do hear that in the end they can be a lifesaver! What a pain to deal with all of the clogging and fixes and breaks... I know how that is.

Morgan @ PepperDesignBlog.com