Help needed with spray painting MDF with satinwood

[hudsonhenry]

Hi I'm new to his forum and I am hoping that there is someone here who can help me.

I am building some MDF cabinets for my living room which I would like to spray paint. The cabinets have been sealed with two coats of MDF sealer and then primed with an oil based primer. I plan to use Dulux satinwood paint applies with an air fed HVLP gun.

My question is this: How long should I leave between coats? If I was brush painting I would follow the instructions and leave 16 hours between coats but if I spray thin coats will it be ok to put the next coat on once the proceeding coat is touch dry? My only experience of spraying is with 2 pack car paints, with which its 10 mins at the most between coats then a blast in the oven.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated

Hudson[/i]

 

[colin taylor]

There isn't a lot of point in spraying oil paints as the cure time is too long to make the hassle worthwhile. I would recommend painting with a mini roller and "tipping-off" the stippled texture with a good brush as you go. You really can get a near spray like finish with no gun-cleaning, no masking off, no needing to spray in a spray room, and no hazardous aerosol. Spraying only comes into its own with fast drying paints in large quantities in the right facilities.

As for the drying time, you do really need to let it cure for 16 hours. Whilst you can shoot a fairly good coat with the gun, letting it dry a couple of hours just lets the solvent evapourate, the resin will still be uncured and will be reactivated by the solvent in the next coat. You would effectivly have a very thick coat of uncured paint which will either sag or not cure properly down to the substrate.

 

[RobertMP]

I've recoated with Dulux eggshell after about 5 hours with no problems. The second coat did not take any longer than expected to dry hard.