spray vs. brush

[Douglas Graham]

I am debating on whether to use a brush to apply polyurethane paint and varnish or a spray gun. I see paint guns advertised from $50 to $500. What is the difference. The marketing blurbs all sound the same. What are the advantages of each.  

[Mark Rendelman hull 24]

Hello!

Most of the time I spray I use a cheap harbor freight gun they work sufficiently enough for this type of  paint application, the biggest problem is that you use more paint than by brush because you put a lot of paint in the air that leads to another problem of overspray if you plan to paint indoors you need to cover everything in your room to keep the overspray off of it or build a temporary paint booth, but you should have a positive air flow. And don’t forget your paint respirator. It seems like a lot of work but the outcome can be quite rewarding.

[Douglas Graham]

Thank you, Mark

[PeterP]

If you plan on doing a fair bit of spraying then you could go for a good quality HVLP gun and build your own turbine using a vacuum cleaner blower. HVLP guns cut way down on over spray. Building your own will save you a good chunk of change. I did my gun (Fuji) close to thirty years ago. Still works great although less efficiently now that the cooling fan blades on the blower have a fair bit of paint built up on them. (Over spray) I'm thinking about buying a better rated blower - 12 psi+. Up from 9 psi. Some things I definitely prefer to spray. Certainly when it comes to large complicated items. But be aware of the set up time  -it can eat you up. I can spray one side of my 28' in about an hour. When I tried to re-coat last time with a roller it didn't come out right. I had to go back and buff out a lot of roller edge lines. It ended up being very time consuming. PeterP

[Douglas Graham]

Thanks, Peter. I am not so much worried about time. The concern that I have is getting the best finish possible. When I read about using the two part Poly it seems that using a roller is more the exception than the rule. I have some pretty powerful blowers used for a cyclone vacuum system DIY.

Douglas Graham

[PeterP]

I don't want to tell you stuff you may know already. On the face of it rolling paint is dead simple. But two part poly can throw you for a loop. It has eaten my rollers making them shed. It started to flash before I could roll it out adequately leaving perceptible stripes in  high gloss finishes.  Yes -spraying can be problematic too but think about this: last time you had your car in the body shop -did they roll the paint or spray it? PeterP

[Douglas Graham]

That was kind of my thought.

 

[Douglas Graham]

Peter P, are you building a Core Sound 17 and 20?

 

[PeterP]

I built both - 25 something years ago.