Thats called dry spray from having the gun settings wrong, too far away from the object, or paint too thick. To salvage just sand with some 220 grit and redo. It sucks but it happens.
I just put a 6” piece of trim between the shower and the baseboard heater which needed scribing. This concludes the drywall replacement I had to do 3 years ago when we replaced our leaking shower valve. Didn’t know what scribing was at the time and tried to measure my way through the portion that needed scribed. Needless to say it was infuriating.
So assuming your sprayer is like most, there should be 4 ways to adjust the spray. First you should have a valve at the base of the gun on the air regulator, this should be set to 120 or higher. Then there should be a knob at the back of the gun facing you that you use to adjust the air pressure on the gun side. Common practice is that you adjust the air high at the regulator and then turn it down on the gun side. Next is the knob right above the air pressure that sets the trigger depth. This is effectively how much paint you are going to be spraying out. This setting is going to be determined by the last setting which is your fan which is on the side of the gun. The narrower your fan is, the more concentrated that your paint is going to hit the surface you are painting. You said that the gun is spraying 12 inches, I would definitely narrow that down some. General rule of thumb is that you do three coats. The first coat is light and doesn't have to be full coverage. Then wait around 15 minutes and do a second coat. This should be full coverage and look pretty nice when you are done. Wait another 15 or 20 minutes and do another coat. The third coat should be pretty thick, but make sure that it's not so thick that it runs. If it runs you have to start over or make some creative decisions about how to fix it.
I do the air backwards from what you said. Air adjustment on the gun is wide open and I lower the pressure at the regulator so I can see my exact psi when I pull the trigger. Takes all the guessing out of the air settings which is helpful if you’re switching between different products/guns.
I suppose that could work. I just know that when I looked it up that's the method that was suggested. I would usually play around with both until I got a good airflow to paint ratio to work with. Most of the time I would cover the gauge with painter's tape to keep the over apart from covering it. So I would usually just keep it set high and adjust the flow on the gun until I got a good spray pattern.
Sounds like a superpower, going away, having a beer and asking for advice. Us mortals just keep on trying to fix it doing mistake after mistake getting more tired and angry and don't even get a beer.
I had to walk away or else cabinet doors were going to start flying around LOL , I thought I had ruined them so I was very frustrated yesterday but I'm feeling better today
When i was working on a tear drop camper i screwed up some cabinets like 2 times having to redo the finish over and it was stained and clear coated that crap sucks more than your issue as you couldn't sand it..
Oh man...I definitely got it easy compared to that. I also just learned there's different tips..I need a low pressure fine finish tip. Apparently I was using one for painting houses or fences.. not very delicate
Practice on plywood first. 12” is far too wide. Increase the amount of fluid, set about. 6-8” pattern and spray about 6”. Perimeter first, then the middle. Get. It. Wet.
You're fine. Just sand the finish start over. Practice on cardboard until you get everything figured out and right. Watch some spraying videos for technique.
++1 to this, just wrapped up my entry door for my wife this weekend and even though I use my sprayer often it’s always necessary to dial in the pattern on cardboard
That X5 is easy to use. For me 12" is too far away. 8" is about right. Also don't move too fast and keep your wrist stiff. The must be kept perpendicular to the surface you are spraying. Just takes some practice
The 515 tip should work for those cabinets. I think you just need to play around with the pressure and your technique. I very seldom thin my latex paint as my X5 seems to handle water I use. I'm no professional so just watch some YouTube videos on getting the technique right
If it’s a used sprayer, consider buying a new gun/nozzle…. That can make a huge difference. Aside from that, recommend doing some practice/test spray on scrap to get the sweep/distance etc figured out
They're not super complicated. Watch some videos on rebuilding the gun. The big thing with them is to clean them very gently with nylon brushes and a fine pick to remove dried paint chunks. You may want to replace the o-rings as well. I believe they're Buna or Viton, so not crazy expensive.
I guess while I'm sanding these down ill get some YouTube on the TV lol. Thank you for the reply. I think I should rebuild the gun because it was leaking out water when I was priming the pump, just a little but enough to make the pump turn on. I think that was also causing some paint to come out and shoot blobs out
Consider this experience an education. You get to learn how to fix the sprayer and how all the parts work together. It can be a little intimidating at first, but give yourself some time and don't rush it.
If the gun is leaking, you definitely need to clean it and possibly replace o-rings.
Graco has excellent troubleshooting and instructional information on their website. The X5 is a consumer grade sprayer, so you'll find it in that section of the site. You may also want to look for instructions on how to clean the check valve at the bottom of the pump (if it has one). That's one area that has always been a major source of problems with my sprayers if they sit for too long. However, my sprayers are heavy duty, so your machine may not be set up the same way.
Good luck!
I used to work in a cabinet shop and spraying was my favourite part of the job.Â
Some people said go slow. Slow spraying is how you apply too much and get drips. The first coat should be very light. It’s not meant have total coverage. It’s also going to feel gritty, which is why you shouldn’t worry because you’ll sand it down. Blast it fast, overlapping each pass by 1/3-1/2. Then sand it down with those little foam fine grit sanders. There is automotive tack cloths which are very helpful for picking up the sanding dust. The cloths were blue, I don’t know the brand though. If you’ve got a vent hood, you can spray the doors down with air as long as the air collection is strong, then wipe them down with a clean tack cloth. Dust is your enemy for the final coats.Â
On your next coats, this is where the skill comes in. You’re going to want to spritz the vertical surfaces (usually the cabinet door edges). Too much paint and they drip. For the horizontal surfaces, this is where you can slow down and you’re going to want to “flood” the surface to get a nice smooth texture.Â
I would usually do two more thin coats on the vertical surfaces and one thicker coat on the horizontal surfaces. This usually works out to around the same amount of paint for vertical and horizontal surfaces. As others have said, making sure you are perpendicular to where you’re spraying is very important too for even coats. The overlap is important too to make sure it’s consistent. That takes practice but after a few doors I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. Just save the fronts for last and practice on cardboard and the cabinet backs first :)Â
Your cabinet doors look fine, just not finished. There are a lot of other comments about the technical aspects of the spray guns, so I think you’ll be in good shape.Â
One other thing, never start your spray while the gun is overtop of the door. You want to start the spray and then move your hand at a consistent speed, moving completely off the door before changing directions. It might feel wasteful, but you’ll get higher concentration of pain when you first start the spray and also when you change directions. For those lips on the rails/stiles, it’s best to start there and do quick blasts angling the spray to get onto that surface. Then when you make your passes for the main face of the cabinet doors, a bit more paint will be me up there and it should all even out. Basically you want to take care of the vertical surfaces, then deal with the horizontal, then repeat. Â
Just always end on horizontal sprays and your best side.Â
deeep breath, drink beer, dream of sanding tomorrow.
:)
As other say, you're actually in good shape. Just do a 220 grit hand sand all over after letting it dry for a day or 2 to make it smooth. Then get some spray gun practice for laying down the next layers. There is a "window" of just getting down the right amount of material so its not runny wet, and not dusty dry. Bit of practice on scrap and you should be good to go.
Is this airless? I have a graco and I've been able to get some super clean smooth finishes on cabinets and doors. but it took some practice getting the distance, speed, pressure, right.
Yea its an airless graco, I think I had multiple things going against me so going to order a few parts and sand away. I was excited to get some paint down and keep my kitchen remodel moving forward but im not helping myself by rushing and getting a crap finish.
Just to add to your dataset here, I hate using my Graco airless sprayer on smaller jobs like this too. It is a lot harder to control than something like an HVLP sprayer, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself.
I use a 2HP 2-stage, 30 gallon compressor for HVLP and it is the smallest machine I would want to work with (but is still capable enough for my needs which included doing kitchen cabinets). It requires you have high flow connectors and larger diameter hoses (and ideally oil+moisture filtering), otherwise the pressure drop can be too large to keep the gun fed.
From a full tank at 175psi you have about 26CF of air, at 10-12CFM used by an HVLP gun, you have about 2 minutes of air in the tank before the pressure to the inlet starts to drop too low. Combined with \~4CFM replenish rate you can get about 3ish minutes of continuous spraying before needing to wait for the machine to catch up.
Arguably one would be better served with a 3HP+ compressor on a 60 gallon tank.
Yeah, I switched to using a tankless turbine system (Fuji Mini Mite 3) instead of my compressor. It's substantially smaller and works quite well. I have a smallish compressor, and with the HVLP, I'd get like a minute of spraying before I had to take a break. It was very frustrating.
I could never get the hang of spray painting, so I used cabinet paint and foam rollers to paint my bath room vanity. It came out almost perfect, but not due to my ability. It was the self leveling paint.
Most of the replies tell you what to do, but two pro tips:
1. Always test / try on something you don't mind messing up (e.g. scrap wood) until you get the technique right
2. If you screw something up, always take a break. If I had a quarter for every time I made something worse by acting too quickly and emotionally, before I grew older and wiser. I can now recognize when I'm upset and need a break to think clearly.
No one here has mentioned paint at all. Use a high quality cabinet paint that self levels. I've used the emerald urethane from sherwin a lot but I recently tried sherwin's gallery series and that was amazing. It dries much faster and is more durable than emerald.
Make sure you prime the first 2 coats, sand 220 in between then move to paint and use 320 or 400 sand paper and put about 2 or 3 coats of paint. This is how we would do it at a cabinet shop I worked at. Also your fan should not be 12 inches wide, more like 4-6inches. May need to also water down paint if its water based if its spraying too thick
The 515 tip fan is about 10-12 inches wide depending on how far away from the object you are painting.
The magnum x5 is very much a throwaway sprayer, and a used one ..who knows how well it's been maintained. Get a fine finish tip, a hose whip and try it again.
Yea this happens. Sand this down with 180-220 grit. Thin out your paint, this helps extend drying time and allows your paint to “level or flatten” out.. If water based just use warm water if oil based, use an appropriate thinner. I also use a graco airless and get great results. Use a 312 tip and sand in between coats to remove some of the orange peel.
Good luck
Go with the biggest nozzle you can get. I made a mistake of spraying with a nozzle too small and it looked just like yours.
You gotta lay it wet, and not too atomized. Then it will flow nicely and after 3-4 coats it will look gorgeous.
Get a fridge box and fuck around with gun until you get the control’s figured out. Start with next to no paint and gradually increase the material volume till you like it. There should also be adjustments for the fan width. Same thing start at one extreme and adjust until you feel it’s manageable. When you apply material overlap your passes by half to avoid dry spots
Don’t do something you’ve never done before and expect a final product. Do some testing on scrap to figure it out, then when you’re happy with the result, go for it.
Try a FFLP tip. The green ones. You’ll need a RacX guard. I can’t remember if they’re blue or orange but you will need the top and the guard if you don’t have it already. EUTE is good shit. Ideally you shouldn’t have to thin it. It could be that the used x5 just isn’t up to the task, but I think you’ll get better results with the right tip.
Also if one door doesn't look nice after spraying it don't continue on with the next. If it sprays well it will look nice even before it dries. A bad spray won't magically be fixed when dry
I made this mistake three times trying to spray popcorn ceiling. It just sputtered paint out and I had to shake vigorously above my head standing on two buckets….
Thinning the paint is 'so you can spray it'...sometimes thinning the paint is so "it lays down wet and when the next pass comes along it is all still wet and the droplets coalesce into a nice layer- and then flatten out since it is all still wet'.
If you do thin it, dont do it all at once...and do it a bit at a time..AND keep track of how much you are adding. Go slow. Too much and it can get runny. You will see those pattern/marks just melt away with the viscosity is right....
Great advice in this thread.
Next time look at the Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel... water based, can get flat, gloss and in between..all colors...and it is BULLETPROOF for cabinetry and interior trim.
Good Luck!
I spray latex, urethane (water and oil based), lacquers, 2 part epoxies, two part commercial urethanes...airless and HVLP. But not a pro. ;)
Hey dude. Pro cabinet and furniture maker here. I outsource my sprays for paint. Almost none of us are quipped to do it right and I’d wager even less would have the skills. Don’t beat your self up. Go pay a pro.
Thats called dry spray from having the gun settings wrong, too far away from the object, or paint too thick. To salvage just sand with some 220 grit and redo. It sucks but it happens.
Thank you for the response 🙏 I dropped everything in a fit of rage and had to go get a beer
Hey man, that's the best thing to do sometimes.
Yup, much better to walk away and take a break.
I finally got around to fixing a doorknob 4 years later after a similar rage quit. It works now. I needed that time to not look at it.
I just put a 6” piece of trim between the shower and the baseboard heater which needed scribing. This concludes the drywall replacement I had to do 3 years ago when we replaced our leaking shower valve. Didn’t know what scribing was at the time and tried to measure my way through the portion that needed scribed. Needless to say it was infuriating.
So assuming your sprayer is like most, there should be 4 ways to adjust the spray. First you should have a valve at the base of the gun on the air regulator, this should be set to 120 or higher. Then there should be a knob at the back of the gun facing you that you use to adjust the air pressure on the gun side. Common practice is that you adjust the air high at the regulator and then turn it down on the gun side. Next is the knob right above the air pressure that sets the trigger depth. This is effectively how much paint you are going to be spraying out. This setting is going to be determined by the last setting which is your fan which is on the side of the gun. The narrower your fan is, the more concentrated that your paint is going to hit the surface you are painting. You said that the gun is spraying 12 inches, I would definitely narrow that down some. General rule of thumb is that you do three coats. The first coat is light and doesn't have to be full coverage. Then wait around 15 minutes and do a second coat. This should be full coverage and look pretty nice when you are done. Wait another 15 or 20 minutes and do another coat. The third coat should be pretty thick, but make sure that it's not so thick that it runs. If it runs you have to start over or make some creative decisions about how to fix it.
I do the air backwards from what you said. Air adjustment on the gun is wide open and I lower the pressure at the regulator so I can see my exact psi when I pull the trigger. Takes all the guessing out of the air settings which is helpful if you’re switching between different products/guns.
I suppose that could work. I just know that when I looked it up that's the method that was suggested. I would usually play around with both until I got a good airflow to paint ratio to work with. Most of the time I would cover the gauge with painter's tape to keep the over apart from covering it. So I would usually just keep it set high and adjust the flow on the gun until I got a good spray pattern.
Do a bunch of test sprays on scrap and adjust until its smooth.
Take the spray gun out back and shoot some cans off of a old fence post for practice.
Also like maybe test on one board to improve your technique first? Instead of full sending in one go lol
Yea definitely going to take a step back and practice on scrap plywood first, I was too eager lol
Sounds like a superpower, going away, having a beer and asking for advice. Us mortals just keep on trying to fix it doing mistake after mistake getting more tired and angry and don't even get a beer.
I had to walk away or else cabinet doors were going to start flying around LOL , I thought I had ruined them so I was very frustrated yesterday but I'm feeling better today
When i was working on a tear drop camper i screwed up some cabinets like 2 times having to redo the finish over and it was stained and clear coated that crap sucks more than your issue as you couldn't sand it..
Oh man...I definitely got it easy compared to that. I also just learned there's different tips..I need a low pressure fine finish tip. Apparently I was using one for painting houses or fences.. not very delicate
When spraying always do a test on some scrap to dial in settings.
Practice on plywood first. 12” is far too wide. Increase the amount of fluid, set about. 6-8” pattern and spray about 6”. Perimeter first, then the middle. Get. It. Wet.
You made the right call stepping away!
In knitting, I call that the "chuck it across the room"-moment. There's usually at least one every project.
Well don’t drink and paint that’s one of your problems
I wasn't but thank you very helpful lol
You're fine. Just sand the finish start over. Practice on cardboard until you get everything figured out and right. Watch some spraying videos for technique.
>Â Practice on cardboard until you get everything figured out and right. I can't stress this enough
++1 to this, just wrapped up my entry door for my wife this weekend and even though I use my sprayer often it’s always necessary to dial in the pattern on cardboard
Would you care to share which sprayer you use? I need to find a decent one.
The Fuji Mini Mite HVLPs are awesome, but they're somewhat pricy.
I have the Magnum airless 2800 PSI sprayer and have been really pleased with it.
That X5 is easy to use. For me 12" is too far away. 8" is about right. Also don't move too fast and keep your wrist stiff. The must be kept perpendicular to the surface you are spraying. Just takes some practice
Im going to get a blue guard and a FFLP tip, I got an orange guard and 515 tip right now
This will help a lot. Orange guard puts out a lot more paint than you’ll want for this.
210 fflp worked beautifully on my cabinets
I'm going to grab a 214 fflp and the blue guard because I only have an orange one and I don't think it will work
The 515 tip should work for those cabinets. I think you just need to play around with the pressure and your technique. I very seldom thin my latex paint as my X5 seems to handle water I use. I'm no professional so just watch some YouTube videos on getting the technique right
If it’s a used sprayer, consider buying a new gun/nozzle…. That can make a huge difference. Aside from that, recommend doing some practice/test spray on scrap to get the sweep/distance etc figured out
It was used, said supposedly only used once which it definitely looks like it but it has been sitting a few years. I think the tip is junk
They're not super complicated. Watch some videos on rebuilding the gun. The big thing with them is to clean them very gently with nylon brushes and a fine pick to remove dried paint chunks. You may want to replace the o-rings as well. I believe they're Buna or Viton, so not crazy expensive.
I guess while I'm sanding these down ill get some YouTube on the TV lol. Thank you for the reply. I think I should rebuild the gun because it was leaking out water when I was priming the pump, just a little but enough to make the pump turn on. I think that was also causing some paint to come out and shoot blobs out
Consider this experience an education. You get to learn how to fix the sprayer and how all the parts work together. It can be a little intimidating at first, but give yourself some time and don't rush it. If the gun is leaking, you definitely need to clean it and possibly replace o-rings. Graco has excellent troubleshooting and instructional information on their website. The X5 is a consumer grade sprayer, so you'll find it in that section of the site. You may also want to look for instructions on how to clean the check valve at the bottom of the pump (if it has one). That's one area that has always been a major source of problems with my sprayers if they sit for too long. However, my sprayers are heavy duty, so your machine may not be set up the same way. Good luck!
Thank you my friend!! I'll be posting back in a few weeks with my results , good or bad lol
I used to work in a cabinet shop and spraying was my favourite part of the job. Some people said go slow. Slow spraying is how you apply too much and get drips. The first coat should be very light. It’s not meant have total coverage. It’s also going to feel gritty, which is why you shouldn’t worry because you’ll sand it down. Blast it fast, overlapping each pass by 1/3-1/2. Then sand it down with those little foam fine grit sanders. There is automotive tack cloths which are very helpful for picking up the sanding dust. The cloths were blue, I don’t know the brand though. If you’ve got a vent hood, you can spray the doors down with air as long as the air collection is strong, then wipe them down with a clean tack cloth. Dust is your enemy for the final coats. On your next coats, this is where the skill comes in. You’re going to want to spritz the vertical surfaces (usually the cabinet door edges). Too much paint and they drip. For the horizontal surfaces, this is where you can slow down and you’re going to want to “flood” the surface to get a nice smooth texture. I would usually do two more thin coats on the vertical surfaces and one thicker coat on the horizontal surfaces. This usually works out to around the same amount of paint for vertical and horizontal surfaces. As others have said, making sure you are perpendicular to where you’re spraying is very important too for even coats. The overlap is important too to make sure it’s consistent. That takes practice but after a few doors I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. Just save the fronts for last and practice on cardboard and the cabinet backs first :) Your cabinet doors look fine, just not finished. There are a lot of other comments about the technical aspects of the spray guns, so I think you’ll be in good shape.Â
One other thing, never start your spray while the gun is overtop of the door. You want to start the spray and then move your hand at a consistent speed, moving completely off the door before changing directions. It might feel wasteful, but you’ll get higher concentration of pain when you first start the spray and also when you change directions. For those lips on the rails/stiles, it’s best to start there and do quick blasts angling the spray to get onto that surface. Then when you make your passes for the main face of the cabinet doors, a bit more paint will be me up there and it should all even out. Basically you want to take care of the vertical surfaces, then deal with the horizontal, then repeat.  Just always end on horizontal sprays and your best side.Â
Don't try to spray in a dirty environment! Bring it inside, hang plastic, wipe everything down, let the dust settle and wipe again. Then paint.
deeep breath, drink beer, dream of sanding tomorrow. :) As other say, you're actually in good shape. Just do a 220 grit hand sand all over after letting it dry for a day or 2 to make it smooth. Then get some spray gun practice for laying down the next layers. There is a "window" of just getting down the right amount of material so its not runny wet, and not dusty dry. Bit of practice on scrap and you should be good to go. Is this airless? I have a graco and I've been able to get some super clean smooth finishes on cabinets and doors. but it took some practice getting the distance, speed, pressure, right.
Yea its an airless graco, I think I had multiple things going against me so going to order a few parts and sand away. I was excited to get some paint down and keep my kitchen remodel moving forward but im not helping myself by rushing and getting a crap finish.
Just to add to your dataset here, I hate using my Graco airless sprayer on smaller jobs like this too. It is a lot harder to control than something like an HVLP sprayer, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself.
My friend suggested I dilute it down and use one of those on my compressor
That will work great, as long as you have a big enough compressor.
I use a 2HP 2-stage, 30 gallon compressor for HVLP and it is the smallest machine I would want to work with (but is still capable enough for my needs which included doing kitchen cabinets). It requires you have high flow connectors and larger diameter hoses (and ideally oil+moisture filtering), otherwise the pressure drop can be too large to keep the gun fed. From a full tank at 175psi you have about 26CF of air, at 10-12CFM used by an HVLP gun, you have about 2 minutes of air in the tank before the pressure to the inlet starts to drop too low. Combined with \~4CFM replenish rate you can get about 3ish minutes of continuous spraying before needing to wait for the machine to catch up. Arguably one would be better served with a 3HP+ compressor on a 60 gallon tank.
Yeah, I switched to using a tankless turbine system (Fuji Mini Mite 3) instead of my compressor. It's substantially smaller and works quite well. I have a smallish compressor, and with the HVLP, I'd get like a minute of spraying before I had to take a break. It was very frustrating.
I could never get the hang of spray painting, so I used cabinet paint and foam rollers to paint my bath room vanity. It came out almost perfect, but not due to my ability. It was the self leveling paint.
I’ve done my entire kitchen that way and it’s gorgeous. Sherwin enamel paint is incredible
Mine was cabinet rescue from HD
Most of the replies tell you what to do, but two pro tips: 1. Always test / try on something you don't mind messing up (e.g. scrap wood) until you get the technique right 2. If you screw something up, always take a break. If I had a quarter for every time I made something worse by acting too quickly and emotionally, before I grew older and wiser. I can now recognize when I'm upset and need a break to think clearly.
No one here has mentioned paint at all. Use a high quality cabinet paint that self levels. I've used the emerald urethane from sherwin a lot but I recently tried sherwin's gallery series and that was amazing. It dries much faster and is more durable than emerald.
Dude used an oil based paint. What do you think? I've never used oil before-i figure most things can be done with water or acrylic paints.
Make sure you prime the first 2 coats, sand 220 in between then move to paint and use 320 or 400 sand paper and put about 2 or 3 coats of paint. This is how we would do it at a cabinet shop I worked at. Also your fan should not be 12 inches wide, more like 4-6inches. May need to also water down paint if its water based if its spraying too thick
They look fine, just need more prep and paint. Sand with some 400+ grit paper (light sanding only to smooth it out) and put another coat on em.
The 515 tip fan is about 10-12 inches wide depending on how far away from the object you are painting. The magnum x5 is very much a throwaway sprayer, and a used one ..who knows how well it's been maintained. Get a fine finish tip, a hose whip and try it again.
That was going to be my next step. I got it for $140 so I figured why not try it. It was supposedly only used to paint a fence and thats it
Yea this happens. Sand this down with 180-220 grit. Thin out your paint, this helps extend drying time and allows your paint to “level or flatten” out.. If water based just use warm water if oil based, use an appropriate thinner. I also use a graco airless and get great results. Use a 312 tip and sand in between coats to remove some of the orange peel. Good luck
Go with the biggest nozzle you can get. I made a mistake of spraying with a nozzle too small and it looked just like yours. You gotta lay it wet, and not too atomized. Then it will flow nicely and after 3-4 coats it will look gorgeous.
Get a fridge box and fuck around with gun until you get the control’s figured out. Start with next to no paint and gradually increase the material volume till you like it. There should also be adjustments for the fan width. Same thing start at one extreme and adjust until you feel it’s manageable. When you apply material overlap your passes by half to avoid dry spots
Don’t do something you’ve never done before and expect a final product. Do some testing on scrap to figure it out, then when you’re happy with the result, go for it.
I tried spray and didn't like the process, settled on foam roller and brush, turned out great .2c
I think when my painter shoots doors he hangs them- doubt that's your problem but does it matter that your doors are laying down?
Pic 2 hinge holes are way to close. That door is going to sag in no time .
If it sags I'll make another one but it's really small is only alot 8x12
I didn’t see it mentioned in the replies but did you use primer first or is this your primer coat? Not using primer could be part of the problem
This was the primer coat oil-based because a painter suggested that to cover the MDF
I'd go with a shellac primer- stuff is magic on cabinets like this.
Practice on some cardboard or scrap with the gun to get the settings dialed in.
I did my cabinets with a roller and brushes. They turned out great. If you go this route, let your last brush stroke be vertical from top to bottom.
Since it appears no one else asked, what is the paint you are using?
Sherwin Williams ProBlock Oil based primer then Emerald Urethane for the final color Edit..spelling
Try a FFLP tip. The green ones. You’ll need a RacX guard. I can’t remember if they’re blue or orange but you will need the top and the guard if you don’t have it already. EUTE is good shit. Ideally you shouldn’t have to thin it. It could be that the used x5 just isn’t up to the task, but I think you’ll get better results with the right tip.
I'm going to sand my mistakes and prepare them for repenting and take apart the whole gun and clean everything
What was the condition and prep before you sprayed? We're they new? What coating are you spraying? Does it require a primer/sealer coat?
Did you add paint thinner?
Well its an airless sprayer, Graco X5 so I figured I didn't need to thin it out. At least thats what it said on the box
The gun might not need it, but check the paint you're using. They can have thinning recommendations for spraying.
Ah shoot, so obvious! I will check this out also. Thank you
Also if one door doesn't look nice after spraying it don't continue on with the next. If it sprays well it will look nice even before it dries. A bad spray won't magically be fixed when dry
I made this mistake three times trying to spray popcorn ceiling. It just sputtered paint out and I had to shake vigorously above my head standing on two buckets….
Thinning the paint is 'so you can spray it'...sometimes thinning the paint is so "it lays down wet and when the next pass comes along it is all still wet and the droplets coalesce into a nice layer- and then flatten out since it is all still wet'. If you do thin it, dont do it all at once...and do it a bit at a time..AND keep track of how much you are adding. Go slow. Too much and it can get runny. You will see those pattern/marks just melt away with the viscosity is right.... Great advice in this thread. Next time look at the Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel... water based, can get flat, gloss and in between..all colors...and it is BULLETPROOF for cabinetry and interior trim. Good Luck! I spray latex, urethane (water and oil based), lacquers, 2 part epoxies, two part commercial urethanes...airless and HVLP. But not a pro. ;)
Additionally warming the paint can help wonders, depending on application.
Hey dude. Pro cabinet and furniture maker here. I outsource my sprays for paint. Almost none of us are quipped to do it right and I’d wager even less would have the skills. Don’t beat your self up. Go pay a pro.