Chapter Two: The Cabinet
Part Two: Splatter Time!
Finished the black splatter, and I'm really happy with the way it came out. As promised, here are all the details of how I did it:
I used Rustoleum Satin Black paint (see the picture below) in an HVLP sprayer without thinning it at all. It's oil-based, by the way, not the latex stuff.
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I turned the compressor up to between 20 and 25 (I didn't really care where in that range it was since I knew I would be controlling the air flow at the nozzle, which was much less than that). I used a 1.4mm tip and opened the paint flow knob almost all the way, then turned the air flow knob down almost all the way.
Now, here's the tricky part: You really need to experiment with this before shooting the stuff on your cabinet. I had tons of cardboard lying around to practice on, and I only had to adjust the air flow to get it where it wasn't atomizing, but splattering...and not too much and not dripping! Here are two important things to remember:
1. If you're shooting with the paint gun pointing down (if you're standing above the cabinet), the paint will come out differently than if you're shooting it perpendicular to the surface you're painting. Be sure to test-paint your cardboard (or whatever) using the same angle you'll be shooting the real thing at.
2. Since you have to flash the paint for 10 minutes or so before moving the cabinet and painting another surface, you have to test the gun every single time before you begin painting again. Why? I'm guessing the paint begins to clog in the nozzle a bit, so I found that each time I was going to start painting again, I had to open the air flow a tiny bit more to achieve the same spatter effect I had 10 or 15 minutes (or less) earlier. ALWAYS test before shooting - better to screw up the cardboard than the cabinet.
The preparation and caution in doing it properly takes some time. The spraying, of course, takes seconds (and the cleanup sucks). WAY better than the toothbrush or splatter brush method, and far less messy.
And there you have it - here are the pics, and now I get to wait a week before stenciling.
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