Quilted Maple Picture Frame - Cutting and Gluing Miters and HVLP

The third and last installment for this picture frame I made my best friend.  (Here are links to part one and part deux.)  I'm really liking the color compliment of the frame to the painting and while the lighting was tough for filming the close-ups (needed daylight!) the curl in the maple is really well highlighted.

I talk a little about a Fuji Super 4 HVLP sprayer I purchased from a fellow forum member (thanks, Corwin!).  In a nutshell, it was a joy to use.  I also used the MFT table with Qwas dogs to cut the miters and have some hints on how to eliminate blow-out as that would be horrible on these pre-colored and partially finished pieces.  Lastly, a discussion of the Miter Stitch from Bridge City Toolworks.  It should be noted that the Miter Stitch is no longer available from Bridge City, but they do occasionally come up on eBay.  That said, though, creative types could make their own; you won't be disappointed with their utility.

Roll it...

Turn Gravity Upside-Down

˙˙˙ǝɯos ǝpɐɯ ı 'puǝʞǝǝʍ ʇsɐd sıɥʇ
oops! sorry...
This past weekend, I made some trivial plywood-based cabinets for the inside of a closet in a spare bedroom that will someday (!?) become a reading/Foosball room.  I don't need the space for clothes, I need it for stacks of printed pictures (yeah, pre-digital, people printed photos!), CDs, hanging files, and a wireless printer.  I sprayed it with General Finishes PolyAcrylic water-based clearcoat.  But the reason for breaking the recent silence on my blog is to talk about how I sprayed it.

I have a gravity-feed conversion HVLP gun from Jeff Jewitt's finishing site.  A conversion HVLP gun uses compressed air as a propellant instead of high-volume turbine air.  It works great with my 20 gallon compressor.  "Gravity feed" implies gravity is somehow used to this gun's advantage.  The weight of the finish in the cup helps this low-pressure gun pull it down into the nozzle for atomization.  So you need to keep it pretty much upright.

So... how am I gonna finish these narrow shelves?!

Rather than use the gravity cup from the sprayer, I installed a 3M PPS cup.  You can see the system in this picture.  From top left clockwise, the rigid plastic cup, the disposable collapsible finish cup, the cap with built-in filter, and the black locking ring to hold it all together.  My crooked finger is pointing to an adapter that takes the place of the original gravity cup; this is selected for your gun.  While the attachment point is gun-specific, the top is how you attach the PPS cup.

Here you can see it all assembled on the gun with the original cup for reference.

The cup collapses during use to keep the fluids in the gun's intake, but we'll cover that in a minute. A nice benefit is that there are caps for the PPS cups so when you are done, pull the collapsed cup out and cap it.  The black cup is full of dyed PolyAcrylic from over a month ago and it's still just fine.

The lid has a built-in filter.  What's nice is that the caps are cheap in quantity so if the filter gets gunked up beyond reason, toss it.

Put the collapsible cup in the plastic cup holder, fill with finish, and press down the cap.

Lock the ensemble with the black locking ring and attach the gun.  The gun simply pushes on then a twist locks it.

The plastic cup has a hole in the bottom to allow air in for the collapsible cup.  Use that hole for your finger while voiding the cup of air.  To do this, press on the collapsible cup while pressing the trigger on the gun (connected to the compressed air).  The Venturi effect will help pull the air out (finger helps... my gun is very low volume; higher pressure guns can do this sans finger).  Quickly, the cup with collapse with no air at the top and finish will shoot out the nozzle.  Ah, that's the cool part...

Maybe I should have used black finish for this shot :)  With the air voided, I'm spraying upside-down.  You'll likely need to open the picture to see against the cabinet side.

Cooler still, it works in any orientation since the Venturi vacuum keeps the finish at the inlet.  Here I have the unit on the side spraying the sides and the shelf surface (at a slant).  Works very very well.

Putting down a gravity-feed gun is annoying; you need a stand for it and they seem built to give you the feeling that they'll drop their payload the second you walk away.  Since the vacuum stays for a very long time, I just set it down upside-down in an office wastebasket: it can't fall over and putting it down it a quick lowering by the air hose.  I left it like that for an hour between coats with a damp rag over the nozzle to keep finish from drying.

This is the collapsible cup after a lot of spraying.  To remove the cup, detach the air hose, flip the gun, and squeeze the trigger to let in air.  As soon as you do that, you can easily twist off the cup and cap it for spraying the next day (or month!)  Here I intentionally banged the cup to let in more air for demonstration.

This HVLP gun is excellent to use, easy to clean (all stainless steel), and with the PPS it...
¡ob ʇ,uɐɔ spǝǝɟ ʎʇıʌɐɹb sǝɔɐןd uı sʞɹoʍ

As an addendum, spraying those shelves on a slant worked very well.  One thing to make finishing those areas easier is to first spray the flat shelf on a slant first (slanted because you can't get the gun twisted upright) then spray the sides.  Due to the pretty extreme slant used for the shelf, you're gonna get overspray on the sides, but since you'll be spraying them seconds later, it isn't an issue.  You won't get much overspray when spraying the sides.

A Good Day Spraying Is...

...when you spray a project with three coats of black shellac and still look like Michael Jackson when it's over (that is, white).

Well, almost... I have a mini black shellac cowlick that won't go away.  :)

General Finishes Sample Packs

I'm doing a trivial stand for a friend's new 55" flatscreen.  He bought a nice low stand for the components, but need a smaller stand on the top to get the TV to a good viewing height and house the center speaker.  Thing is, they want an exact match on the finish.  This comes up too often.

Rockler Woodworking sells a fantastic sample pack for General Finishes' stains and dyes.  There are 5 packs available depending on the type of dye or stain (water or oil-based) along with one for milk paints.  The boards are a good size, have a clearcoat on them, and are dual sided: one side is oak the other birch.  Getting a match to my friend's entertainment center took all of a minute and best of all, I didn't have to carry the drawer to the store to match to the samples mounted way up high.

The packs aren't cheap at $20 each, but I got them on a sale and really only use the water-based dyes and water-based stains.  Definitely worth considering.