waterborne enamels or waterborne alkyds. ProClassic Semi-gloss Sherwin Williams ProClassic Interior Waterbased Acrylic-Alkyd Semi-Gloss.

It can be applied by brush, roller or sprayer on a clean, dry surface that has either been primed or dulled if previously painted with a gloss product. Drying time on the first coat takes 20-40 minutes and a second re-coat will take 3-4 hours to dry Note that SW ProClassic is a 100% acrylic and not "latex", despite what it might say in some of the marketing materials. It doesn't have the "softness" nor the blocking (stickiness) that latex paint exhibits. Water bornes, no matter what the name or kind, cannot tolerate much thinning. The water is just a "carrier", not a reducer, for the most part. The actual finish is suspended in the water...the water evaporates first and then the finish itself cures chemically. You can thin "a little"...the manufacturers generally say about 10%, although some folks push that a little. FLotrol is also not a "thinner", although many find it helpful when spraying. The trickiest part of using an HVLP spray gun is thinning the material to be used to the right viscosity. It needs to be thin enough to produce a fine mist, but thick enough to get a good application on the surface being sprayed. One way to measure the viscosity of your material is to use a stir stick. Simply dunk the stick into the material being used, then lift it out and count how long it takes for the steady stream of material coming off the end to break into dripping. For paint, 20 to 25 seconds is where you want to be, and for oil base varnishes, 15 to 20 seconds. Another way to measure this is to purchase a viscosity cup. You use it in pretty much the same way as the stir stick, but it will come with a manual showing you the proper times for a variety of materials, and is probably more accurate.

With latex paint I use a .517 - .521 tip. I usually spray at around 2000 psi. pressure. Spray Tip Decoding: the "5" in the .517 stands for the fan width of the spray pattern when sprayed from a distance of 12" away. To add confusion the "5" is multiplied by 2 to arrive at the correct fan width. So a . 517 tip has a fan width of 10" when sprayed at a distance of 12" from the surface. The "17" stands for the orifice size in thousandths of an inch. So the .517 tip has an orifice (opening) of 17 thousandths of an inch. General Rules: With latex wall paints an orifice size of .17 - .21 (such as a .521 tip) is commonly used. With oil paints the orifice should be around .15 (such as a .415 tip). With stains and thin materials including some enamels the orifice should be around .11 - .15 (such as a 413 tip). Tip Variations: Reversible tips are the most common types of tips used. Reversible tips are self unclogging when they are turned and triggered to eliminate the clogging particle, whereupon the tip is then returned back and spraying commences again. Other types of tips are the fine finish tips which contain a type of pre-orifice to help break up the paint into a finer particle size. There are adjustable tips in which you can by a turn of a knob, vary the width of the spray pattern, for the purpose of controlling overspray or spray output. Another tip type is the flat tip. Flat tips are sold presumably for cost considerations - they are the least expensive of the spray tips. I never use the flat tips. If you get a clog with a flat tip, you will have to pull the tip guard and tip off the gun to clean it out which is a big inconvenience. Tip Guards These are produced by the airless spray manufacturers for the purpose of keeping the airless spray operator's hands away from the spray tip, to reduce the risk of spray injection. Always use the tip guard when spraying with an airless sprayer.