Nozzle Size For Spraying Shellac

[Sapling]

Have done a lot of searching and reading on this forum and other places trying to work out the right size nozzle for spaying shellac. Am going to purchase a HVLP gun (brand yet to be decided by limited budget. Suggestions welcome) that I will mainly use for this purpose. Have 7 chairs to refinish (silky oak) a medicine cabinet, dresser (english oak) and wardrobe (hoop pine) that are ready to go.

[JCCLARK]

I'd pick a 1.5, that's a good all around size that I use a lot.
If you get something really thick you can just reduce it a little.

Look at the "Astro" brand guns.
Unbelievably good quality for under $100.00.
I use one all the time for car painting.
I have guns costing 5 times as much and they're better but
not by that much.
But with any HVLP you need a lot of air,
You need a pretty good size compressor.
And the std 1/4" hose fittings won't allow it to spray to it's true potential. I got the 3/8" ones from Home Depot and they made a huge difference.

[durwood]

I presume you intend to finish the articles in shellac, if you are then you would also be looking at doing some french polishing to obtain a nice finish.

If thats the case spraying the shellac won't help you much because

* it doesn't spray well as the metho drys out so fast with the air from the gun the finish will be no better and probably a lot worse than brushing it on
* You will also use far more material as spraying results in a 50% loss of material

*you will have to thin the shellac a lot and that will mean you will have to put on far more coats of shellac than if you applied it with a brush, pad or other means.

* as you are spraying chairs there will be a lot of waste doing the legs etc as a lot of the spray will miss the actual wood.

Having said that a HVLP gun would not be a suitable gun espacially as JCCLARK has stated you need a lot of air a big hose and compressor. Unless you already have these you will be spending a lot with no great gain for your particular job.

If you must spray a low pressure gun would be a more suitable gun to use.

But I would apply it by hand

[Sapling]

Thanks for the feedback. I have the compressor (13cfm) but only 1/4'" fittings. Think I will give it a go by hand as I would like a high quality finish and realize over spray would also be a problem. Fantastic forum, thanks again