Coating Canvas

[na goodman]

This is for anyone that is using the Wagner Spray Gun that does not have a compressor to coat your canvas. Can you tell me if you spray inside and if so do you spray in a booth. Do you have much overspray and are you happy with the results. Specifically I use BC Chromata with Glamour II and have been rolling but am looking at other options. I'm just not sure it is feasible for inside use.

[Rocco Penny]

I'm a very experienced spray gun user.
I used mostly airless, but for several years now have owned a low volume cup gun.
That's the type that has a cup that sits above the  spray tip and gravity feeds in a slight vacuum to the very
adjustable pattern, volume, and pressure controllable spray gun.
Mine was maybe $50 dollars or less at a discounter.
I bought it to spray body parts on my collector truck.
Used it to coat the canvas and man o man, mix in just a bit o water for  gooey consistency, more runny probably than gooey, but never gloppy or stringy,
just so nice and smooth is what I mean, like maybe even use warm water oe just let the finish warm up in a window would do it-anyway I think consistency is everything in finishes, and having an even gooeyness that just sprays on so nice is key.
So back to what I was saying,
I had great success using the glamour coating and my gun.
I would spray it in my house, but then I also would do wood finishing in my kitchen, and as far as smell I don't see that being a problem, not like oil varnish or even pledge imho
I'd spray it inside if I had to, but just wear a mask or something.
Cover the floor with a drop, the only advantage I see in inside spraying is if there was rain, or maybe if like me you had naughty goats that couldn't mind their own business.
Otherwise why would you?

[na goodman]

Thank you for your insight. Being in Minnesota - I would be forced to spray inside at times. I think I'm going to give it a try. Thank you.

[Rocco Penny]

Came back to give information about  my great experience with this product.
I found it easy to use because I know how to finish.You'll no doubt be aware right away of a spray pattern visible to the naked eye especially when viewed while wet, or in varying light due to inability to spray a clean pattern.
SO, buy what you need. Don't use one of those too cheep  compressorless sprayers.
A compressor doesn't make too much noise, and only needing 60psi@1 0r 2 cfm makes for a quick and easy selection of compressors.
Buy one.
  Then go buy a HVLP that will operate within those parameters.
Get a good shortish hose. 25 feet will be plenty for this
Buy a CANVAS dropcloth that has sewn edges.
PLASTIC sheets come in 400 foot rolls.
Put down the drop,  protect the walls with plastic using GOOD(not cheep) masking tape,
go like heck with a 500 watt or more halogen pointing right at the grain of your piece. What I mean is straight at it is no good, but shining a light ACROSS the piece, right even with the profile of your piece while finishing will reveal the exact condition you are creating with the spray. You can actually see what is happening.
I laid the piece horizontal on a pretty even surface, sprayed a nice clean pattern with a 1/4 to 1/3 overlap in two directions and four passes to achieve a desirous effect.
I wonder the mm I laid down. Maybe 2 to 4 mm?  That was my one and only coat.
So just make sure that light is shining in on there and check out the way the finish is laying. Don't abuse your power to put more, cause more ain't always better, and I think you'll see what I mean if you do it like that
More light is better, don't asphyxiate yourself or others though I don't worry about those things, always wear a mask etc.
Some coatings will kill you if you breathe them. Some will explode for their volatile compounds.
I've seen latex paint explode inside those reversed dish type dome lights you find on older ceilings. The reverse dish trapped the spray particles, the regular incandescent bulb was hot and BAM!
I suspect you could injure yourself if you took my advice to just go like heck, but I assume you and anyone else reading this would have the sense not to injure themselves, but for safety's sake don't just cut and run.
I have fans and barriers and sealed bulb lamps, and didn't really think about the average preacher from Mockingbird North Dakota when I said go like heck OK?
Get a water remover for your new compressor toy.
Use clean water to mix in with waterbase finish.
Distilled or purified even better.
Don't mix in air bubbles with the coating when you stir, pour, or spray it
Practice using the sprayer on some red or beige kraft paper using the glamour.
You'll see it is a little tricky getting it even.
But for really even finish I laid my canvas flat on a converted 300 pound light table with kraft paper as a backer to keep things neat, laid on about 3 or so passes of slightly thinned material, and let it dry like that.
My 1rst finished canvas was a complete success like that.
Looks great and my buddy wants me to sell it to him.
I said no.
I have no idea of the long term implications regarding even one bit of my great experience using glamour as opposed to any other coating, or if you must use one kind or another, or if there is some special compatibility issue regarding anything about coatings and canvas, but finish is finish, and just be safe and have a ball!
Wear a spray mask. Contain the spray.
Operator skill will determine the evenness and overspray conditions.
Don't blast the finish on, apply it.
good luck

[bill t.]

Spraying in your house is not an acceptable long term solution, unless you have a paint booth set up with excellent ventilation to the outside.  For a couple smallish prints if you spray next to an open door with your house ventilation system on and pushing air positively out the door, maybe that's OK.  But otherwise you will get spray dust all over the place in no time and all, including in your food and your family's lungs (BTW you need to wear a mask, "N95" types are OK for water-based sprays but not for solvent).  Yes there is very minimal overspray with the Wagner, but there is still some as there is with any type of spraying system.  I have to aggressively clean my spraying area every 100 or so square feet just to keep dust off my coatings.

Your best Minnesota Winter bet is probably to develop good rolling technique.  Which is easier said than done.  And even then if more than a couple of square feet of wet canvas is exposed in a room without good circulation that's enough to drive you out, and that applies to Glamour, Clearshield, and all the other water based sprays, and 10 times so for any of the solvent sprays.  You would need to coat, open the window a little, close the door, and evacuate the room for a couple hours.  Repeat for 1 or 2 more heavy coats.  Bottom line, coating canvas in cold climates without a spray booth is the pits.

For rolling, you need to pour the solution on the print then spread it out with a thin foam roller.  Don't try to transfer the paint to the print with the roller, you can't do it fast enough.  All coats should be thick ones, but the paint should be thinned enough so that the surface still looks liquid with no roller-edge marks by the time you've spread the coat out.  Don't try to remove crud in the paint until it's dried, unless you can nab it within a minute of putting on the coat, but best wait until it dries.  Also completely clean crud off each coat before going on to the next.  I make it sound so easy...it isn't, you need lots of practice.

[na goodman]

I have been rolling, and am used to Glamour II but thought spraying would be quicker. I agree, spraying inside will not be a feasible solution. I think I need to give it more thought. I'm running out of studio space when I have a number of pieces to coat at one time. Thanks everyone for your input.