"Labor" Day

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day Weekend. We took the opportunity to test out my new paint sprayer we bought a few weeks back on these recently sanded spindles.

Since I had never used a paint sprayer before I took a little extra time to figure out what I needed to do, aka reading the instructions. Most of it was details about how much air pressure the the gun needs, how to adjust the spray pattern, and other interesting things like that. Most of the time when I read stuff like that I have to actually do it to understand what they're talking about. One thing that did manage to stick in my little brain was the fact that I needed to thin the paint. Ok, that should be no problem. And I would need some paint solvent to clean the sprayer after use. Got it! Off to Home Depot (I know I talk about going there a lot, but the reasons because it's just across the street from my neighborhood. It's not like I have some undying love for Home Depot.) to pick up paint thinner, solvent, more 60 grit sand paper, a measuring cup, a drop cloth, and some sexy SARS Guards. (that's what I call masks, it's more fun that way.)

While there I asked one of the women working at then paint counter about thinning paint. I showed her the paint thinner I had selected and pointed to the type of paint we had at home. She was really helpful and told me to read the label on the paint can. I really wish I could remember her name so that I could properly thank her for going above and beyond to help me with my simple question. After lugging these flammable liquids home, I sat down to read my paint can's label and guess what? It said absolutely nothing about thinning! Anywhere! So I turned to the paint thinner label for help and I didn't get too far into reading it before I saw that it was for oil based paints only. Therefore this is useless to me.






At this point I'm a little frustrated and turn to my friend Google in my time of need. Oh Google, you never disappoint! In about 5 minutes I figured out that you're supposed to use water to thin latex paint. Of all things! I also saw a suggestion on using a ratio of 10% water to 90% paint. Was that really so hard paint lady?

Now that I know my paint mixture and other stuff it was time to head out to the garage. I set up a little paint station with half of my drop cloth stapled to the wall and set up all of my spindles facing the same direction. I mixed up my paint using the suggested ratio and started spraying. Unfortunately it wasn't going as smoothly as I had hoped. but it wasn't terrible so I left the first coat to dry overnight.

Got your tickets?

The next day I gave the spindles a quick sanding with a super fine sanding sponge before painting. This time I added more water. I used an 8/2 ratio and that seemed to do the trick. I would imagine that different paints will need different mixing ratios and that's why they should out it on the label. Having a thinner consistency really made painting go much faster and it looked a lot smoother going on.






Don't they look so bright and pretty!






After more drying time it was time to realize a dire mistake I had made. I should have numbered them. It was a little complicated getting them back in their rightful places, and there are 2 that are not perfectly lined up with the existing holes, but it's as good as it's gonna get! And look, I have learned my lesson!
















Now we just need to do this whole process over again! Oh, and decide if we want to switch out the bolts for something in the silver family. Ugh, who's idea was this anyway? Mine? Are you sure?

Have you ever started a project that once you were past the point of no return you started to say "what was I thinking?" I just hope that with the painting under control things will move a bit more quickly. I'll be sure to let you know.

-Nikki