# Household sprayer for aniline dye?



## thistlefly (Dec 2, 2008)

I'm planning to spray a fair amount of furniture with a water-based aniline dye stain (from General Finishes). I don't really want to have the bother of using my sprayer and cleaning it up before spraying finish, but the convenience of spraying rather than wiping or brushing it on is appealing.

Has anyone tried using a household sprayer (squeeze-trigger type) for spraying dye? I don't see any reason it wouldn't work, and to me it is surely worth dedicating a spray bottle to this purpose.

If not, I guess I'm volunteering to try it out...  ... but any feedback would be appreciated!

Thanks-

Bob


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## baileyedition (Feb 2, 2011)

Proper atomization of the finish is what matters. You want an even coat especially if you are leaving it off the gun. If you are wiping the excess after a time specified then this may be less important, be sure to test on a scrap piece . I am currently looking for an lvlp at a modest price. these are not that expensive and can be used with smaller portable compressors with success. With an hvlp or lvlp you will also have the option of spraying many different materials. 

Im not sure what you mean when you talk about the cleaning. Any gun you use will have to be cleaned after use. Even if you were only going to shoot the same color forever unless you were doing this every day or every other day you would want to disassemble and clean it.


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## thistlefly (Dec 2, 2008)

baileyedition said:


> Proper atomization of the finish is what matters. You want an even coat especially if you are leaving it off the gun. If you are wiping the excess after a time specified then this may be less important, be sure to test on a scrap piece . I am currently looking for an lvlp at a modest price. these are not that expensive and can be used with smaller portable compressors with success. With an hvlp or lvlp you will also have the option of spraying many different materials.
> 
> Im not sure what you mean when you talk about the cleaning. Any gun you use will have to be cleaned after use. Even if you were only going to shoot the same color forever unless you were doing this every day or every other day you would want to disassemble and clean it.


Thanks for the reply. I actually have a nice shiny, new HPLV system... but for spraying one or two cabinets at a time, I figure that if I can use a generic hand-squeeze spray bottle for the aniline dye, I can avoid the work of cleaning out the HPLV system.

I have the spray bottle, just waiting for a major house project (contractors, not me) to be completed so that I can reclaim my shop. 

I'll update the thread with a report on how well (or poorly) this approach works.

Thanks-

Bob


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## baileyedition (Feb 2, 2011)

if its just for the application of a dye that is going to be wiped off ( i cant see this leaving an even enough coat to leave on )and this spray bottle is just being used to quickly apply a fairly even coat of dye that will then be wiped off (because a brush or rag could do this albeit more slowly ) than i dont really see much of an issue. 

Yes please do post your results and just for a clearer understanding of the sprayer you are describing could you clarify. Are you talking about a steel manually pressurized gun with cup or are you talking about something like a windex spray bottle.


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