Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this spray system to paint the kitchen cabinets white... My wifes' idea not mine... Damn you HG-TV, Chip and Joanna Gains, Pintrest and all of the rest of the social media that showcase these trendy fashions that end up with me doing a bunch of home improvement projects!!! While I am not a professional painter by any means, I am a perfectionist and wanted to have professional results once finished. This spray system was just the ticket to accomplish this. My wife got several estimates for professionals that specialize in painting kitchen cabinets. Estimates ranged from $2500-$3500. I couldn't justify that price for a couple of coats of paint and I still would have had to do a fair amount of the prep work. All of the pros were using Benjamin Moore Advance, a water-borne alkyd paint. (We chose "Simply White" as the color. The sales man said that has been the most popular color of the year. It looks awesome! Now that it's done.) The pressurized gravity feed paint cup made it possible to spray the thick paint without thinning very much. The pressurized feature seems to be somewhat unique to the Fuji guns that I haven't seen on other guns. Benjamin Moore recommends thinning with no more than 10% water... that's not much. I bought the Fuji 7020-5, #5, 2.0 mm Air-cap set to make it easier to get good paint flow with the thick paint. That worked great! But, I did have to thin using about 8-9% water (1/2 cup water to 48 oz. of paint). Without thinning, I got poor atomization and the paint would come out in large droplets. Adding the small amount of water allowed perfect atomization resulting in a glass smooth finish once dry. I also read on a forum that you need to mix the paint/water mixture very, very well using a drill motor paint mixer attachment. The forum theory was that the paint molecules will stay clumped together and make strings if you don't mix it thoroughly for several minutes when you thin with water. It seemed logical so I did not try it without mixing really well. No stringing or globs were observed. Just perfect, fine atomization. Benjamin Moore claims that no "Flo-Trol" additive is needed and I found this to be true. Spraying with the doors and drawer fronts horizontal, I was able to lay on relatively heavy coats without risk of drips. Holding the gun 3-4 inches from the piece results in an "orange peel" texture when first sprayed but soon levels to a perfect, smooth finish. It seems that the key is to apply a heavy enough coat to thoroughly "wet" the paint surface and allow the leveling to occur. Too light a coat will result in more texture as the paint dries. Holding the gun closer than 3 inches from the piece seemed to cause tiny air bubbles in the wet paint that may stay as the paint dried. Due to the heavy coats, I only needed one coat of primer and one coat of paint to cover very well. This paint dries slowly enough that is easy to get the whole piece being painted to have a fully "wetted" surface, ensuring a even, perfect finish. The trigger and mechanics of the gun provided glob free operation from the instant the trigger is pulled to the point of fully releasing the trigger. The gun is an absolute pleasure to use. No cursing or having to wipe up globs, spits, or other frustrating, finish ruining problems that come from cheap spray guns. This spray system is worth the $400. I expect that it will perform equally well on future automotive painting projects... with the appropriate sized Air-cap for automotive paint. I used the full-fan setting on the gun and had the best results when I did not try to throttle the air flow down at all. I watched several YouTube videos of how to set an HVLP spray gun. The most helpful was from Eastwood. It was talking about automotive painting but the concepts are the same. Full-fan and full air flow. If you need to adjust, you probably need to change the Air-cap or thin/reduce the paint to change the viscosity. Let the gun do the work as it was designed to do. That's why you pay the money for a good gun. I'm not gonna lie... I'm no Chip Gains. I hated this project. I complained every step of the way. It took a lot of work and time that I don't have to spare, but it looks awesome now that it's done. My goal was to get the most perfection that my little DIY-er abilities can produce and I am very happy with the finish quality I was able to accomplish with the Fuji Semi-Pro2 and Benjamin Moore Advance. Personally, I was OK with the natural wood but the white cabinet look is the thing right now, not to mention, the wife is super happy.