Paints were originally solvent based. But for environmental reasons paint manufacturers have been moving toward waterbased paints. The fact that the solvents escape into the air means they create air pollution and the vast majority of such organic solvents damage the environment.

In a bold and trending move across the United States - In late 2008 – early 2009 California’s two largest air quality management districts imposed emissions regulations and require the use of water based paints. By requiring the use of environmentally friendly fully de-ionized water instead of solvent, California legislatures mandates an effective and “economical” method of reducing solvent and therefore polution reduction. It is expected that other states will follow California and soon, in the very near future, all paint will be water based because of EPA issues....i.e. Europe is already Green and waterbased. The Canadian Federal Government also introduced new legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse and hazardous emissions from the automotive finishing and refinishing sectors. 

You may be noticing that it is becoming more difficult finding solvent based materials. This is unfortunate because, many claim solvent based paints work much better than waterbased paints on wood. This is logical, as wood and water are not naturally friends. Water affects the quality of your wood. Grain rasing and texture changes occur when water interacts with your wood products.

OTHER PROBLEMS WITH WATERBASED PAINTS:

In addition, water is not as good a carrying agent for pigments. Shine and “depth” is not as attractive as solvents based paints. This should be a temporary problem as coatings manufacturers are working hard to solve this issue.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!

Paint manufacturers have been working long and hard to overcome the difficulties of water based paints. We expect and have recently seen some great new waterbased materials hitting the market from great manufaucturers like ML Campbell, Target Coatings, and Furh to name a few. Within a few generation cycles great improvements have been made and more is expected shortly.

Waterbased application may be used with traditional spray equipment. In general we recommend a slightly smaller tip set due to the ease at which water base material is atomized. Wood products are sometime artifically thickened so be aware of the consistency of the brand you are planning on using as they range from 1.5 - 1.9 gravity feed. Please note however formulations are constantly changing and since this is new technology our recommendations may change in the future also. Luckily WoodSprayGuns always supports its spray guns with multiple nozzle size selections so you are not stuck in case a paint manufactuer changes formulas.

Summary

Waterbase is the future just like Europe. Embrace it!

1) We only carry the top name brands in the industry.
2) All guns we sell with stainless steel tips and needles are handle waterbased material even if not "marked" as a waterbased gun.
3) Solvent based is also fine in "waterbased guns" just be sure they are cleaned out COMPLETELY as the chemicals sometimes react with eachother.

Tip Sets: Waterbase product come in all different viscosities. Originally they were thicker and required a 1.7 tip set in gravity feed. Then they moved thinner which is 1.5. And recently they have been moving thicker back to 1.7 and even 1.9. Also they varry by manufacturer. We tend to recommend the 1.7 size because water tends to evaporate and leave you with dry spray. The larger tip sets will allow you to get the material onto the wood nice and wet. This is only a starting point and will depend on the brand and spraying environment.