Hey ltd, and all the ships at sea (am I dating myself or what??) The learning curve, if your are the least bit creative, and I know you all are, is...nil! I hadn't a clue when I bought the airbrush, not the slightest idea how to use it. Since I was not going to be attempting to do fine art with it and intended to use it more as a fine spray painter than anything else, all I had to learn was how to make it work for my purpose. The principle that makes the airbrush work is a vacuum, in my opinion. On the lower level you have a bottle of paint, connected through a tube on an upward angle to a conical tip which is attached to the airbrush handle above. Through this handle, compressed air is forced directly out over the top of that conical tip creating a vacuum thereby drawing the paint up and out the tip! Make sense? So, the thicker the paint, the higher amount of compressed air it will take to draw that paint out of the bottle. Since I use exterior latex, as I said before, I just wing it, pour about 1/2 the bottle with paint, add about 1 Tbs. of water and an equal amount of Bonding Agent (optional). Stir or shake it up well. Again, in my opinion, the more power your compressor has, the better. I never did the math and don't know the psi on mine since the dials, although they look good, don't work, but I have been using this system for the past 2 years and the airbrushes haven't complained a bit. I think the airbrushes just demand whatever air they require - like any air tool, the compressor stores the rest and cranks up when reserves are low and everyone is happy. Cleanup time is minimal with water-based latex of course. Tell you what, when you get all set up,email me your phone number and I will call you and walk you through it. The only variable, once you have your paint thinned a bit, is how to adjust the nozzle. It is easier than you think. Hope this has helped! Amanda

I really like my cheapo harbor freight HVLP . ive had great luck with it. did my kitchen cabinets w kelley moore gloss epic, sprayed my aggregate pool decking w wet look high gloss laquer , and have also sprayed various odd cabinets and fueniture pieces using it. i cant say that ive had ANY issues. i figure if it dies now, all the important projects are out of the way, and i more than got my 70.00 (!) dollars worth out of it. yes, the hose is a bit cumbersome and annoying, but the gun itself, is easy to clean, and has brass parts, so its solvent resistant, the unit is small enough and easy enough to move where you need it . i would use it to paint exterior doors, trim, fences, gates etc, but for the house body Id use an airless, for sure. hvlp is for fine finish. airless is for volume, generally speaking. But a professional can make ANYTHING work., for sure.

Paintguy, thanks! I'm so sorry that you have all those louvered doors. LOL, I sincerely appreciate your sympathy! Actually, I went ahead and started brush painting the first set and it's going pretty good. I think I found a system and it's not so bad. Using good paint (BM) and a good Purdy brush and keeping it a bit on the dry side to avoid runs. I have them standing up in the garage and can easily turn them to check for drips, etc. I think I'll forget about the sprayer on this project. I think louvered doors look really nice if very neatly painted and look extremely crappy when when not and I'm not willing to risk my husband practicing on these ;-) I'll tell him to check out the Graco sprayers if he wants one for other projects. Maybe the next go around (which I hope will be many years!) he'll have plenty of practice and I'll let him spray paint them then. I see that Magnum is made by Graco, are they just as good or should he stick with Graco?

Hi Chloe, I am not certain about where else to find Cabinet Coat. I WAS (notice the emphasis) excited to find it in my area at Ace. To tell you the truth, I gave up on it, and now have my local Sherwin Williams trying to match the paint swatch that I brought them (a mixture of 2 Behr paints). Thanks for the tip, though! Sooo... I picked up the PrepRite...Seals and Bonds primer and had tried to get my color concoction in the All Surface Glass Enamel, and the color came out with a serious greenish hue. (Not my color at ALL!) The gentleman said that the sample I had needs a "luminous white" base, and that All Surface Enamel does not have that white of a base. Figures. Grrrrrr. SOOOOOO, he has ordered that luminous white base from the Pro Classic line and kept my swatch so he could work on it tomorrow. I am disappointed, once again, that I cannot have the truly AWESOME cabinet paint in MY color. Yet, tomorrow I will most likely return to the store for my 5th (Yes, FIFTH) can of paint. My paint search has been ongoing for 2 months now. Really, I should have just given up and gone with the Behr. That's where the colors come from. I just didn't want to have to also poly over them. I wanted to prime, paint, paint, and be done! Sheeesh, I am stubborn. :^p