Glazing with a Needle
A discussion of various methods for pinpoint application of glaze to cabinet crevices. June 30, 2014
Question
My sales rep has just sent me a glaze they have that you catalyze and can apply it with a syringe and a 18 gauge needle or with a gravity gun with a needle on it. CA technologies has these guns. I think this would save me a lot of time just glazing the crevices instead of all the wiping. Just wondering if any of you guys do it this way and can give any tips on application? Does this method save a lot of time? How does the finished product look?
Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor J:
I have the CA Tech gun. It works very well.
From contributor M:
I use the flow pencil. I think it is slightly more controlled than the gun that CA makes. The material savings is enormous.
From the original questioner:
Can you use the glaze straight from the can or do you need to thin it? Also, do you use the gun under pressure or just gravity?
From contributor M:
It depends on the glaze I suppose. With the General Finishes WB glazes and the Golden acrylic glazes I use you definitely have to thin it some. For me it depends on how much extender I have used. I like as much open time as I can get so I use a lot of extender which takes care of most of my thinning needs. If you are just doing a clean stripe with the glaze (no hand wiping) it would probably dry quicker being thinned with water. I have the pressurized cap for the flow pencil as well but it’s a little too much for glazing.
From contributor V:
It is basically an airbrush without the air, so it works by gravity. It comes with four nozzles or tips and I have found the smallest one doesn't work at all, the next size up occasionally clogs, the third one is what I generally use and the forth one lays down a lot of material very quickly so I haven't used it on an actual project (I'm a cabinetmaker not a finisher). I use the glaze straight from the can. I can't imagine how much material the CAT gun lays out, but it has to be a lot because if I remember correctly it's tip was a lot bigger than the largest Paasche tip. I’m also using it without the pressure cap and with solvent based glazes.
From contributor Y:
I just use a large syringe without a needle. It works well for the pinstriping effect. I am using MLC traditional glaze (thinned to eliminate the vinyl sealer) and Mohawk traditional glaze as well.
From the original questioner:
I just ordered the flow pencil. I tried this method of glazing today with a glue injector syringe and then a different method without good results. I did get good enough results to know that I will like the look once I get the application down. I'm using a new glaze that my tech guy sent me, he told me to use 5% cv catylist? I’ve never heard of that but it’s supposed to bond to the 2k poly finish. I guess we'll see.
