# Help Spraying Breakthrough



## 804 Paint (Jan 31, 2014)

Hey guys…long time. Been recovering from a serious pulmonary embolism (my second) so just been laying low (almost able to work again) and lurking in the mean time. I actually am seriously considering not getting back into painting as my doctor has concerns and thinks that there could be a connection between the fumes and my condition. Why am I posting a spraying thread? Cause I'm a heard-headed idiot I suppose. But I had a respirator, so…

I have very little experience spraying and only have a Graco TrueCoat II Pro. I have used it on first-floor gutters, downspouts, shutters, porch railings/balusters…just small stuff. No issues.

In reading all the kitchen cabinet threads I have become intrigued and very interested, especially where Breakthrough is concerned. My wife bought this beat-up coffee table in hopes that "we" could turn it into a Lego table for our son. I mean the top was warped, the corners were chewed, and was full of nail holes. Geeze. So I made a new top for it and repaired the major imperfections (I didn't go crazy) and thought it would be a good chance to spray Breakthrough just to see how it would go. 

Now, I've never sprayed furniture before, and didn't expect it to come out perfectly, but my results were horrendous. I sanded, vacuumed and tacked off the wood and then sprayed BIN with a 315 tip on the lowest pressure setting. NO sags or runs of any kind with the BIN. Sanded, vacuumed and tacked the BIN coat and loaded up the Breakthrough gloss (it was custom tinted from a Safety Red base). 

First I did the doors, and except a couple of minor drips, they came out great! I was super excited. The first picture of the door is maybe an hour or so after spraying…definitely dry enough to handle. However, about 4 or 5 hours later, I noticed some white cracks forming in a few places along the edges of the raised panels. I did lightly caulk those edges with Tower Accelerator after spraying BIN because I thought it would look better. Even though the Accelerator says you can spray immediately it had been at least two hours before top coating.

The coffee table itself just came out all kinds of horrible, especially anything vertical. Now, if I just had runs and sags (which I DID) from putting it on too thick, that I would understand. But what is weird is that, even in areas where it didn't run, it's like it just "slid" down the prime coat. There are white "cracks" all over the place that were not present when the coat was first being applied but were apparent after a few minutes. A sag or run I understand, but how could the paint cover the primer and just slide off and leave no pigment behind? There are definitely some areas where it seems I must have put it on too heavily, but there are definitely areas where I can tell the coat is not too heavy where the white "cracks" are showing through. I have no idea what to make of this.

I will post pics in a follow up post momentarily.


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## 804 Paint (Jan 31, 2014)

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## 804 Paint (Jan 31, 2014)

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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

Man, that's a tough one. The cracking over the caulk I can imagine, but the weird....sag cracking?..idk.,

My first thought is contamination. However, the Bin prime basically rules that out unless something crazy happened. 

Could be some problem related to the deep base. Perhaps too much colorant or something. I would check that out first. Look at what base was used and make sure it didn't have too much, or perhaps the wrong type of colorant added. 

Browsing the data sheet I'm seeing specs that say the pre mixed safety colors require a certain kind of colorant (one of two available apparently). Most colors in Breakthrough can be tinted with either the 96 line, or 896 line colorants. Safety bases need to be tinted with the 896 line only. Call the store and see what line of colorant was used. 

Aside from that, the only thing I can think of is maybe some incompatibility issue with the Bin. Seems unlikely. I have used Breakthrough over the synthetic Bin with no problems, but not the original. 

Most likely cause seems to be a colorant issue, or perhaps just a bad batch. I did get some Breakthrough in a medium-dark grey that was contaminated somehow. It did this weird fish eye thing that an earlier batch of the same color in the same conditions did not do. 

I will say I've had a little trouble spraying Breakthrough with a Truecoat II. The "pulsing" action of that type sprayer makes it difficult to get consistent coverage (in one coat) without getting it too heavy.


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## PACman (Oct 24, 2014)

That's a reaction with the primer. Make sure it is good and dry, and spray a thin "tack coat" of the Breakthrough on the first coat of paint. Then put a heavier coat on for the second coat of breakthrough. As it is right now of course it needs to be stripped or sanded off. The heavy pigmentation certainly contributed to the problem, but a light tack coat should be a big help.


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## Lambrecht (Feb 8, 2010)

Like I posted yesterday, factory tinted Breakthrough does not act the same way as store tinted. I agree that it is either a problem with the colorant or adverse reaction between the BIN and topcoat. I have found with the factory tinted stuff that it needs to be strained a couple times and sprayed in very thin coats until you get a decent topcoat base then a normal topcoat can be applied.


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## PACman (Oct 24, 2014)

Lambrecht said:


> Like I posted yesterday, factory tinted Breakthrough does not act the same way as store tinted. I agree that it is either a problem with the colorant or adverse reaction between the BIN and topcoat. I have found with the factory tinted stuff that it needs to be strained a couple times and sprayed in very thin coats until you get a decent topcoat base then a normal topcoat can be applied.


I was going to recommend multiple thin coats but I didn't want to scare him. He's having enough problems with this job right now!


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## 804 Paint (Jan 31, 2014)

Thanks for the replies. I wonder why BIN would cause an issue? I actually mentioned I was using BIN to the rep at the store and he said it was a "good choice". I wanted tannin blocking and to be able to quickly sand. The BIN was totally dry and sanded to a powder.

Could the tack cloth have contaminated it?? I've HEARD of that issue but never had it happen to me.

I fully disclosed everything I was doing to the rep and followed his directions. I asked if I should do a light tack coat, wait an hour or so, lightly sand, and then full coat. He said no..he said light tack coat, wait a MINUTE and full coat. So that's what I did. 

How long SHOULD I have waited after the tack coat? And if you are applying lighter coats, I am assuming you DO want it dry enough to sand because you are not getting enough paint on to level out. But if you are ONLY doing light coats, how smooth can you expect the final coat to actually look??

I'll sand it a bit and maybe fill in the cracks with something but I'm not stripping this down…it was a pice of crap coffee table that I wanted to make look decent and thought would be a good test for BreakThru. It will at least be a good durability test 'cause you know how kids are and it IS going to be a Lego table (the glued-edge top (which came out ok) will be covered with Lego base plates.

BTW I got it for $40. :whistling2:

JMays…I sent pics to the rep and asked about the line of colorants used. Will wait to hear back and report!


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## 804 Paint (Jan 31, 2014)

BTW there was no colorant sticker like I am used to seeing (first time using PPG). Just a label smacked on the side of the can that said B-24.

Oh and something else. You know those Sure-line spout tops that replace gallon lids? They ARE useful…when refilling your TrueCoat II, open the spout, twist off your cup on the ground and hold the sprayer just above it with one hand (drip drip drip into the cup), and use the other hand to fill the cup without spilling a drop.


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## I paint paint (May 4, 2014)

804 Paint said:


> BTW I got it for $40. :whistling2:


The coffee table or the gallon of BreakThrough?


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## 804 Paint (Jan 31, 2014)

Breakthrough


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## MikeCalifornia (Aug 26, 2012)

That is from spraying it on too thick per coat.


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## Gwarel (May 8, 2012)

MikeCalifornia said:


> That is from spraying it on too thick per coat.


I think this is right. I've sprayed it a few times and it is easy to get it too thick, which always causes problems. I tried it with my Pro Shot once with similar results. I've learned that a FF tip and multiple thin coats works well. It dries fast thin, but sags quickly if applied even a little too thick.


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## 804 Paint (Jan 31, 2014)

Gwarel said:


> I think this is right. I've sprayed it a few times and it is easy to get it too thick, which always causes problems. I tried it with my Pro Shot once with similar results. I've learned that a FF tip and multiple thin coats works well. It dries fast thin, but sags quickly if applied even a little too thick.



What's weird though is if you look at picture 7, you see the top edge of the table. It's definitely not too thick there but it did the same thing. 

How much thinner does the .310 tip apply than the .315? Is there really that much of a difference with the Pro II? And maybe you can answer a question I posed earlier. If you are doing multiple thin coats, how are you getting it to level out well?

Here's the thing...when I applied it, my strokes were definitely not slow. I over lapped each stroke by 50% like I normally do. I mean, to apply thinner coats I would have to be whizzing side to side pretty fast and I feel like I would just have a ton of misses. 


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## Gwarel (May 8, 2012)

804 Paint said:


> What's weird though is if you look at picture 7, you see the top edge of the table. It's definitely not too thick there but it did the same thing.
> 
> How much thinner does the .310 tip apply than the .315? Is there really that much of a difference with the Pro II? And maybe you can answer a question I posed earlier. If you are doing multiple thin coats, how are you getting it to level out well?
> 
> ...


When I mentioned the FF tip I was talking about a traditional airless sprayer, which gives much more pressure control than the Pro Shot. I just couldn't get good results with the Pro Shot using Breakthrough, no matter what method I tried the coat was too heavy.


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## Gwarel (May 8, 2012)

You might try a quick backroll with a foam roller.....


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## stelzerpaintinginc. (May 9, 2012)

[QUOTE

*Could the tack cloth have contaminated it?? I've HEARD of that issue but never had it happen to me.
*
/QUOTE]

That was my initial thought. It's easy enough to rule-out by doing another test piece, this time without the tack cloth. You can use a brand new microfiber cloth or something similar. Use nitrile gloves and only tack the one test piece. Repeat the other steps of application, then please report results. The waxy bits on some brands of tack cloths have been known to be incompatible with certain coatings. If the tack cloth is the problem, please also show the brand of tack cloth used so that the rest of us don't make the same mistake.

PS. Good to hear you're recovering well.


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## Surreal Painting (May 10, 2015)

Tack cloth vs Air. Air will actually get dust out of every poor, profile. Also I don't like the feel of the tack cloth.

Light coat and wait a minute to full coat thing. Yeah I wouldn't recommend that method but that is just me. The product has a very low open time which is a plus for cabinets but I would think that would make doing some thing like that spray method react funny if the very first squirt dried even a little. 

Do you have any of this project left that's not in primer or topcoat? Have you tried just using breakthrough instead of using both primer and breakthrough? If not test a small area. I've heard and experienced the tinted BT does (may) block tannins. 

good luck hombre.


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## Damon T (Nov 22, 2008)

Breakthrough is a very strong product for WB. I've seen it curl up freshly applied coatings. I think the caulking may not have cured enough. Also probably too thick as others have mentioned. We use fft 3-10 and 4-10 with it. I don't think the primer was an issue. We are currently using it over synthetic shellac. No problems. Another good point was whether the factory red was tinted with the right colorants.


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