HVLP - don't laugh - Page 2

DavidF · 01-20-2006, 10:32 AM

I will hope for further enlightenment.

Pete - Oh, you thought I was going to be spraying furniture???

Phil · 01-20-2006, 05:04 PM

i've used hvlp units from just about everyone and across the $ board and the results I've gotten from the Wagner Fine Coat unit is hard to beat. It does a great job from laquer to latex. I used to build plant stands for a catalog company (in the thousands) and used the fine coat for spraying latex and urethane for all of them. It never gave me any trouble until I stepped on the hose one too many times.
Phil

DavidF · 01-20-2006, 05:07 PM

Thanks Phil,

Probably going to go with the Asturo BBS gun as such good value, but if they are all gone, may go with your suggestion.

Steve D · 01-20-2006, 06:21 PM

David,
I have seen good reviews on the Wagner as well and it's good to see that Phil has actual experience with it. The only thing that concerns me about their setup is the very large number of reconditioned ones that are available for sale. It seems odd there would be that many out there of this type of product unless they have QC issues.

DavidF · 01-23-2006, 09:40 AM

The compressor is in and installed - a real beut! still researching the gun. Bernhard put me off the gravity feed Asturo gun and suggested I look at pressure pot equiv. I borrowed a turbine sprayer and will be trying that this week.

DavidF · 01-23-2006, 12:59 PM

I am looking at the wagner conversion gun. $129 from gleempaint.com

Steve D · 01-23-2006, 01:22 PM

FWIW, my Walcom is a gravity feed and my Asturo is a 1 QT pressure pot. I like them both

Originally Posted by DavidF

The compressor is in and installed - a real beut! still researching the gun. Bernhard put me off the gravity feed Asturo gun and suggested I look at pressure pot equiv. I borrowed a turbine sprayer and will be trying that this week.

DavidF · 01-26-2006, 12:04 PM

You remember that Wagner sprayer ad where he ends up spraying the whole street? well my shop was like that yesterday as I got to grips with this turbine sprayer! All horizantal and vertical surfaces were used as test pieces; the bottom box of my "under construction" assy table is now sprayed! eventually I commited to spraying the final piece and they (coasters) disappeared off the bench!! a good reason not to buy a bleeder type gun

So down with the air flow which affected the spray so back to test sprays - more sprayed scrap! back to the coasters first coat good - yippee..

2 hrs later time for second coat; started to spray, no finish coming out

opened flow valve, still nothing, opened more still nothing - gobs of air coming out of the gun all the time just no finish - pulled the trigger harder.... more finish than a coaster ever might need is now flowing from the gun

flooding the bench, the coasters etc, etc... still, look on the bright side - no brush marks!!! The finish this morning is not actually too bad, a little rubbing out will see them right.

Tonight the face side gets sprayed - scared or what?

These are coasters for heavens sake - life shouldn't be this hard

DavidF · 01-26-2006, 12:08 PM

Am I right in thinking that on this gun -Apollo "touch up" that the air flow reg just controls the fan shape and that the atomizing air coming out through the centrol nozzle is a constant? other wise, as I see it, you couldn't have a smaller spray pattern without the risk of not atomizing the finish. So, should I just set the air flow for the size of spray pattern and then just ease in the material flow until I get a fine coat on the surface? The material flow control is simply a trigger stop. Once I get this straight in my head I can sort it.

Steve D · 01-26-2006, 12:13 PM

Who says there is a learning curve to spraying?

The "no material coming out" was probably due to a thin film of dried finish covering the outlet. DAMHIKT but never start a spraying session spraying onto your project. I always keep a box or a piece of scrap plywood or something nearby and spray a test patern onto it before I start onto the project. I do this between coats too. I also keep a rag handy and wipe the tip whenever taking a break to prevent a film from covering the tip.

DavidF · 01-26-2006, 12:18 PM

Good advice - lesson learned..

Steve D · 01-26-2006, 12:23 PM

David, hopefully John or Bernard will chime in here, I can't really tell you how to adjust the turbine as all of my experience is with conversion guns.

Originally Posted by DavidF

Am I right in thinking that on this gun -Apollo "touch up" that the air flow reg just controls the fan shape and that the atomizing air coming out through the centrol nozzle is a constant? other wise, as I see it, you couldn't have a smaller spray pattern without the risk of not atomizing the finish. So, should I just set the air flow for the size of spray pattern and then just ease in the material flow until I get a fine coat on the surface? The material flow control is simply a trigger stop. Once I get this straight in my head I can sort it.

Travis Porter · 01-26-2006, 12:24 PM

David and Steve, the two of you appear to be the "spray finishing junkies".

Where are you spraying, how you keeping the dust down, what you doing for ventilation, and how you keeping from spraying everything else (David, I believe you are spraying everything else from what you say

)?

Steve D · 01-26-2006, 12:38 PM

Travis, my shop is a 2 car garage with two single doors. I have it set up with a fan in a window (with a screen) that draws air into the shop creating positive pressure. I open the garage door and use 3 pieces of the 1" insulation board to close off the opening. I have cutouts in the insulation board that are covered with furnace filters. I also use plastic sheeting hung from the tracks for the garage door to protect sidespray. As far as dust goes, I clean up the shop before spraying. The cleaner the better but I get very good results without having a dedicated spray booth. There are a lot of great plans to make spray booths with PVC pipe, plastic sheeting and cheap box fans. IMHO positive pressure is better than an exhaust fan because you don't need an explosion proof fan for combustible finishes, you don't coat your fan with finish and if used in a booth configuration, you don's draw dust into the booth (cover the inlet side of the box fan with a furnace filter).

Originally Posted by Travis Porter

David and Steve, the two of you appear to be the "spray finishing junkies".

Where are you spraying, how you keeping the dust down, what you doing for ventilation, and how you keeping from spraying everything else (David, I believe you are spraying everything else from what you say )?

DavidF · 01-26-2006, 12:38 PM

Ok, just spoke to a nice man at apollo. He said that for WB clear coat the air valve should be open about half way to ensure atomization, so my idea that that only controls the fan size was wrong. The fan size is acutally controlled simply by the distance from the surface! easy when you know. The distance should be 2" - 8" max! way closer than I would have thought. Then I threw him when I told him they were light parts, so he suggested holding the gun at say 5 - 6" and turning the air flow up to the max before I had flying coasters! then gradually feed in the material flow until I could lay a thin coat. If it spluttered at that point I.E no atomization then there is no choice, but to secure the parts down with DS tape or similar so that the air can be turned up to atomization levels. Generally the more air the better until you get excessive over spray. Another rule - the more the material flow, the higher the air flow required to atomize it - make sense.

So tonight I will try these things and let you know.

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