KICKS KORNER
by Blair Elliott
Hi:
I’ve only seen two issues of the magazine, but I think it’s great, you guys have a little bit of everything. What I’m wondering about is using oil on my spray gun and airbrush parts. Some people say not to that I’ll get fisheyes, but I’m sure that when I bought the gun it said somewhere in the literature that I should lubricate it. What do you think? J.D.
A spray gun should be lubricated after every disassembly clean- ing using a gun lube. Using a non-silicone formula gun lube will help prevent air and fluid leaks,... will keep packings and seals supple, and all moving parts working like new. Place a drop on all moving parts,... the trigger shaft, the threads of the fan control knob and the material control knob,... the air cap ring, the air valve shaft, fluid needle and the fluid needle packing. Less is more in this case, and simply putting a drop on your finger and rubbing it over the for mentioned parts will work just fine.
Don’t submerge your spray gun in any solution normally used to clean a spray gun (usually gun wash thinners or cheap reducer), unless a complete overhaul is going to be done. It will remove the lube and cause your packings to dry out and shrink. To clean a spray gun, use the following procedure,... remove all heavy paint from the gun and cup and replace with 3 to 4 oz. of solvent (thinners or reducer). Percolate the spray gun as fol- lows,... loosen the air cap and using 5 psi or less pull the trigger to the full back position, this action will force the material in the gun head back into the cup. Repeat this until the solvent runs clear. Warning!! Be very careful doing this! To high a pressure can blow thinners out of the vent hole and right into your face and eyes. It’s usually a good idea to cover it with a rag. Now wipe off the outside of the spray gun and cup with some solvent and dry. Never use any hard objects such as a wire, paper clip, or welding tip cleaner, to clean the air cap orifices. The air cap is made of high alloy heat-treated aluminium and hard objects can damage the orifices.
To clean the air cap: Soak it in a cleaning solution and use soft objects, such as a round wooden toothpick or medium bristle brush (dental picks work well, not the metal ones),... or reverse blow the passages. Thanks for the letter J.D.
I’m getting some stripes, darker and lighter areas on large flat panels when shooting base coat with a HVLP. Areas with these problems are the hood, trunk, and roof. All other smaller areas, door jams and areas including fenders, doors and quarter pan- els look covered better. On the bigger areas in question, I usually shoot 1/2 of the panel then head to the other side and do the other 1/2. I overlap at the center.
How do I remedy this light / dark contrast and obtain an even
color all around? Should I shoot closer or further away? Overlap more? The last job I did looked really bad out in the sun.
Paints with high metallic contents can be very hard to spray evenly,... it can be difficult to get away from striping and mottling. Start out by checking your spray pattern. Tape a piece of mask- ing paper on the wall for the test. Hold the gun at a right angle to the wall at a spread out hands distance (about 8” or 22cm). Pull the trigger to completely open for a split second and then close it. You want an on-off, wide open-completely closed in one movement. You should have a cigar (not football) shaped pat- tern with complete coverage in the center and fading coverage going away from the full coverage cigar shape in the center. The center should be fully covered without any runs. To high a pressure can also cause a split spray pattern which will give you stripes.
When you are spraying a horizontal surface, be sure to hold the gun perpendicular to the surface being sprayed. The biggest culprit is usually tilting the gun (heel or toeing) which will cause your spray pattern to change and end up with one side wetter and one a little drier which will give you the striping effect. If all else fails,... try cross coating your panel after spraying it. In- crease your air pressure slightly, move your gun up a little,... and dust some base on the panel at a right angle to what you just sprayed. This will even it out and get rid of the stripes but may give you a slightly mottled look,... hmmmm,... can’t win ‘em all. That’s it for this issue! Seeing as how Halloween is coming up,... paint a pumpkin!
Please e-mail your questions to
blairair@sympatico.ca
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