Flake Buster or Spray Gun?

M

mitch_04

Learnin'
I've always wanted to spray something with some large metal flake. I've seen the Flake Buster and it looks like it would be a good deal.

http://www.coastairbrush.com/products.asp?cat=43

I'm guessing it wouldn't work very well on an overall, but for smaller things it seems like it would work well. The airbrush one would probably work well on little things like helmets and tanks/fenders. I was thinking intercoat clear with a slow reducer sprayed prior.

However, I've also read siphon feed guns with large ball bearings work well also. Mix the flake in some intercoat, spray it out, flash overnight, bury in clear.

Lastly, if I found out I loved spraying/playing with flake I could invest in a gravity feed with air powered agitator, but that's a pipe dream at this point.


Anyways, I'm mainly wondering what those of you (preferably those who have experience with both) enjoy more, Flake Buster or spraying with flake suspended in a carrier.
 
i have a set of bearings from an old chevy that i've had for 40 years. work as well as the guns they came out with the air agitators in them .
 
I searched through an old thread and found you had done this, Tri 5 bearings if I recall correctly. Do you use a nice gun or a Harbor Freight style for this? Siphon I'm assuming, since the bearings would plug the gravity feed. I'm thinking a cheap gun would work since it's going to end up rough regardless, needing to be buried in clear afterwards.
 
i have not tried the vaper 2.3 with big flake. i'll have to dig out my old flake gun. but the vaper is a gravity. you need a big siphon. i used a 2 qrt binks pressure pot to shoot flake.
 
We used the Accuspray 1.8 to get .6 flake on the jeep, it was fine. We found a cheapo gun with a 3.0 tip to try for the bigger flake to do it in less coats for 50 bucks.. Roth has his own that is not expensive.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/121218829515?lpid=82

I considered the flakebuster, but it just looks like it needs a clear that takes a while to flash off and all my intercoats are pretty quick, almost to the point I would think I would need a gun in one hand and the flakebuster in the other so the flake would stick.
 
I've seen the Roth gun as well, but it seems to be just a large needle gravity feed gun. If I was to go that route I'd think I'd just get a 2.5 tip for my LPH440 primer gun, I'll need it anyways for Slick Sand.

I was hoping someone had experience with slow reducers and the flake buster. Not that it'd be any cheaper than a siphon feed or new needle for my gun, but it seems like it'd work nice and save some flake.
 
Its the angle of the needle too. That Accuspray with disposable head 2.0 gun has a real fat needle with a pretty sharp angle. We have the pressure cup for that as well that I think will be better for the big flake we will be using on the 36 chevy coupe.

alot depend on what size flake you plan to use. Roth is big with flake, so I would tend to think spending 100 on his gun would be better than spending 130 just for a needle set for the Iwata.
 
you can buy a 1.8 siphon for around 40 bucks. if i could plumb it i would use my 2.3 on a pp . i did find my 2.0 develbiss that i used.
 
This is .004 microflake thru the Accuspray 16611 1.8 tip gravity fed with the PPS liners, only thing we needed to do was remove the filter in the cap of the liner. No ball bearings were needed. It was 3.5 grams of powder per quart.

0404-120210.jpg

I guess you can use that as a starting point. Roth flake is .015 and they suggest their 3.0 gun. I guess calculating it out you can come up with an equation for tip size with the size flake you want to spray.
 
Roth has flake from .004 to .040, they recommend a 1.7 tip for their standard .015 and a 2.5 or larger for their .025 flake.

You said you don't add bearings or any agitator, how did you stop the flake from settling in the cup?

The other benefit for buying a 2.5 tip for my Iwata would be spraying Slick Sand.

I did find a 2.5 siphon feed once, now I just need to find it again!
 
I have a Devilbiss FLG4 that has a 2.2 tip,
I also use their bag system in the cup,that allows you to lay the
gun on its side between sprayings and you can shake it
to keep it mixed.
Otherwise I'd use my Astro conventional siphon feed
that is a Binks copy. It works pretty good too.
 
I guess we mixed it at a good rate. I was putting 10 grams of powder into each reduced quart of intercoat. When we shook it it just stayed in the solution. The ball bearing trick was originally made to keep metallics from falling out of the liquid paint, but I am pretty sure that started with metallic in acrylic enamels that we sprayed on cars 30 years ago when there were only siphon guns. Maybe its the difference using the PPS system, where the first thing you do is turn the gun upside down and remove all the air from the bag liner and it kept the flake suspended better. I can just show you what worked for us.

All I can say is mix the flake in a mason jar in intercoat clear, and watch how long it takes to settle to the bottom. If the settling time is the amount of time its gonna take you to spray out that cup, you dont have to worry about keeping it mixed. The ball bearings are just being used to keep the flake moving so if your settle time is consistent to your spray time you should have no trouble.
 
Sounds good. I'm going to check in the Kustom Kulture Lounge and see if anyone has used the Buster there, I'm still curious how well it works or doesn't work. Thanks for all the responses, I really like the mason jar idea. One of those "duh" things, so simple but never thought of it.
 
yeah no problem, like jc said too, using the clear liners you can see exactly whats happening so maybe that gave both of us an advantage and told us when to shake too. I agree with a slow reducer for the intercoat to keep it wet as long as possible though if you get a buster, but I am more like you thinking what else can I use this gun for when I know the buster is made for one specific purpose.
 
this is my flake gun . it's an old jgahv 630. was the beginning of the hv guns . with it attached to the pp it pushes the flake out. i used the bearings in the pp also. i've flaked many cars over the years. 70's the rage was big flake with candy over it. the flake settled fast back then because we were using lacquer with 105 and retarder .flake gun.jpg
 
Thanks for the responses. I went to the Kustom Kulture Lounge and got some reviews on the Flake Buster. Seems like suspended in an intercoat or clear is still the way to go, although they said the airbrush version of the Flake Buster worked well. Now I just need to find that money tree and get to pickin'...
 
shine, I dont know if it settled faster because of the lacquer, or there was more real metal in flake back then that made it heavier. Some of the stuff they sell is like confetti now. I have some gold dust we used to use on a silkscreen job, its probably 20 years old. Mix that in clear and if drops real quick. Maybe thats part of the difference.
 
lacquer was mixed 150:1 so it was really thin. plus your right on the flake i think. most of todays stuff is plastic . i still have jars of old boat flake that is huge . not sure i'll ever do another flake job. hell of a lot of work . a metal flake job with 7 or 8 different colors of candy was a handful. young mans game and i'm an old fart .

that gun also shot a lot of gelcoat in it's day.
 
I just want to play with all the custom coatings! Always drooled over them in magazines and now I have the opportunity to spray them. Need the practice first, hopefully pickup a few small jobs like helmets or tanks to have some fun with.
 
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