i'm sorry, but another "i need help setting up a gun" thread and a video

C

Craig L

Ok, so I've been muddling through my first ever attempt at working on a car with my daughter. Took it to bare metal, epoxy, bodywork, 2k a few times, put car together (77 camaro) and "fit" new front fenders and hood and now have everything apart for final 2k sanding as i'm going to paint in pieces. Have figured out how I'm going to build a temporary booth in the garage. Purchased a test quart of ProSpray in 2011 Camaro Yellow and am excited as heck to get going.
I had some other posts on here over the last few months concerning fish eyes and epoxy not curing fast enough. The fish eyes have not been taken care of with a much improved filter on my compressor as well as a different gun (more on that below). I also built a "room" around my compressor and put a 20"x20" filter in the wall. First used an old Sharpe SGF, then several Harbor Freight purple guns which was the cause of the fish eyes and ended up shooting my last few times with epoxy with my primer gun with 2.0 tip (which by the way is why my primer took forever to cure).

As I really enjoy this work, i decided to purchase an iwata lph-400 1.4 tip with the silver and orange cap. As much as I wanted to shoot the underside of the hood, cowl, trunk and the wheel wells with some black SPI epoxy yesterday, i thought I better practice on the old fenders. After finding several posts on suggested settings for the gun, I was off and running. Actually no runs, but orange peel. Mixed up a new batch of white epoxy and tried again tonight with settings on the other end of the scale and not much luck either except runs.

My problem is that I have no idea how fast to move the gun as I've never seen anyone paint before.

So, can anyone provide me their settings for spi epoxy for this gun and recommend which cap to use (I've been using the orange one since it's for base and this is supposed to shoot like base)?

***Or better yet, what I'd really like is a link to a video of someone actually using this gun and shooting this product so I can see how far from the surface they are, the speed at which they move, the coverage on the first coat, etc. This would be so, so helpful. Even if it's a video of shooting base it would work or even clear for that matter. If anyone would be willing to do this I think it would be a huge help for us new painters.

I'm going to keep on practicing until I get this right but.....

Thanx for the consideration.

Craig
 
Craig, use the silver cap for epoxy and clear, hold the gun 4 inches from the panel surface, try 20ish psi with the trigger pulled and have the fluid adjustment 2.5 turns out-this will give you a good setting to start with. Watch the primer hitting the surface as you're spraying and move just slow enough to apply a wet coat.
 
I use the LPH400 1.4 silver cap as well and find 3.5 turns on the fluid is pretty much where it stays with the fan 1/4 turn in from wide open.
For unreduced epoxy I am in the 22-24 psi range with the trigger wide open spraying paint.
Reduced epoxy (1:1:1) for sealer I will up the psi to 26-27. Basically the same for clear coats.

Bob and the others have way more experience than I do so my post is just for informational purposes only. :)
 
thanx so much for the responses. I have a regulator at the gun that I purchased at Lowe's. When I pull the trigger on the gun the gauge at the gun goes to zero not matter how high I have the gauge set at the compressor. What am I doing wrong?

Do either of you have the ability to have someone shoot a short video that would show the speed that you are moving the gun during priming?
 
Craig L;9903 said:
thanx so much for the responses. I have a regulator at the gun that I purchased at Lowe's. When I pull the trigger on the gun the gauge at the gun goes to zero not matter how high I have the gauge set at the compressor. What am I doing wrong?

Do either of you have the ability to have someone shoot a short video that would show the speed that you are moving the gun during priming?
Click to expand...

Try starting out at 1 foot of travel per second. As you move the gun perpendicular to the surface at the proper distance count "one, one thousand" and you should have covered about 1 foot. This is just a starting point and you should be watching your wet edge to see how wet/dry the paint is being applied.
 
I will have to check the videos when I get home because I can't view them at work.

What about my question regarding my regulator at the gun?
 
Set the PSI at the gun with the trigger pulled full open. If you try to set it with the trigger closed it will just drop to zero when you pull the trigger.
 
[QUOTE='68 Coronet R/T;9910]Set the PSI at the gun with the trigger pulled full open. If you try to set it with the trigger closed it will just drop to zero when you pull the trigger.[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry but when I read what you posted it seems to conflict with itself. How do I set it when pulled full open but yet as you say, it drops to zero when I do pull the trigger? I have got to be missing something here...
 
When you release the trigger, the regulator gauge will bury the needle in the high pressure range like it was wide open.
 
[QUOTE='68 Coronet R/T;9887]I use the LPH400 1.4 silver cap as well and find 3.5 turns on the fluid is pretty much where it stays with the fan 1/4 turn in from wide open.
For unreduced epoxy I am in the 22-24 psi range with the trigger wide open spraying paint.
Reduced epoxy (1:1:1) for sealer I will up the psi to 26-27. Basically the same for clear coats.

Bob and the others have way more experience than I do so my post is just for informational purposes only. :)[/QUOTE]

68, why up the pressure for a thinner viscosity product? I always thought that thicker product would need more pressure to atomize properly, and the opposite if it was thinned.
 
did you clean the assembly grease out of the regulator at the gun? dont worry youll get it...then youll also become an expert like me at sanding out orange peel and drips... :) sometimes i wonder if i am more of a sculpture than a painter! using an iwata made a huge difference for me.
 
strum456;9922 said:
68, why up the pressure for a thinner viscosity product? I always thought that thicker product would need more pressure to atomize properly, and the opposite if it was thinned.
Click to expand...

I find for me there is less chance of runs if I up the pressure and it seems to lay out better. Not sure if its technically the right thing to do or not.
 
I appreciate everyone's suggestions. i went home and was playing around with the regulator at the gun. The setup I had was 25' of 3/8" hose, then UFO filter, then regulator at gun. To get the regulator to start reading something other than zero with trigger pulled, I had to start upping my regulator at the compressor quite considerably to the point there the UFO filter blew apart! After a trip to the store where I purchased not only a new regulator at the gun and UFO, I also purchased a 3/8" inline filter (had been 1/4"), then my motorguard filter, then a new 3/8" regulator (rather than old 1/4" one).
Hooked everything up again and left the UFO filter off this time. Had to crank up regulator at compressor to about 75 psi to get 20psi with trigger pulled. Shot two coats as directed and it is beautiful. However, I'm surprised at the amount of overspray. During this whole process over the last several months, I've never had this much pressure at the gun which is why I've not seen this much overspray before but none the less I was surprised. I guess if this is what it is going to take to get a good finish I will live with it.
I would like to put the UFO filter back in the mix but I'm afraid it will blow up as it's only rated to take 70 psi. I could go hose, regulator, UFO then gun but I'm assuming that there is some kind of pressure drop through the UFO which is why I wanted the regulator last.

Thanx again - Craig
 
Thanks, it makes sense that it would run easier. I'm interested to hear from others on this....I feel like I'm always just guessing when it comes to air pressure. I usually end up around 25 psi for on my lph400 with full trigger pull.
 
After many delays, I was finally able to get six pieces of the car painted this weekend. I only painted a few because we wanted to make sure we liked the color. After taking everyone's advice to heart, and lots of practice, I'm thrilled with the results. I used 5 coats of Prospray and 4 coats of Universal Clear. Everything turned out without any runs, orange peel or fish eyes. I am still battling a dust problem but I think I'm on to the issue. Here is a picture of one of the pieces of the rear spoiler from the 77 Camaro. The color is the same as the 2011 Camaros. car pix 002.jpg
 
throw the cheap ball filter away. if that is what you are calling a ufo. they are pretty much useless and restrict flow.
 
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