Preventing orange peel in tight spaces

R

robking

Promoted Users
Once again I come hat in hand in search of wisdom.

I've sprayed the first coat of epoxy inside of my trunk, which is beyond frustrating to begin with. I was looking things over before starting the second coat, and found that in the larger flat areas the paint went down beautiful for the most part. In areas where I stopped/started spraying again, I found small patches of orange peel that look a lot like my spray pattern. I think when I pull the trigger, the initial blast of air only (before the needle starts to open) is causing it to orange peel in those areas and its not flowing back out. It's so hard to control distance/speed working inside the trunk like that, I know in some places I just flat out got too close.

I'm a novice to begin with, using a starting line gun (not the best) and a 1.5 tip, regulator set about 30, fluid dialed in per the SPI tech manual. Would it make sense to dial back the fluid some, and as much as I hate to say it go with two additional, dryer coats?

Man I'm looking forward to spraying big flat panels again...

Thanks again folks.
 
When I bought my Starting Line gun 3-4 years ago, it came as a set with this little touch-up gun, which has 1.0 mm tip.
I've used it to shoot epoxy in tight spaces like you are talking about, I just reduce 10-15% and it sprays just fine.
Much less fluid coming out, so easier to control, and the resulting coverage, adhesion, etc were all great.

The picture is with the paint cup that came with it. I also have a DeKups adapter which I use quite often as that allows it to be used at any angle, even upside down.

touch up gun.jpg
 
Another novice here. I also have used the starting line guns. I don’t know if this is right but I dropped back to 1.3 , narrowed the pattern by 50%, cut the pressure to 12-15 lbs and cut the concentration by over 50% which gave me a more forgiving sprayout for tight, uneven spaces. Then I did the flat areas more like you except I stayed with the 1.3. Maybe this will give you a better starting point. My starting line with a 1.3 lays a great clearcoat.
 
Thanks Dean, I've debated getting one of the touch up guns several times. I didn't pull the trigger (no pun intended) thinking its not that much smaller than the full size starting line (24oz and 9oz dekups seem to be about the same height). But the smaller tip/pattern does make sense.

In reality, I actually shot the trunk with two different guns, the other being the cheap HF touch up gun.

PXL_20230223_030747436 (1).jpg


I used the HF gun for the areas up under the deck. Looking up under there, those areas actually do look pretty good. Perhaps I would be better off shooting everything but the flat area of the trunk with the small gun. Just sucks cuz it will only hold about 4 oz of paint and can't shoot upside down (love dekups).
 
robking said:
I used the HF gun for the areas up under the deck. Looking up under there, those areas actually do look pretty good. Perhaps I would be better off shooting everything but the flat area of the trunk with the small gun. Just sucks cuz it will only hold about 4 oz of paint and can't shoot upside down (love dekups).
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I believe HF makes their version of DeKups, and of course they are much cheaper.
Wonder if they will fit your touch up gun?
 
Mark R. said:
Another novice here. I also have used the starting line guns. I don’t know if this is right but I dropped back to 1.3 , narrowed the pattern by 50%, cut the pressure to 12-15 lbs and cut the concentration by over 50% which gave me a more forgiving sprayout for tight, uneven spaces. Then I did the flat areas more like you except I stayed with the 1.3. Maybe this will give you a better starting point. My starting line with a 1.3 lays a great clearcoat.
Click to expand...
Thanks Mark, in the really tight areas with the HF gun I did tighten the pattern a bit. I like the idea of trying the 1.3 tip on big gun along with dropping the pressure a little. I will definitely test it out on some masking paper before crawling back in there.
 
Yea the Harbor Freight cup kit is good but they only have the big gun setup now. Maybe they will copy the little gun setup next?
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clubairth said:
Yea the Harbor Freight cup kit is good but they only have the big gun setup now. Maybe they will copy the little gun setup next?
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Have you tried them? I really like the DeKups and have invested a bit in them at this point, but I was really tempted. Most all reviews were positive, but a few complained about them leaking and ruining paint jobs. The devilbiss stuff might be expensive but I'm pretty confident when I put the lid on and attach to the gun it ain't gonna leak.

I was at FinishMaster yesterday, and they apparently have a brand new 3M knockoff as part of their SMART brand. I might trust that a little more.
 
robking said:
Have you tried them? I really like the DeKups and have invested a bit in them at this point, but I was really tempted. Most all reviews were positive, but a few complained about them leaking and ruining paint jobs. The devilbiss stuff might be expensive but I'm pretty confident when I put the lid on and attach to the gun it ain't gonna leak.

I was at FinishMaster yesterday, and they apparently have a brand new 3M knockoff as part of their SMART brand. I might trust that a little more.
Click to expand...
Ive been using the HF disposable cup system. Ive done around 10 jobs or so with it with no issues. My only complaint is the lack of size options. They only have one size and for large jobs you do a lot of refilling.
 
I painted this tube chassis,body removed of course,with This rig I fabed up from HF stuff.
Oddly I never took pics of it finished. I was just so damn Glad to be Done.....
 

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MikeK said:
I painted this tube chassis,body removed of course,with This rig I fabed up from HF stuff.
Oddly I never took pics of it finished. I was just so damn Glad to be Done.....
Click to expand...
I was just looking at those, seems like the right tool for the job, definitely can get places you just cant otherwise.
 
I started with a hf purple touch up which is actually a satajet 3 knock off and not a bad thing. I have a real sj 3 and only different is quality of course and the aircap has 2 atomization holes per side.
After the 3rd fill up and spraying in every conceivable position getting nowhere quit and went to the shop.
I had both the pot which had the full size gun,ehh maybe, and the paddle touchup and "Devine Intervention" came upon me. He does such on occasion with me.
People ask me all the time,"How did you come up with that?" Oh,it just came to me....Thanks you Sir.
Ain't so pretty now and pressure pots are a pita to clean but it has It's place .
 
Dean Jenkins said:
When I bought my Starting Line gun 3-4 years ago, it came as a set with this little touch-up gun, which has 1.0 mm tip.
I've used it to shoot epoxy in tight spaces like you are talking about, I just reduce 10-15% and it sprays just fine.
Much less fluid coming out, so easier to control, and the resulting coverage, adhesion, etc were all great.

The picture is with the paint cup that came with it. I also have a DeKups adapter which I use quite often as that allows it to be used at any angle, even upside down.

View attachment 24179
Click to expand...
I have a hard time looking at this picture without organizing an intervention on gun cleaning!:)
 
Vanillagorilla said:
Ive been using the HF disposable cup system. Ive done around 10 jobs or so with it with no issues. My only complaint is the lack of size options. They only have one size and for large jobs you do a lot of refilling.
Click to expand...
Finishmaster has a PPS system out now. SMART brand. I plan on making the switch to that as soon as my devilbiss dekups run out.
 
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