Replies

1. 
   peter28 | Nov 11, 2008 04:22am | #1

   josh,

   It takes time to learn how to spray a finish. Learning what your gun will handle in the way of viscosity, how much to thin your lacquer to meet that requirement are just a couple of the rungs on the ladder.

   Here's a couple of things to try;

   open up the fan pattern up so you have at least a six inch fan from six or so inches away.

   you may need to open the fluid adjustment a little. You'll notice your trigger is depressed further when you do this. This allows more material to be atomized at the tip.

   When spraying, move at about a foot a second. On the next pass overlap by 50%. When I finish my passes I'll re coat across my original pattern. This is called box coating and helps lay down an even wet coat of material.

   Be sure you strain your lacquer. You may be getting a foreign object that is clogging your tip.

   Take the time to shoot some test panels. A large piece of plywood is perfect for this. You may waste some lacquer but it sure beats screwing up your cabinets and having to re do them.

   What lacquer are you using?

   Peter

1. 
   aquajosh | Nov 11, 2008 11:00am | #2

   Thanks Peters for responding and sorry for this long email, but I'll give you some details that might be of use in diagnosing the problem... Here it goes...

     initially I used Valspar nitrocellulose 40 sheen, in both high build sanding sealer, then followed by the final lacquer coat... I thought it worked horribly and I had to thin it a lot and I still got much cotton while using two different guns...Now I'm using Mohawk Precat Satin 40 sheen... I added about 10-20 percent Mohawk Blush, which they said was retarder and thinner...after a while, I stared adding  lacquer thinner too, which is supposed to thin it more, but it dries quicker and burns hot...after several different attempts and over a week period I'm still not able to get it right... so today, I attatched two air-compressors together via a "T".  Now I have 5 gallons instead of 4, which still isn't much... a lifelong cabinet-maker and friend of the family came over to inspect the problem, and he said my gun doesn't spray even and pulsates... he attributed the problem probably to low-volume compressor capacity, even though the pressure  reads on the regulator to my gun is at optimum levels.  So if this doesn't work tomorrow, I might just go rent a large portable air-compressor for the day and see if that works... at this point, I want to be able to rule out if the problem lies in the available compressor capacity, or the gun itself... I purchased a minigun by Asturo  through Toolparadise.com for $260 and is good for hobbyshop aircompressors for scpm...Now after 1.5 gallons of sprayed lacquer, I think I'm no longer the problem. I'm curious if the gun is faulty, but  I did spray some panels with this gun, as it worked only for a few moments well, then went back to a small fan and pulsation and lack of material coming out... So, I'm at a loss right now and might have it sprayed for me in the future... But,if this makes sense, and you think of anything that I could do differently, I would greatly appreciate it... thanks for reading and your input,  Josh

1. 
   peter28 | Nov 12, 2008 04:11pm | #3

   josh,

   It sounds to me that your air supply is too low. You need more cfm.

   Concerning blush additive; you really want to keep that to 5 - 10% at the most. If you need to reduce the viscosity use the thinner. I don't understand what you mean about "burning hot"

   I don't think the gun is the problem unless it's set up wrong. It's hard to give you more without seeing and feeling what is happening.

   If you do rent a compressor let me know how you do.

   Peter