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spray gun air cap leakage

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spray gun air cap leakage

#1

spray gun air cap leakage

GolfSteve in Calgary

I have a SATA Minijet IV spray gun. It works fine, even with the leak at the air cap shown below. My question is that the gun has never before leaked from the location indicated by the bubbles in the photo. Is this normal? Can it be fixed? It doesn't seem to affect the spray quality (yet).

There is a small amount of air leakage from the air cap attachment threads. The bubbles formed when I spilled water over the gun to wash it. I am unable to stop the leak no matter how tight the air cap is threaded onto the gun and everything is clean.


Current project is spraying 350 LF of vertical grain fir baseboards. The rest of the renovation project was finished two years ago and I never got around to installing the baseboards. Spraying 350' of baseboards (120 ft2 surface area) in up to 14' lengths is a pain when you're working in a 20x20ft (400 ft2) shop full of tools, bicycles, and benches.


Re: spray gun air cap leakage

#2

Re: spray gun air cap leakage

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Steve,

I'd disassemble the air cap and inspect the mating surfaces (washer?) at the rim of the gun casting. The air cap doesn't seal in the threads. You may have a bit of old finish that needs to be removed or even a grain of sand. You can also get a replacement aircap if the gun's ring is good. You can also try contacting the manufacturer.

Re: spray gun air cap leakage

#3

In addition to Mark's reccomendations

Howard in Toronto

You might try using teflon tape.

Re: spray gun air cap leakage

#4

Re: In addition to Mark's reccomendations

Ralph Lipeles

Teflon tape is for sealing threaded pipe that has a slight taper along the length of the threaded portion. It will not seal conventionally threaded pieces.

Re: spray gun air cap leakage

#5

Thanks Ralph

Howard in Toronto

I never knew that!

Re: spray gun air cap leakage

#6

Re: spray gun air cap leakage

Dick Coers

Not exactly sure, but doesn't the cap seal against the tapered surface on the nozzle? Cleaning or replacement are the only two options I know of. If it's not from a dried bit of finish, I would ignore it and keep spraying.

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