spray gun help

Re: spray gun help

John Lucas

>Darryl

I'm probably not much use on this because I'm relatively new at spraying. I bought a HF touch up gun. I started out with Deft Clear lacquer and diluted it half and half with Lacquer thinner. Then I had to play with the air pressure until I got it to go on evenly. 20 PSI works for me with that gun.

My spray booth is my back door. I don't spray on rainy days but have had pretty good luck on warm days. I try to put on thin coats. I think that's the secret when dealing with my amatuer status. Hopefully someone with more experience will answer you.

Re: spray gun help

Russ Fairfield

>Your biggest problem is that a "Critter" does not do a very good job with spraying lacquer.

The "orange peel" appearance happens when the droplets in the spray are starting to dry on their surface before they hit the wood. The "sag" happens when the thickness of the wet lacquer film on the surface is too great and it cannot support itself on a sloped surface.

Both are the result of the droplets of atomized lacquer being too large. And, that is the problem with the "Critter" that you are using. It just doesn't atomize anything very well. There are a couple things you can do to get the most from it.

You didn't say how much thinner you are using. You should be using 50% thinner. Adding even more thinner will help the atomization problem with the "Critter". If you are still having a problem with Orange-peel, make some part of the thinner a retarding-type. You can add a retarding thinner to the regular thinner that you are using up to about 25% without any problems.

OR,

You also didn't say what lacquer you were using. Try using Deft, and thin it 50% with reqular lacquer thinner. Deft already has retarders in it to make it brushable. All that means is that it will dry slower on the surface to allow the brush marks to level out as the film drys on the surface of the wet lacquer. This same slower drying will help prevent the orange-peel. I spray Deft all the time for that very reason.

HOWEVER,

The slower drying lacquer, and added thinner will mean that you will have to spray very very light coats to prevent the wet lacquer from running and sagging. You should be able to do this with practice.

You might also work up some type of holding device so that it is slowly rotating after you have sprayed a coat. This will keep the sags and runs from forming, and you can spray a fairly heavy coat.

You will get a lot of "over spray" onto the drying film from the "Critter". This is easily removed by wet sanding after the lacquer has dried overnight.

My best advice for spraying lacquer is to get one of the small detail guns from Harbor Freight, Lowe's or Home Depot. They are about $50 and any of them, and they do a very good job with lacquer. One of these is what John was referring to.

Re: spray gun help

Darryl Hansen

>Thanks to both of you. I did cut down the volume of the spray as well as pressure and that did the trick. I am using Deft lacquer without thinner. At the lower volume my problems seem to be solved. Thanks again...