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my new spray gun set up

S

Sascha

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so this is what i got from homestead, jeff was really a lot of help, as were all of you, thank you for that.
i now have 2 walcom Geo's with 2 one gallon pressure pots, one walcom geo slim gravity fed gun and an air filter. i mounted all this on a little cart i put together really quick, so i can roll the gear around where i need it.

works grat and that arm can be folded down for easy storage in my office.
so far i love the laquer, it's fun and those guns are awesome.

one of the pots is for sealer, the other for laquer.

thanx again guys

sascha
 

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Dr. D, i spray solvent based laquer and leave the laquer in the gun. i don't have to clean it after each use. water based laquer is a different story.

even if the guns plug a little, spraying laquer will desolve it and you can keep going.
and if it is too clogged, it's cleaning time

costly is always in the eye of the beholder. walcom guns certainly demand teir price, but they are great guns and will elevate the value of my work. the setup i have might be a bit overkill, you don't need 2 pots, but i like the luxury of having 2 designated pots for sealer and laquer.
one gun and pot run similar to a turbine setup. turbines are just not that great at spraying solvent based laquer since the heat of the turbine also heats up the air and might dry the laquer before it hits the surface.

this will make finishing easy and is worth it to me but i could have gone low budget as well and i am sure i would have been happy.



sascha
 
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Not Good

Sascha,

Unless you are spraying every day, if you leave finish in those rigs for a period of time they are going to give you a fine old time getting them to work again. The GEO's internal ports will clog, the wet parts will get stuck, and the spray pattern will be erratic and give reduced atomization that translates to orange peel and poor finish surface results. You'll have to disassemble the guns, soak them and the lines in nasty stuff, carefully clean them with the kits to avoid damaging the ports, plus spray pure solvent to clean the internals.

You will save yourself a great deal of work by purging those units after each use.
 
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i actually had a good chat with jeff jewitt, he says he doesn't even purge all the time, as long as there are spraying sessions for more than a few days.
i shoot some solvent through the guns when a project is done and once i know i don't need them for a while, i'll clean them out.
jeff sas that the ideal would be to clean them, but he doesn't do it either. we'll see, i want to push it a bit to get to know the guns a bit better and go frm there. if the finished result is getting bad, i know i waited to long and start cleaning more often.

sascha
 
If you ever spray anything like a precat, or worse (actually, better, but worse for cleaning) would be the post-cats------ you will have a seperate problem---- lacquer thinner will not touch catalyzed products.

I 100% recommend precats (solvent based) over nitrocellulose or CAB lacquers for this reason-- superb durability against abrasion or chemicals (like cleaners).
But you better be pharasaical in cleaning the gun with solvent very well within a couple hours of spraying or you may wind up wailing and gnashing teeth. Post-cat products are even tougher to clean (which means they produce an even better finish).

I recommend you find an ML Campbell rep in your area. They have a fantastic line of products.
 
so far, i have gone 3 days between sessions and it's been great, just pick up the gun and go.
jeff jewitt told me he goes days or even weeks without cleaning. i am just checking how long i could go without the quality of the finish.

sascha
 
Be sure to let us know the answer when you find out the answer to "how long". I have not gotten a spray rig set up yet, but I just bought a Devilbiss Finish Line 3 HVLP gravity feed gun. I need to upgrade my compressor before I go any further. My situation is a little different with a gravity feed gun, but I still am interested.

Bill
 
Nice setup. Have used something very similar at a refinishing shop for years, though they've recently upgraded to a Kremlin rig. Used a Graco/Binks combo for a number of years to spray pre-cat lacquer. The way I and they cleaned was at the end of the day, backed the material out of the lines (loosen the lid on the pot and hold a rag over the cap of the spraygun and pull the trigger with the air on, it will push the material back into the pot). Be sure to loosen the lid on the pot or you can blow out the seals. Put the lacquer back in a sealed gallon can. Added about 2" of lacquer thinner to the pot and shoot it will it's almost gone, leaving it in the lines. Pull the cap etc off the gun (right down to but not including the needle) and let it soak overnight in lacquer thinner.

When it comes time to shoot again, assemble the gun and clear the line of lacquer thinner. Load it up and you're good-to-go.

There were time it was left in over the weekend (someone screwed up) and it was possible to clean up the rig. One thing, as we shot a lot of satin, if left too long in the pot, it can seperate.

Hope that helps someone

Paul
 
ok, so it's been a week since i shot laquer and i started yesterday to spray again. all i did was purge the gun, that's it. so i tightened the pot screws, added pressure, pulled the trigger and it sprayed smooth from the first drop. took about 1 second to clear and worked like a charm.
i am so happy with those guns

sascha
 
just an update, it's been another 4 days without cleaning and wow, i am spraying every night a few coats. it didn't even matter that i didn't purge the gun. i am spraying right now and the gun is amazing, i love the geo guns.
wow.
i also bought some MLCampbell magnalac, a precat laquer. i'll let you guys know how i like it


sascha
 
Bill,

Maybe I can say something here that will help you. Your conversion gun takes only 10 lbs. of pressure and because it is a gravity feed gun you may need less. This dosen't take much of a compressor.

In a post above someone talked about a M L Campell product. I use thier DuraVar which is a post-catalyzed lacquer. post-cat. means you mix it 10 parts lacquer to 1 part acid at the time you use it. When you mix it you have about 8 hours pot life which means the product will harden in your gun after that time. This product cross links when "dry"which forms a very tight bond and the good part is it is very tough, the bad part is it is VERY hard to remove. Be aware there is a difference between lacquer thinner and a solvent for lacquer. A slovent will put the lacquer back in solution. If you don't wait too long MEK will help you keep your gun clean because it is a pretty good solvent for lacquer. After it drys lots of luck with anything working. The thing us furniture guys like about this stuff also is it is its own sanding sealer. No more shoot sealer, clean the gun then shoot on top coat or use two guns and clean two guns. You can shoot one coat on, wait 1 hour sand and shoot your top coat on throw out what's left and clean up.



To use your analogy I hope I haven't built a clock to tell you what time it is.

Ron
 
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Thanks, Vicmarc.fan

Thanks, Vicmarc.fan, I should check the flow on my compressor, but I suspect that it could not maintain 13 CFM (which is what it needs) even with a large diameter hose and high flow regulator. I suspect that there would be a problem in getting the necessary high volume of air out of my single stage compressor. My compressor is a single stage unit that cycles between about 110 and 135 PSI in the tank. A two-stage unit would run between about 150 and 175 PSI. To get the necessary volume flow of air, I suspect that the higher differential pressure across the regulator would be needed to get the large volume of airflow. The specs on my compressor say that the flow is about 9 CFM at 40 PSI and I shouldn’t expect much more at a lower pressure. I am not sure how much drop to expect between the regulator output and the input to the spray gun, but I do know that the greater the volumetric flow rate is, the greater the pressure drop would be.

One other point – I have been looking for an excuse to justify getting a large vertical tank and this could be it. If I find out that my current compressor is good enough, then I will be back at ground zero😀.

Bill
 
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Big compressor

Bill,

You need something to keep that big bandsaw clean also. Go for it. I took a class at Arrowmont and we messed up the place for a week, not cleaning up once until the last day, then we got most of it out of the way and then blew out the rest of it. I still open the windows in my shop and set a big fan in the door and blow away. I am lucky I have no close neighbors. I have found a 60 gal. tank to be enough for a one man shop. Just my thoughts.

Ron
 
Redfish said:
I recommend you find an ML Campbell rep in your area. They have a fantastic line of products.
Click to expand...
I just bought some today on the recomendation of the girl at Hartville hardwares paint department, Man the is some SWEET Stuff to spary.
 
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