I've followed the advice on the SPRAY GUN question, and bought the proper gun. Now, on to part 2. How much pressure do I need for the hose that feeds the paint, and what is a Ball Park to set the air pressure for the gun? The gun has a 1.8mm nozzle size, 1/4" inlet size, and the paint inlet size is 3/8". I'll be spraying lacquer...color and clear, both thinned 1:1. I've always ever sprayed with a 1qt cup, so it was basically a no brainer, but this Paint Pot business is all new to me. You have all been a GREAT help with "Part 1"...it's much appreciated.....
When I use the pot at work The pot gets full pressure and adjust the regulator on the pot to what the paint recommends what it sprays at. Only use that for industrial paint at work.When I use to paint. 40 to 45 sounds good at the gun.
First off why you trying to use a pot? Fluid preasure can he higger, all it is doing is pushing the paint up to the gun, the needle still has to open. Adjust them close. Your just going to have to adjust it untill you are comfortable spraying. The more fluid pressure the faster the paint comes out. With a pot you can close the air of on the poat and just shoot paint out in a stream. I would adjust the pressure real low at the pot for textureing a finish.
Hey, 45 lbs @ the gun with lacquer has always worked for me. I usually go 125% thinning for by first few cover coats. Once I've got full coverage I add more thinner on the order of 150% & the last few coats, depending on the colour and/or metalic-clear, 175 % and some retarder. Large flash times between coats, and be sure to melt any dry spray if you screw up and produce any. This should produce a finish with little or no peel, and require very little cutting . Dry peel is a waste of your time & material. I didn't use a pressure pot for lacquer, even when I did kustom vans owing to the different treatments necessary for the various panels. It wasn't 'till acrylic enamel and its' clears came into use that I'd go with a pot. Big areas, big fan on the gun, and different triggering required for acrylic enamel so as to produce a wet edge, and thus little peel or dry spray. Today, unless you're shooting kustom limos or vans I can't see a pot being a big plus with what good lacquer costs. A two quart cup, yeah, a pot nah! " Life ain't no Disney movie "
Oh....yer running a pressure pot??? Ya only need 5-10 psi for the fluid pressure...yer pot has 2 regs right??? I always use my 2 gallon pressure pot gun when shooting a complete car....mix all paint at once, ease of manuverability, etc, etc...
Shut the air off at the gun and adjust the fluid pressure (at the pot) to stream out about 6"-8"'s?...
I always use a rule of thumb of thirds. 45psi at the gun and 15psi at the pot or 36psi at the gun and 12psi at the pot etc... this will get you close and you can adjust from there.
Guess I missed part I. gun mounted pressure gauge, dial or electronic, set it to what the gun manufacturer says on the information sent with the gun. Different guns take different pressures. My first question though, is what size compressor do you have. biggest problem most guys have is buying a $300 wal-mart compressor and trying to paint a car with it. You'll need something that will push 16 cfm or so unless you're working with a lvlp gun. I also believe that 1.8 mm tip is too large for thinned laquer and is certainly too large for clear. 1.4 is even large but can work. I use 1.8 for 2k filler primer.
Try various PSI's, shoot paint at a piece of spare sheet metal laying around. eye ball it, Make the adjustments as necessary to get it smooth. Make sure you use a moisture and water filter in your line.
should be around 40 psi at the wall/tank and if it’s a hvlp you should be looking for about 6-8 psi at the cap