Official Luthiers Forum!

It seems that every time I do any spraying it comes out a little pebbly and rough feeling. Some of you may call this orange peel.Any one out there have any tips on spray set up to get a smoother finish.I`m using HVLP.I know I can sand the finish level,but why not get it as smooth as possible when spraying . James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I'm a total noob when it comes to spraying so take this for what it's worth. Also I use a regular siphon gun so....

First spray finish ever I was getting a very pebbly look with target usl - definitely way more than what I would call orange peel.

I lowered the pressure a touch, held the gun closer and watered down my lac. a bit and it fixed it. The experts diagnosed it as my finish drying in the air a bit too much.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

What are you spraying James?

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Hopefully to add to, and not hijack, this thread, I look forward to getting some pointers myself. I keep playing with my setup, but I'm not yet happy with it. Spraying nitro with a gravity feed gun.

Thanks for bringing this up, James!

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Bruce I`m spraying nitro wiyh a Fuji Hvlp system.I`m pretty much stuck with the pressure.I`ts not really bad orange peel,but enough so that I`d like to learn to get it better.
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

first thing I will say is it took me a while to believe I needed to reduce the air flow as much as I had to and increase the media flow to reduce orange peel but that is what I had to do also the distance from the air tip to the body is critical. I have found first that a 22 second viscosity is ideal for the way I am spraying KTM9 and shellac and 18-20 second viscosity for nitro. While on the KTM9 can states it is ready to spray out of the can I have found that it runs through my viscosity cup at about 32seconds at room temp and that thinning with distilled water to 22 seconds works well. At the the gun I set the air at a little less than half open and adjust the media so that at 6 to 8 inches away I get a wet but not sagging spray on a vertical surface. If I get too close the film will sag and if I get too far away the film is lumpy. The amount of air volume to media volume seems counter intuitive to my past experience with conventional hp spray system.

When I first got my Fuji I found my self not keeping good notes as I went through figuring out how to ad just. I would adjust one setting and another and would get all screwed up then I figured out that first I wand to set an air flow the adjust the media to it. I did that a few times I figured out that my media was too thick so I adjusted the viscosity to Fuji's suggestions and refined from there. Anyway I have found that with this dry air it takes far less volume than the system can supply and at 20 to 22 second viscosity and start at half or a tad less the air volume it is easy to adjust the media volume to get a wet but not sagging pattern. For the most part I now have no orange peel. Not completely gone all the time but very very little any more.

Thanks Michael for an excellent description on how to get a decent spray pattern.This is the first time anyone has ever said anything about it that I undersand.
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee