My question is this: How to keep the metallic particles from clogging up at the bottom of the paint cup? I ended up going back to my conventional gun because of this but I would like to give the HVLP gun a another chance. Thanks
How big's the flake? I generally just give the gun a shake after each pass but I'm usually shooting fairly small flake on small panels (a foot or so square for pinstriping) dunno if this helps or not. sent via classroom note. pass it on
Hmmmm regular metallics should pass through an HVLP gun pretty easily. Are you using larger than OEM flake? If so...do you have a filter ar the bottom of the cup...try removing it. If it still does this, most likely, it is that most of the flakes are too large to go through the size cap set you are running. I often use my HVLP Finishline primer gun ( 1.8 or 2.0 tip)to shoot larger flakes, as they are too big for my regular basecoat guns.
This was part of my love hate relationship with top feed guns, but for normal metallic and even pearl my cure was fairly simple. I put my finger over the air cap and lightly squeeze the trigger. Just enough to feel the air bubbles agitate the material. The rest was solved by the normal movements required. If you decide to try this get away from the surface you want to finish. Too much squeeze, too high a pressure you'll either get spray out of the top vent or indeed even pop the top off if it doesn't screw on. You'll get a feel for it pretty easy. It lasts long enough to apply the color on 1 or 2 full panels. I clean my guns that way too, hold my finger over the cap, on and off, and let the solvent wash back and forth under pressure. Don't give up. These guns can save a small fortune in materials.
I use a big marble in mine and roll it around in the cup and don't let the ball cover the drain of cup .
Normal metallics should have no issues going through a modern hvlp gun depending on preference with a 1.2 -1.4 fluid tip. It's done everyday at 1000's of body shops. Now modeling metallics is a whole nother topic. Maybe take your gun apart and give it a good cleaning then give it another go.
I used to work with a guy who had lost part of his finger because he held it over the cap and some solvent got blown into a cut. It got infected and they took off the first knuckle.
Thank you for all the replies. I was spraying fine metallic mid coat (micro metallic) and I would be spraying and then the paint wouldn't come out anymore so I stopped and dumped the paint back into the paint can and then I could see all the metallic particles packed up where the cup meets the gun. I was using the paint filter. I poured the paint into my conventional gun and finished the paint job. I know a big tip gun is needed for larger flakes but I thought a gravity feed gun would have no problems spraying micro flakes.
And yet I can't stand it when solvent gets on a scrape or cut just from a rag! Believe it or not, ANYTHING can be done wrong. 40+yrs and counting...on all 10 digits!
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