Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Hi Jordan.

Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated.

Your observations are on the mark. The paint on both attempts went down in a fine spatter. The Mineral Spirits has a very slow evaporation rate and the test board was still wet after six hours in the house and did not dry to the touch for about 16 hours. When dry, it indeed feels like fine sandpaper.

I was hoping to avoid hauling out my main spray gun setup from the basement out to the garage to work this all out but that is clearly in the cards now. Wind, dust, bugs and a long walk to the house are not my friends and it is shaping up to be a stinky hot weekend here.

My gut tells me the 4:1 mix ratio of paint to thinner is probably correct. The little Preval system could just not deliver the paint. So, I shall start another test, weather permitting next weekend at 4:1, with the compressor at 40 psi, which will provide a proper air volume. If the paint flows well I will move directly to the required finish work. If it still spatters, I will try a remix at 3:1 and see what happens.

Must say I am not fond of working with the mineral spirits, turpentine and varsol family of thinners any more. They take forever to dry and always seem to leave a greasy feeling residue.

Also miss my old spray gun outfit. I had two paint canisters for it and a canister cap so I could have one on standby with thinner for a quick clean of the gun and I could also cap a mixed canister of paint for a while if I needed to do so.

CH seems to have outsourced their parts operation in the USA to several third party dealers and here in Canada I could get a second canister from Grainger, but canister caps no longer appear to be available. Better start raiding Debs stash of jam jar lids to see if one will fit.

I will post again after the weekend, if my sanity allows. Thanks again,


David

[David Dunlop]

Finally. Success!

As of this morning, the front panel of my Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A has a lovely finish coat of the required gloss enamel.

I ended up chatting with our Head Body Shop Painter at work last week and took him my spray gun to have a look at. He confirmed the setup needed for it to operate as a Pressure Fed, Internal Mixed gun and also confirmed the wrong parts package came with the gun. It had one extra piece completely irrelevant for the model of gun and the Allan Key supplied was not the correct size. Raided my spare keys box and got the correct size.

I will post a photo of the panel later today, after I come back down from my current Happy Place.


David

[David Dunlop]

It has been eight hours since I painted the front panel and the paint is still wet. Mind you the panel is sitting on my work table in the basement and the AC has been running in the house most of the afternoon. so I shall give it until Tuesday to see what happens and consider at that time if it needs to come upstairs to dry better.



David

[David Dunlop]

A dawn of a new day and I am right back at square one.

After spending a good hour yesterday morning setting up my spray paint equipment in the garage and getting the paint filtered and mixed to the recommended 4:1 ratio, I took another 20 minutes or so adjusting the spray gun to get, what I thought was a good paint flow...

The test piece I worked on had a nice even gloss to the paint when I switched to the Coil front panel. Again, the paint went down in what appeared to be a nice even glassy gloss. It was a little thicker than I wanted, as a slight ridging was starting to show up around the outside edge of the panel, but I was happy so into the house the panel went to dry. It looked good for about one hour. Then, a mist of what first looked like very tiny bubbles slowly started to appear in the paint. Eight hours in and the paint was still very wet and the misty look even more evident, but at least the perimeter ridging was starting to to disappear.

This morning, 22 hours later, the paint is dry but the finish has turned to sandpaper once again. I have no choice now but to resand this sucker once it hard cures and start over. More time wasted.


David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Not wishing to ruin your day any further, but are you using the correct type of paint? "Varsol" and "Mineral Spirits" are an oil-based (paraffin/turpentine substitute) paint - OK for wood where it can soak in and it's a rough surface anyway, but probably not for metal.

I'd be inclined to try a cellulose-based paint and thinner combination, as used on machinery and vehicles - it's fast-drying and you can use multiple thin coats to build up the thickness if required.

I think the wrinkle/sandpaper effect is due to the slow evaporation of the solvent and consequent small bubble formation as the paint dries.

Best regards,
Chris.
(I have zero painting experience but have watched the production line at Perkins Engines (years ago: mid-1980s) where the completed engine (mounted on a "J Hook") passed in front of a "water wall" to catch the overspray and was spray-painted blue by the operator in under a minute!)

[David Dunlop]

Hi Chris.

I wondered abut that also but the paint is definitely designed for use on primed metal.

I was thinking it all over today and am now wondering if my spray distance of 10 to 12 inches from the panel was too excessive. Reviewing the spray gun manual indicated an ideal distance of 6 to 8 inches for best results. Conditions permitting, I will attempt another set piece on the weekend.

In the meantime I need to source another supply of medium mesh paint strainers. The pack I just purchased are far too fine and it takes ages for any decent amount of paint to filter through.


Cheers,


David

[David Dunlop]

Well the comments Chris made, along with some from a couple of professional painters I know got me to the point of where all else fails, track down contact information for the paint manufacturer.

I did that this morning and had an informative chat. First big discovery was that although mineral spirits are the recommended clean up substance for this enamel, it must not be thinned...with anything. This will set up differential drying producing the results I had been experiencing. Interestingly enough, this agent knew his stuff, we side-tracked into the realm of wrinkle paint finishes, which was where I was headed with my thinning attempts and he did point out where to find the small print on the label advising not to thin this paint. When I pointed out that even with laboratory grade optical equipment, it would be challenging to find said print, he chuckled and said that was the direction a lot of manufacturers were going these days. It's more of a compliance issue these days, rather than an effort to inform the consumer.

The manufacturers recommendations were to increase air pressure enough to get the paint moving out of the canister and then, if necessary adjust the air/paint mix to get the required smooth, glassy coat needed for a good finished product. So we shall try again this weekend after I sand out the sandpaper effect in place on the front panel of the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A.


David