Thread: Enamel spraying with wagner HVLP

Hi All,

I've got a bit of spray painting to do and have a Wagner 850E. I've never spray painted before so am unsure of what it is supposed to look like when I am putting it on.

I have some plantation shutters to paint. I first painted with oil based undercoat, full strength air and probably 50% paint. The finish was ok, but featured a fair bit of orange peel which sanded off ok. I then painted the first top coat (Dulux super enamel semi gloss). I thinned with turps to 10% as I figured the reason I got lots of orange peel was the paint was too thick. This coat was a bit disappointing. I found that the air flow was enough to cause rippling of the paint when applied. When I turned the air down it didn't look like enough paint was going on. I ended up with loads of drips, buut somewhat suprisingly after a bit of sanding and removing the drips with a chisel looks passable.

Tonight I painted a further set with the undercoat. Thinned by 10%. Turned the air right down and the flow right down then gradually increased the flow so I didn't get large drops. The finish is better than the first effort but is still fairly orange peely.

Questions for you all with similar HVLP guns:

1. What does a good coat look like when you are painting?
2. How light do you go (i.e. I could have moved the gun quite quickly and got bugger all paint on - but then I would be doing loads of coats)
3. Rough settings for using the Dulux super enamel - do you thin? how much air flow (i.e. min or max)? is the paint flow set up high or low.
4. How do you get the correct level of thinness in the paint - do you use a viscosity cup or just go by experience?

I realise with experience I will get much better, but any advice to speed the learning process would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Tom