Thanks for the tips everyone! Been busy with holidays. I really do hear you guys on my compressor, but I dont have access to 240v power in my current rental living situation, which is a really amazing location for other reasons in my life currrently. In the future I will invest in a larger compressor, but for now its not in the cards. I could add an auxiliary tank to my currrent one to increase runtime on the painting.
There seems to be a bit of magic attributed to pressure and volume, but I am going to side with you and say yes, though there will will be fluctuations due to the cycling of the pump. If you want to know if a given compressor can handle a given tool, just run the tool at the intended air consumption continuously and see if the pump can keep up once it kicks on. If the air pressure continues to decay when the pump is running and the tool is running, there is not enough pump output. It doesn't really have to be more complicated than that.
Thanks for the sanity check here, this is what I believe as well, as long as my gun doesnt outrun the wall under 100psi I should be OK
It is all very marginal, but I am definitely not getting into a situation where I lose pressure and atomization, 100psi into the gun is giving plenty of fog out of it, I had the gun reg set to just under 2 Bar and it stays there rock solid.
Wall starts off around 140psi and very slowly degrades but I am painting with ~80% duty cycle, but the air compressor runs at 100%. I paint two fenders and cowl and stop at the rocker and slowly walk around the car, during that time the compresser has caught up again.
Its more like 30ft of 1/2" air line to my wall reg, and my water traps are high flow rated for 100cfm. Final .01 micron coalescing filter is rated to 30cfm.
OP says his pressure is holding despite his setup doesn’t work on paper. I think it may be because he has choked off his gun using the valve on his Iwata gun. That would lower his air consumption and lead to his issues that Barry is attributing to low air. Just a theory….
Don
I definitely have my air knob all the way out, the car looks a lot better this time around after the flowcoating, some parts look downright good! So I think the popping is down to my technique and 70% humidity. I think I got too close with the gun at times and too heavy. I had the material at 2.5 turns but it went on too heavy first coat so i dialed back to 2 turns for next 2 coats. I am going to wait for the next 30 days to see if the dieback and popping is worse, otherwise its good for 1500 and buff.
As an aforementioned mobile guy, I have a Harbor Freight, 2hp, 29 gal compressor. I use either an Iwata but mostly a Prolite. I've landed on lowering the tank pressure to the point that my gun valve can be adjusted to a few pounds over my preferred PSI. That way, my pressure gauge is practically wide open. It really changed my results. I almost always do full bumpers or often a couple panels. I use the Speed Clear with a 1.3. I might add a touch of reducer.
Mine is similar but older, it says 8cfm, but I dont just hold my paint gun open the entire time I paint, and I will stick to just doing quarters and a few panels at a time from here on out I think!!
The Universal clear went on very thick, lots of mils on the panel for buffing and its soft and easy to buff.
I think next I am going to try the Production clear and stick to doing panelwork with this compressor.