Delfleet Essential Test Panel - What do you think?

Bit cooler this time. Air 66F, panel 70F. 10% SPI reducer mixed in, made a huge difference. Turned fluid knob in a quarter turn more than last time. Obviously wasn't enough and/or I was moving too slow. Much smoother results, except for the runs and trash. PSI still at 30. Will try again with another quarter turn in on fluid, a bit faster, and higher PSI as instructed.

This panel is 1ftx1ft for scale. I need to get some 2x2 panels to test on. Should I keep prepping panels with epoxy sanded to 400?

Did a few spray pattern tests too, between .5 and 1 second bursts. All tests had very fine droplets. Pattern height is about 10-12" at ~6" distance. Is that good? One 40 PSI test didn't look much different, maybe because it was so much thinner this time. Three turns in on fluid was too much, pattern shrunk a lot.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0366.JPEG
    IMG_0366.JPEG
    68.5 KB · Views: 100
  • IMG_0364.JPEG
    IMG_0364.JPEG
    131 KB · Views: 99
  • IMG_0365.JPEG
    IMG_0365.JPEG
    137.6 KB · Views: 97
  • IMG_0371.JPEG
    IMG_0371.JPEG
    86.6 KB · Views: 89
  • IMG_0370.JPEG
    IMG_0370.JPEG
    60.3 KB · Views: 91
  • IMG_0369.JPEG
    IMG_0369.JPEG
    80 KB · Views: 99
  • IMG_0368.JPEG
    IMG_0368.JPEG
    84.5 KB · Views: 97
  • IMG_0367.JPEG
    IMG_0367.JPEG
    70.8 KB · Views: 94
Last edited:
Regardless of paint system, is there any disadvantage to thinning out a coating with reducer, other than runs? Seems like you'd always want to unless the coating happens to lay down optimally without it.
 
Disadvantages are less mils per coat, less coverage per coat, and increasing shrinkage the more reducer is added. So it's important to find the happy medium with minimal reducer additions. 10% is not a huge amount, but you might be able to get away with 5% now that you know 10% made a drastic difference.
 
Prepping to spray a few tests in the morning. Chris says to go higher on PSI, which makes a lot of sense now. However I check the TDS and see this:
1690686663444.png


It can't possibly be suggesting 50-60 through the gun with the trigger pressed, could it?

So I went and checked the TDS for Automotive Art Motocryl, and it's lower but still higher than I expected.

1690686970114.png


These PSI specs seem unexpectedly high, or they just run contrary to the question I asked here: http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.p...t-gun-pressures-w-bases-universal-clear.8355/
 
Last edited:
I would start by seeing what the gun manufacturer recommends, than adding 20-30% to that as a ballpark best quality setting for clears and SS.
 
crashtech said:
I would start by seeing what the gun manufacturer recommends, than adding 20-30% to that as a ballpark best quality setting for clears and SS.
Click to expand...

Sounds reasonable, and I would, except this gun (Astro EVO-T) is weird. it recommends 15-19 PSI which is (now) clearly inadequate to atomize high-solids coatings. It's an LVLP gun designed to minimize air consumption, and got nothing but good reviews from what I could tell. It's also the nicest looking and feeling "cheap" gun I've ever held. Beginning to think this gun was a mistake for high-solids though.
 
Thought I had this licked after considerable doing dozens of spray pattern tests with different PSI and fluid settings. Perfect dry 72F day this morning.

Test #1 - 40 PSI, fluid dialed in 2.5 turns (any more and pattern starts shrinking), 6 min flash time, tried for 75% overlap, no reducer.

Spray pattern tests before spraying. Ignore dark bleed-through from reverse side. Left side was 50 PSI, looked too fat. Right side was after changing to the stated settings.
IMG_0389.jpeg


IMG_0387.jpeg

Not impressed.


Test #2 - same settings except 5% reducer and 35 PSI (40 PSI spray pattern looked too heavy for reduced)

After second coat and 6 minute flash:
IMG_0381.jpeg
IMG_0380.jpeg


Tried a 3rd coat after 6 minute flash, no improvement, and started to run a bit. Pic taken after several hours.

IMG_0386.jpeg


Beginning to think the only way I'm going to get this paint to lay flat with this gun is to do max 10% reducer, dial the pressure down closer to where it's designed to operate, and dial down the fluid to a minimum to avoid runs and spraying too heavy. However, I'm thinking that means I'll then need 4 coats to achieve proper coating thickness which isn't ideal when spraying in a tent, and be risking runs the whole time.
 
I wish there were other guys here with experience with your type of gun. Even with all the extra pressure, I see no sign of the center blowing out, which is interesting. It shouldn't have to be this complicated, imo.
 
..Was spraying distance ever discussed?....Are you keeping the gun perpendicular to your spraying surface as best you can?. Do you think your gun speed could be too slow?
 
IMO, speed, distance, and overlap change more than gun fine adjustments. Two different painters, techniques can dry spray to get runs with same adjustments. That texture, if adjustments aren't getting you where you want it, try speeding up the gun. Distance may possibly be a little too close, overlap kept around 75%. That much overlap requires the faster pace. A slower painter, would need more distance and less overlap. Technique adjustment would be worth a shot.
 
hapcj7 said:
..Was spraying distance ever discussed?....Are you keeping the gun perpendicular to your spraying surface as best you can?. Do you think your gun speed could be too slow?
Click to expand...

I'm shooting for around 6-7 inches and perpendicular as possible. I've shot other coatings with different guns with good results. It's a new gun for me, and a new coating, so steep learning curve. I may need to look at speed. I've been trying what feels comfortable, to what feels "fast" to me, but I know that's not a precise measure.
 
texasking said:
IMO, speed, distance, and overlap change more than gun fine adjustments. Two different painters, techniques can dry spray to get runs with same adjustments. That texture, if adjustments aren't getting you where you want it, try speeding up the gun. Distance may possibly be a little too close, overlap kept around 75%. That much overlap requires the faster pace. A slower painter, would need more distance and less overlap. Technique adjustment would be worth a shot.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'll divide a panel up and go slower on one half and see which looks better. Maybe the same A/B test with distance.
 
Got irritated with this morning's results so I grabbed a panel, DA'd it to 400, and shot it, despite being 84F in the tent. Figured my reducer is "very slow" and my activator is slow, so close enough.

Mixed 10% reduced, 28 PSI, 10 min. flash times, fluid adjusted to what felt like the point between too light and beginning to risk runs. I actually tried 19 PSI (gun's max recommendation) and but the droplet size started to grow, so I dialed back up to 28. Did about a dozen spray test patterns.

2nd coat - No runs, a first for mixed w/ reducer. Looks like glass when focused out. Some orange peel still clearly present when focused closer though. It's a strange effect.
IMG_0394.jpegIMG_0393.jpegIMG_0395.jpeg

3rd coat - Strangely, the top of the panel had a lot of fine peel, while the bottom looked a bit better. Been trying to think what I could have done different.


IMG_0397.jpegIMG_0398.jpeg

Wonder if it was getting drier spray at the top, or maybe just not as much (moving too fast?) - my amateur guess.
 
Last edited:
It looks like you might be either spraying heavier or overlapping more at the bottom. If you notice in yourself a tendency to do that, you might try to train it out, but meanwhile you might start at the bottom on one pass, then from the top on another if you have to. I don't have a problem with vertical surfaces, but for me I notice that on horizontal surfaces I sometimes tend to spray a tad lighter when going out towards the middle "pushing," and a little heavier when finishing up from the middle and coming out to the other edge "pulling." It's not a big difference, but sometimes I will start on different sides for each coat just to even things up.
 
OK, got a new gun. Astro EuroPro 1.5 HVLP, recommended for high-solids. Unfortunately, same orange-peel results, so I'm endlessly doing test panels and trying different things. Even reducing the paint 10% didn't help much this time, which had me really scratching my head. Found that if I moved in closer, from ~8-9" to ~6", then it smooths out, but then I'm getting solvent pop. I'm already moving fast and watching overlap to avoid runs. I'm thinking I either need to turn my fluid up when spraying at ~8" to avoid the dry spray (or whatever it's called that is resulting in orange peel), or I need to somehow consistently spray closer. That could be difficult to maintain perfect distance. Either way I guess I'm going to need to give more flash time to avoid solvent pop when spraying reduced.
 
Last edited:
Solvent pop can be from the reducer not being slow enough for conditions, over-applying, too much air flow over the surface, or not enough gun pressure. The easiest fix if the temps are over 80° is to put a little retarder in the last coat, this can help hold the paint film open and allow the solvents to get out.
 
crashtech said:
Solvent pop can be from the reducer not being slow enough for conditions, over-applying, too much air flow over the surface, or not enough gun pressure. The easiest fix if the temps are over 80° is to put a little retarder in the last coat, this can help hold the paint film open and allow the solvents to get out.
Click to expand...

Using SPI very slow reducer. Was about 78F in the tent today, not much air flow. Did 5 minute timed flashes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top