Subject: Re: How do you PAINT your projects?

From: [email-masked] (Jens)
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 1996 21:39:01 -0800

[email-masked] (Ernie Leimkuhler) wrote:

>My favorite paint in the universe is hammerite, but if you buy it by the
>gallon, the stuff is like molasses. 
>Finally I was able to shoot hammerite on an industrial scale, and it
>worked great. The cleanup was easier than I expected for a pressure-pot.

Don't know if this is of interest to anyone in regards to this thread
but ......

I used to spray all my stuff with a standard Craftsman siphon type air
spray gun but I had a lot of problems spraying thick paint (needs to
be thinned first) and always dreaded the 15 minute cleanup for the 2
minutes of use for small parts. 
One day, with a bit of extra time on my hands, I decided to mess
around trying to build a mist cooling system adapter for my air gun.
This turned out to be a 1/2" long dohickey that replaces the safety
nozzle on the air gun (just screws on) and it has a short section of
plastic tube for the infeed of coolant.
Anyway, when I tested this thing I was utterly amazed as to how much
water this thing would spray .... we are not talking mist here - we
are talking monsun (sp?). I had to throttle the coolant intake quite a
bit for it to be reasonable.
So far so good - and you probably ask why I am telling you this ....
well, one day I had another one of those 2 minute paint jobs and I was
too lazy to deal with thining the paint, clean the equipment etc so I
had the brilliant idea of taking my fancy siphon nozzle on the tip of
my air gun and hanging the coolant hose into the paint. Now as it
turned out the paint was in fact too thick so I had to thin it just a
tad but boy did this setup work a charm then !!! It sprayed at a much
higher volume than my paint sprayer and instead of a 2 minute spray
job it was a 30 second spray job. Cleanup involved sticking my finger
over top of the nozzle to let the pressure blow out the suction hose !
That was it ..... done ... finished ...
Now you will probably say that eventually the paint that remains will
restrict flow - tru but the nozzle was drilled using standard drill
bits and they can be used to get the hard paint out if necessary and
the 2 ft of plastic hose for paint intake is probably worth less than
50 cents to replace.
One side benefit - with my proper spray gun I end up with paint mist
travelling quite a ways and messing things up unless I lay down a
cover over 3/4 of my shop - this does not happen with the homebrew
system because atomization isn't anywhere near this fine.

You won't be able to spray paint a car this way but it sure works a
treat on non-critical jobs.

Last summer I build a shed outside. It had cedar siding and I decided
to protect the siding with a special cedar protectant. The stuff was
as thin as water and it was impossible to apply it via brush as stuff
was dripping left right and center. I finally sprayed the protectant
but with the small can on the gun and the low volume nozzle on it, it
took forever to do. I can still kick myself for not having come up
with my air gun attachment sooner. Instead of maybe 15 hours of work I
could have done the job in an hour or two.

Jens

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From: [email-masked] (Phil Crome)
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 05:15:17 GMT

Compressors and sandblasting have been a hot topic over the last
little while in this n.g. Well, I'm trying to get over a serious case
of the rattle-can blues and I'm wondering what kind of equipment and
processes all of you project-makers and machinery rebuilders use to
keep rust at bay and your things looking good after you've spent an
afternoon with your huge compressors and maniacal grins 8).
Specifically, how and with what do you paint whatever it is that you
paint? 

Thanks

Phil Crome

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From: [email-masked] (Ernie Leimkuhler)
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 01:50:24 -0700

> Specifically, how and with what do you paint whatever it is that you

Well Phil.
I finally put my system together for painting iron railings this last summer.
I got a used Binks model 7 professional paint gun at boeing salvage and
after paying $15 for a rebuild kit it was good as new.
I picked up an old Craftsman brand pressure pot at a garage sale, and
after figuring out the hoses and regulators, I had a nice system.
Of course I had to go buy a bigger compressor, but new it only cost about
$200 at Costco for a 5hp compressor.

-- 
Best of luck

*********************************************************************
                            Ernie Leimkuhler
                   STAGESMITH PRODUCTIONS
                     Custom Metal Fabrication
       ABANA       AWS        SCA        IATSE Local 15/488
                        Renton, Washington, USA
*********************************************************************
" 'Reverse primary thrust, Marvin,' that's what they say to me, 'open airlock number three, Marvin. Marvin, can you pick up that piece of paper?' Can I pick up that piece of paper! Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to ...." - Douglas_Adams

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 15 Dec 1996 15:35:05 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Phil

>Specifically, how and with what do you paint whatever it is that you

I use a 2 HP airless paint sprayer with a 8 gal overhead bucket.   It will
spray paint at the rate of abot $250/hour.

Cecil in OK

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 09:51:04 GMT

[email-masked] (Jens) wrote:

cut

Jens 

Sounds Great.  Please post more details, dimensions etc for  the
"Dohickey on the end"

This may just be the answer to a problem that I have!

Thank you and Kind Regards

John

It is easier to cut off than to cut on.

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From: [email-masked] (Jens)
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 22:56:15 -0800

>Sounds Great.  Please post more details, dimensions etc for  the

I hate to say it but I just made the dohickey sort of off hand - no
dimensions as such. Well not quite true I guess ... it has a thread on
one end that fits into the thread of my air gun but that would depend
on your setup. After that it is a small hole in the middle (let's say
1/8") and then drill a larger hole in towards the middle from the
other side (let's say 1/4"). Then, drill a tiny hole (lets'say 1/16")
>from  the side of the dohickey into the center of the dohickey so it
meets the drilled center hole exactly at the junction of the small and
large hole - more specifically it should not go into either center
hole but into the bottom face of the larger hole. When you blow air
through this contraption a vacuum is formed on the face of the larger
center hole which will suck the paint up.
Hope this makes at least some sense. (Alternatively look at any siphon
feed sandblast gun).

I sure hope that I haven't destroyed any grand illusions people have
of me by doing a lot of 'let's say' type work with a few 'oh, like
about so long's ' thrown in  :)

Oh, BTW, the dohickey is about 3/4 " long (or so)  and I have a short
piece of tiny pipe inserted and silver soldered into the paint feed
hole so the plastic hose just slides over this pipe.

>It is easier to cut off than to cut on.

No way ... ever hear of a welder - great for cutting on or undrilling
holes :)

Jens