jbc426
Well-Known Member
I didn't read all the posts before writing this, so forgive me for that.
My dad was a commercial painter. I worked with him from time to time since I was 4 or 5, and then at 10 on weekends and through summer break. I watched him spray thousands of gallons of paint on commercial and residential buildings. He was actually Bill Moore's, of Kelly Moore Paints, personal painter.
I started spaying with an airless since I was in my mid-teens, and then sprayed hundreds of gallons of lacquer using a spray pot on stained wood cabinets etc. Good lighting is critical to see how the paint etc is landing on the surface. It differed from painting cars, but some things and techniques were transferable to it too.
The most important thing he taught me was to watch were and how the paint fan was landing on the surface. By watching that, you can adjust your pass speed, volume of paint vs air pressure and build up. Human instinct tends to make us watch the mid-fan, which is ok to glance at, but the real trick is to see how the atomized droplets are reacting as they hit the surface.
Automotive paints have come a long way. I love the way automotive paint flows out after it lands on the panel, but have also suffered the consequences of sags, solids drifts and orange peel. There is an art and science to getting the right viscosity at the right temperature at the right build up. Get it right, and its amazing. Get it wrong by just a bit, and its a do-over.
Another huge trick is to position the gun just off 90 degrees perpendicular to the surface depending on which way your hand is moving. I see a lot of painters veering too far away from the 90 degree angle as they change directions during their passes. That alters how their fan lands on the surface. Maintaining proper gun position, fan width and air pressure control are critical to manage how the material lands on the surface correctly to build the recommended "mil" thickness on the surface. I came to think of it as spraying a perfectly consistent film on the surface, so if it could be magically pulled off and measured, it would be perfectly even throughout the entire sheet of material.
My dad was a commercial painter. I worked with him from time to time since I was 4 or 5, and then at 10 on weekends and through summer break. I watched him spray thousands of gallons of paint on commercial and residential buildings. He was actually Bill Moore's, of Kelly Moore Paints, personal painter.
I started spaying with an airless since I was in my mid-teens, and then sprayed hundreds of gallons of lacquer using a spray pot on stained wood cabinets etc. Good lighting is critical to see how the paint etc is landing on the surface. It differed from painting cars, but some things and techniques were transferable to it too.
The most important thing he taught me was to watch were and how the paint fan was landing on the surface. By watching that, you can adjust your pass speed, volume of paint vs air pressure and build up. Human instinct tends to make us watch the mid-fan, which is ok to glance at, but the real trick is to see how the atomized droplets are reacting as they hit the surface.
Automotive paints have come a long way. I love the way automotive paint flows out after it lands on the panel, but have also suffered the consequences of sags, solids drifts and orange peel. There is an art and science to getting the right viscosity at the right temperature at the right build up. Get it right, and its amazing. Get it wrong by just a bit, and its a do-over.
Another huge trick is to position the gun just off 90 degrees perpendicular to the surface depending on which way your hand is moving. I see a lot of painters veering too far away from the 90 degree angle as they change directions during their passes. That alters how their fan lands on the surface. Maintaining proper gun position, fan width and air pressure control are critical to manage how the material lands on the surface correctly to build the recommended "mil" thickness on the surface. I came to think of it as spraying a perfectly consistent film on the surface, so if it could be magically pulled off and measured, it would be perfectly even throughout the entire sheet of material.
Last edited:
