EM6500 with Fuji 4 Stage

[mrFinpgh]

From what I have read, EM6500 is supposed to be well suited to spraying.  But looking at the viscosity, it looks like it works out to something around 100 seconds on the Ford #4 cup. 

I assume it needs to be thinned with some water..  but how far?  Should I be trying to get it down to 20-25 seconds through a Ford #4?  Are there any other reference points I can use as a starting place?

I'm planning to use a 1.8 aircap, which is what Target Coatings recommends for the product.  Should I try a 1.5 or 1.3? 

HVLP is pretty new to me, but I'm enjoying it so far and looking forward to improving at it.

Thanks,
Adam

 

[ERG]

I've used EM6500 with a Fuji gun and it worked perfectly without any thinning.

 

[mrFinpgh]

[member=49937]ERG[/member] What tip did you use with it?  Any particular direction you had to go with your air flow/fluid volume to get it to work for you?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[ERG]

I think it was a 1.4 tip the valve on the hose full on and the fluid valve 2 turns. I used it once so YMMV.

 

 

[mrFinpgh]

Thanks, [member=49937]ERG[/member] .  I shot some test pieces this evening with the air fully open and using a 1.5 aircap/needle.  It took a while to find what I thought looked like a 'good' atomization on some paper.  There tended to be some large droplets at the outer edges of the pattern.  From everything I've read, the goal is to have a consistently fine 'fringe' around the wetter core.

I put down a 3mil coat over some raw MDF.  It seems to level out pretty well, although waterborne over MDF always feels a bit rough to me afterwards - I'm guessing that sanding it and doing a second coat will give me a better read.

The thing that threw me the most was that the gun sputtered a bit while I was applying.  I think it is because of the viscosity of the material - there was definitely paint in the cup, but with the gravity gun, it can sort of 'stick' to the sides of the cup and slowly move down.  At least, I hope that's the cause. 

-Adam

 

[mrFinpgh]

I shot the doors, drawer faces, and panels for my kitchen island today.  The material was MDF, prepped with 2 coats of BIN (rolled) and sanded to 220 before spraying.

I used Target EM6500 through a 1.5 tip, and I ended up adding about 8-10% distilled water to thin it out a bit.  This helped a lot with atomization, although I'm still getting the hang of 'reading' the pattern to determine if I'm spraying too much or too little.  In general, I was putting down something between 3 and 4 mils.  I'm sure it varied

Overall, I'm pleased with the results given the time constraints and my lack of experience w/ HVLP spraying.  I would have liked to have an extra day or two for prep work - I started after work on Friday afternoon and spent most of the past two days priming and sanding - because I think the biggest problems with the finish are where I didn't entirely level the primer.  I've always considered BIN to be an easy-sanding primer, but there were some spots that I went over repeatedly with my sander and they never entirely smoothed out.    Maybe next time, I'll try some of the 'surfacer' stuff that SW and BM make. 

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Incidentally, the most stressful piece of this was moving those 28" x 34" panels on and off the drying rack.  The rack is made to be easy to break down and store, but it needs to be more rigid.  If the balance shifts too much to one side, the rack will tilt or rack.  When handling a big panel covered in wet lacquer, that's the last thing I want to be concerned with.

-Adam

 

[mschmidt10k]

With a Fuji 4 stage, you shouldn't have to thin the EM6500 at all. Use a 1.3 tip and it'll lay down beautifully.