Graco Ultra

[Michael Kellough]

Hard to tell what is going on in the photo (I'm not an expert sprayer anyway but I do have plenty of experience with paint), and we still don't have enough info on the primer, but it looks like dry spots as in primer too thin (on the high spots in the wood texture) to keep finish from getting sucked into the wood.

 

[JCLP]

Hard to tell what is going on in the photo (I'm not an expert sprayer anyway but I do have plenty of experience with paint), and we still don't have enough info on the primer, but it looks like dry spots as in primer too thin (on the high spots in the wood texture) to keep finish from getting sucked into the wood.

Multiple primes were used on multiple, 9 - 2'x2', test panels. Primers used were, Wall and Wood from SW, Advance primer from BM and Duralac from Lenmar. Two coats of primers for all panels. Every panel has a few coats of paint and each coat is given 24-48 hours to dry. Then they are sanded with Granat 320 paper by hand or by machine. Each coat after sanding is as smooth as a baby's bum, as they say.
Cheers,
JC

 

[JCLP]

The biggest pain in the behind is that everything looks good after 8 hours of drying, but then after 24 hours crap happens. So there is a lot of wasted time waiting till the next day to see the results.

JC

 

[Michael Kellough]

Hard to tell what is going on in the photo (I'm not an expert sprayer anyway but I do have plenty of experience with paint), and we still don't have enough info on the primer, but it looks like dry spots as in primer too thin (on the high spots in the wood texture) to keep finish from getting sucked into the wood.

Multiple primes were used on multiple, 9 - 2'x2', test panels. Primers used were, Wall and Wood from SW, Advance primer from BM and Duralac from Lenmar. Two coats of primers for all panels. Every panel has a few coats of paint and each coat is given 24-48 hours to dry. Then they are sanded with Granat 320 paper by hand or by machine. Each coat after sanding is as smooth as a baby's bum, as they say.
Cheers,
JC

So uneven absorption is pretty much impossible?

How does the same finish mixture look 24 hours later when applied by brush? I know, another delay to find out...are there some spills on a surface that is close enough to similar?

I'm just wondering if it's a paint/pigment issue rather than a spraying issue. All 4 gallons from the same supplier?

 

[escan]

If you're not burned out completely, I would try isolating the top coat and bottom coat finishes by spraying a pane of glass.

Recently, I picked up a merkur 30:1 for wb lacquer and latex that was a struggle with my 1050 apollo. I read about your success with pressure pots and almost went that route. I can spray one coat with the AAA that took 2, maybe 3 coats with the apollo, and the end result is so smooth. 

 

[JCLP]

Hard to tell what is going on in the photo (I'm not an expert sprayer anyway but I do have plenty of experience with paint), and we still don't have enough info on the primer, but it looks like dry spots as in primer too thin (on the high spots in the wood texture) to keep finish from getting sucked into the wood.

Multiple primes were used on multiple, 9 - 2'x2', test panels. Primers used were, Wall and Wood from SW, Advance primer from BM and Duralac from Lenmar. Two coats of primers for all panels. Every panel has a few coats of paint and each coat is given 24-48 hours to dry. Then they are sanded with Granat 320 paper by hand or by machine. Each coat after sanding is as smooth as a baby's bum, as they say.
Cheers,
JC

So uneven absorption is pretty much impossible?

How does the same finish mixture look 24 hours later when applied by brush? I know, another delay to find out...are there some spills on a surface that is close enough to similar?

I'm just wondering if it's a paint/pigment issue rather than a spraying issue. All 4 gallons from the same supplier?

Michael,

You may be on to something. I just checked a panel I did by brush and other then brush marks, there is grit on the surface. The panel was sanded smooth with Granat 320 before being brushed. Now what do I do. with over 30 years of painting by hand experience I have never seen this. By the way, 3 gallons were from one BM dealer and I bought 1 from an another dealer.

Cheers,
JC

 

[JCLP]

If you're not burned out completely, I would try isolating the top coat and bottom coat finishes by spraying a pane of glass.

Recently, I picked up a merkur 30:1 for wb lacquer and latex that was a struggle with my 1050 apollo. I read about your success with pressure pots and almost went that route. I can spray one coat with the AAA that took 2, maybe 3 coats with the apollo, and the end result is so smooth.

About a year ago, I sprayed it with a pressure pot attached to my Fuji T70 gun and I did get good results. Recently tried again and got the same crap. As mentioned by Michael Kellough I'm leaning towards a paint/pigment issue. As I am getting grit, even by hand, I'm going to try filtering the paint through a 125 micron filter and see what I get.

JC

 

[Brice Burrell]

Michael,

You may be on to something. I just checked a panel I did by brush and other then brush marks, there is grit on the surface. The panel was sanded smooth with Granat 320 before being brushed. Now what do I do. with over 30 years of painting by hand experience I have never seen this. By the way, 3 gallons were from one BM dealer and I bought 1 from an another dealer.

Cheers,
JC

It's funny, I was going to throw out the idea of bad paint.  I assumed you had ruled that out, and you have way more experience spraying than I do.  I'd get on the phone with your paint supplier and see what they have to think.

 

[Michael Kellough]

If you're not burned out completely, I would try isolating the top coat and bottom coat finishes by spraying a pane of glass.

Recently, I picked up a merkur 30:1 for wb lacquer and latex that was a struggle with my 1050 apollo. I read about your success with pressure pots and almost went that route. I can spray one coat with the AAA that took 2, maybe 3 coats with the apollo, and the end result is so smooth.

About a year ago, I sprayed it with a pressure pot attached to my Fuji T70 gun and I did get good results. Recently tried again and got the same crap. As mentioned by Michael Kellough I'm leaning towards a paint/pigment issue. As I am getting grit, even by hand, I'm going to try filtering the paint through a 125 micron filter and see what I get.
JC

If the filter does remove something then the color will change?

 

[AlexThePalex]

Have you tried the Graco Ultra with other paints? The first thing I thought when reading this topic is, does this happen with this paint only, or also with other paints? Because it totally does not look like a sprayer problem to me, if there was something wrong with the sprayer, you'd more or less see that immediately, and not a day later.

 

[JCLP]

Have you tried the Graco Ultra with other paints? The first thing I thought when reading this topic is, does this happen with this paint only, or also with other paints? Because it totally does not look like a sprayer problem to me, if there was something wrong with the sprayer, you'd more or less see that immediately, and not a day later.

Hi Alex,
Haven't tried other paints yet with the Graco, as I spending my time trying to solve this issue.

JC

 

[JCLP]

Michael,

You may be on to something. I just checked a panel I did by brush and other then brush marks, there is grit on the surface. The panel was sanded smooth with Granat 320 before being brushed. Now what do I do. with over 30 years of painting by hand experience I have never seen this. By the way, 3 gallons were from one BM dealer and I bought 1 from an another dealer.

Cheers,
JC

It's funny, I was going to throw out the idea of bad paint.  I assumed you had ruled that out, and you have way more experience spraying than I do.  I'd get on the phone with your paint supplier and see what they have to think.

I'm starting to  think that may be the cause. I just tried the semi-gloss version of this paint and colour, Stone Harbor 2111-50, and it visibly went on smoother then they Pearl version.

Cheers,
JC

 

[JCLP]

Just received a phone call from Benjamin Moore Area rep for the GTA and she admitted that they had a bad batch of Regal Select Pearl Sheen. They found that because they didn't let the paint cool down long enough after mixing a batch at the factory, they were getting crystalization happening in the paint. In any case, she is coming by tomorrow to look at some samples and hopefully give me credit for 5 gallons of paint.

By the way, after 4 hours, the semi-gloss version of this paint tinted grey is looking good. But, I'll have to wait till the morning to either be disappointed or jumping for joy.

Cheers,
JC

 

[JCLP]

Well, 24 hours later and it's crap. I have grit and solvent popping.
Had a meeting with Benjamin Moore today. They are stumped as well. "never seen that before" was her comment. Inother words I'm f........ked. Sorry for the language. Typing this as I'm tightening the noose around my neck.

JC

 

[Cheese]

Have you painted a piece of glass like someone mentioned?  That way you could determine if it’s the substrate or the paint.

 

[JCLP]

Haven't given up yet. Working a new theory.
I do however believe that I found the right combination. 1.8 needle and cap, thinned 20% with water, full power on the Fuji Q5. Found out that it is not recommended that you mix water and BM Extender to thin the paint. If you need to go more then 10% thinning, use water and not a combination of both.

After much, very much testing, I have come to the conclusion that the issues I have been having is a chemical reaction between the fresh coat of paint being sprayed and the coat underneath which I typically let dry for 24 hours. Everytime I had a bad coat, I would sand the panel to much exposing the layer underneath which after 24 hours, had not fully cured and was still active. So when I would sprayed another layer on top, the solvents from the previous layer where re-activated with the fresh paint, thus causing solvent pop from the old layer through the new. Hopefully this makes sense.

So that's the theory I'm going with for the next round of experiments.

This morning I cut up 6 maple veneer panels that I will spray with Duralaq Undercoater, let dry for 2-3 hours, do a light sanding till smooth and apply the paint. Let see what happens.

Cheers,
JC

 

[JCLP]

This morning bright and early, I sprayed a test panel that I lightly sanded and a door that just had primer on it and 4 hour later they both look great. The real test will be in 24 hours. I think I'm on too something. Stay tuned.

JC

 

[JCLP]

Well that theory didn't work.

Thanks everyone for you suggestions but I have decided to walk away from this and refund the client their deposit money. I gone through 7 gallons of paint trying to figure this out. There is something I'm doing wrong and I'm not able to figure that out.

Cheers,
JC

 

[JCLP]

I finally met with a lab tech from BM and they reviewed one of my panels and found that the panell was laced with white specs giving it  a rough feel and pitted surface. My question to him was, how do we get white specs when the paint colour is grey? Jis answer good question. We are stumped.

Well after much discussion and more testing, the BM reps in my area have basically thrown up their hands. They want to do more lab work at head office in Montreal, I think that is where head office is, but that could take up to 6 months before any concrete solution comes out of them. They did admit though that changing there formulas quite often in the last 12 months to reach zero VOC compliance has caused issues with other painters. Even their Gennex colouring system in now zero VOC compliant.

I have started to look at othe paint suppliers for an alternate solution. Sherwin Williams has released a new product, Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel which is water base but the issue I'm having is all of the SW retailers, even their commercial store, only carry the white and not any of the tint bases. It must be a Canadian thing.

Looked at Target Coatings for their EM6500 water-based Acrylic pigmented lacquer which is spray and brush friendly but no one in Canada carries it. See the issue is I need to find a product that I can spray and brush as there is a lot of brush work on this project.

Now many people have recommended that I spray the doors with a pigmented lacquer and then create a custom match for the crushable paint. Now this sounds pretty easy but the issue is that the pigmented lacquer will fade, change colour, yellow over a period of 6 months where the brushable acrylic paint will not. Thus this solution is not going to work either.

Maybe I can convince the client that I can paint them by hand and that orange peel generated by the roller sleeve is coming back in style. I think I have a better chance of winning the lottery then convincing the client.

Cheers,
JC

 

[butzla]

JC,  I don't mean this to be critical but trying to be helpful.  It seems to me you have problems with a variety of spray guns and also different medias that you use.  When we spoke on the phone a few weeks back, you wanted to hear how I achieved a great result spraying BM Advance.  After listening to me, rather than absorbing what I was saying, you instead gave me advice on what I was doing wrong and went on your way.  I admit, I'm not a painting expert but I am on to something. 

It sounds to me like you have a technique issue.  I think you're spraying too heavy a coat.  Try spraying a lighter coat.  The suggestion Cheese gave to try spray on glass was also a good suggestion.  Maybe you could shoot and post a video of you spraying and also include how you are thinning your paint?