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Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A "Teeth" to hold the paint

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David have you taken just a male fitting right at the hose hook up on the quick disconnect in the picture, and just popped it in and turn the air on to see what comes out? I do, but mine is not as nice as yours, and I get a mist for maybe 5 seconds.

steve
 
Several days later I had got the HF gun dryer and the same setup as before. I had one panel in the garage and 2 just outside as I felt this arrangement gave me more room to move around with the gun and hose.
I have sprayed plenty of panels outside before with no problems except bugs.
This time I got exactly the same result as the last failed spray. Water droplets all over the panels outside. No it was not raining but it was very humid.

I have done the remaining spraying inside just in case there was something in the outside theory.

I must be done as I am down to the last cup of paint.

It all looks good but I do have a few runs to fix up.

on to polishing when the paint hardens.

David
 
It sounds like your drying system is getting overwhelmed by the humidity. You may have to empty the water traps between coats, and even change the disposable traps if you are using them.
 
That is the strange thing there was almost nothing in the copper drain line or the trap at the air chuck. Also I have drained much more water from the tank in the past. I did put a new gun trap on before I sprayed.
When I was sandblasting earlier in the summer I would get about a cup of water from the copper drain line and some from the chuck trap. The tank would have as much as a pint of water in it.

I did find on the second occurrence that if I took an air line I could blow the water off the painted surface and it left less of a bumpy surface to sand out. May have got away with just sanding then the second time around.
Should have tried to get photos but I was too frustrated to think of that.

David
 
David , If you are getting moisture or water in your paint, your plumbing system is not effective for removing moisture from the air lines ! Refer to the Sharpe Spray Gun Company standardized shop plumbing guidelines , I'll summarize: you need at least 25' of a METAL line between your air compressor and your first water trap ., The line purposely flows continuously downhill for the entire length then a 90 down to a dead end section 4 ft. long or so with a drain tap in the bottom. 18" above the drain a Tee is installed the feeds air to your first filter. Without the 25' straight length ( not up and down) the air does not have enough time to cool and allow the moisture to condense out of it! The dead end drain allows the water to collect in the drain and not be forced through your filter like you are doing now ! With your system , when you are painting , air will not flow through that elaborate system you have , it will flow directly downward 6-7 feet only , directly into your water trap , oversaturate the trap and exit out the end into your spray gun. From your diagram the air is flowing directly down to the water trap , not 10 feet from the plastic line! It isn't a wonder you're having problems.
 
The blue plastic lines you see in the photo is the connection to the rest of my shop. The air flows through about 50 feet of horizontal copper pipe that slopes down towards the drain.

Here is a photo of the complete copper pipe setup. It is a bit hidden behind the stored PVC piles.

David
air system.jpg
 
Another thing that can give you sporadic water droplets is if you have your hose coiled vertically at all. The hose should be laid out flat on the ground. Any coils that have low points will gradually accumulate water until it gets deep enough to "spit" on up the line and to your gun. Just a thought...
 
I remember you mentioning that before and I usually did lay the hose out flat. On the first occurrence of water drops I did had several coils in the hose. The second time it happened I made sure the hose was flat on the ground.

This is how it went on both occasions.
2 panels outside 1 inside a few feet apart.
Spray the first coat on all panels. Looks good.
Wait 30 minutes per paint info.
Spray second coat. Inside panel is good 2 outside panels start off with pimples all over which seem to develop into water drops. I used the air gun to blow the water off. The paint settled down a bit better the second time because I got rid of the water.

The final coats I did yesterday and the day before were one coat only and inside. They went well.

David
 
I can't upload the file but do a Google Search for " Sharpe air line layout" and study the drain leg routing that raises up then drops below the water trap . It takes advantage of gravity to allow water to collect harmlessly before the water trap, the lighter cleaner air is always taken off a higher point in the line. The cleaner the air that enters your trap , the more effective your trap is.
 
My setup pretty much conforms to the layout in the Sharpe layout.

Interestingly the PDF that downloads has the pipes coming off the underside of the main runs but the first drawing that comes up on the site has the pipes come off the topside of the main runs as I would expect.

David
 
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