how to set up spray gun

Dave, you got any pictures of what your doing?

and of your spray gun set up?

no a pic of my gun is up there ^

found out why yesterday didn't go right, stupid paint shop changed tins, white square tine used to be 2k thinners, now its single lacquer so i thinned primer with lacquer and cleaned gun with it, lucky i cleaned gun after with cellulose thinners so it not bunged up.
other man served me today and said he had no idea why other bloke had even sold me single lacquer when i had 2k primer an base coat

Hmmmm.
I think I understand that there would be a problem with that! But there's a lot of terms in there

To recap terms, there are two types of paint - lacquer (dries by evaporation) and enamel (dries by hardening).

Lacquer paint - also called Acrylic Lacquer - seems to be what you folks call Cellulose. I don't use it.
No-one here has 'lacquer' thinner.
We have 'Universal' thinner (does both lacquer and enamel).
2K primer needs universal OR 2K thinners (the latter is technically called 'Reducer' rather than thinners, for some reason).
2K basecoat isn't 2K - it's technically a lacquer, as it has no hardener and dries by evaporation. Either thinner would work for this.
2K topcoat or clearcoat (acrylic enamel) ideally needs 2K thinners ('slow', for best gloss/flow-out) rather than Universal.
I always use universal thinners for cleaning-up.

Re-reading, I think I see why I was confused. People in England seem to use the term 'Lacquer' interchangeably with 'clearcoat'. This is confusing because when we use the term 'Lacquer', we mean paint that dries by evaporation, i.e. what you would call Cellulose.

So I guess what you're saying is that you poured clearcoat into the gun to clean it!

I did something similarly hopeless once when I accidentally used unlabelled hardener as thinners. I'm sure that was really good for my isocyanate exposure.

Anyway, let us know how you get on with the proper thinners - should be about 10% for 2K paint or primer.

-Alex

what made you go for a gravity fed sprayer?

imo they're more difficult to use.

Now i'm confsed Alex

Our old paint type was cellulose.

*Primer
*Cellulose base coat.

The cellulose has a shiny finish which once sprayed is sanded/polished.


2k paint

*2k Primer, mixed with a hardener.
*2k base (colourcoat), mixed with a hardener
*2k clear coat (lacquer) mixed with a hardener

Thinning of each paint is to allow better flow through the gun. I dont spray 2k base coat but I usually thin the primer by 10-15% although all products vary.
I don't thin my lacquer but some need again 10% to allow better flow and thus prevents orange peel.

1k paint

* primer mixed with thinners
* base (colour coat) mixed with 50% thinners
* clear coat (lacquer) used neat or with 10-15% thinners

1k paint is less toxic than 2k. The clear coat lacquer is weak and requies more finishing with an inferior shine to 2k. I usually spray 2k lacquer instead over the 1k base coat.

Water base.

*2k primer, although a water based primer is on the market
* waterbase base coat. pre mixed. or if not then mixed with 15% distilled water or 20% special water thinners.
*2k clear coat however 1k can be used as well. A water base lacquer is soon or possibly on the market.

Water base is great. Is just like emulsion. Do not believe the bull, as it is easy to spray and only requires a hair drier to dry panels fast. remember the water is just to thin the paint. once dry it has all evaporated off.

because greater air pressure is needed to atomise the paint on a conventional gun. High Volume Low Pressure guns work better using a gravity fed system. HVLP = less air pressure, less over spray and better control.

Is down to choice but most sprayers use gravity fed guns.

Thanks for setting all the terms straight, Bridges. The problem is that the term 'lacquer' gets used there to mean the clear-coat, and that is why I was originally confused (over here, 'lacquer' means 'any paint that dries by evaporation', such as what you call 'cellulose' - we don't have that term here).

The other notable difference is that the 2k-system basecoat that I use (DeBeer, which is Dutch) has no hardener. Therefore, the basecoat is not 2k and is thinned 50/50 - the paint shop calls it a 'lacquer' - see, more confusion!

So your post can remain as the definitive, err, definitions

-Alex