Painting with a gun

[Seven64]

So I really want to start using an air powered spray gun.  I have seen a few setups on this site, but have almost no idea how this stuff works. 

Can I just buy any miniature HVLP gun and a small compressor? 

What paints can I use?

Is there a good resource/spot to shop for all this?

I'm sick of running out of spray paint.....

[davent]

I put up some info here some time ago on the airbrush setup i use.

Use artists acrylic paints, usually Golden's or Createx/ Auto Air, from the same art supply store as i've bought airbrushes.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=97942.msg855339#msg855339

It's pretty surprising how little paint it takes to do an enclosure when most of the paint you spray is actually ending up on the enclosure.

[Hemmel]

Couldn't resist...

[davent]

^My first thought as well when i saw the thread title.

[bluebunny]

I have to say that I was also surprised to see the OP wasn't Mike (haveyouseenhim)!   

[ @Mike: prove me wrong! ]

[haveyouseenhim]

I have to say that I was also surprised to see the OP wasn't Mike (haveyouseenhim)!   

[ @Mike: prove me wrong! ]

I must admit that I saw the thread title and got a little excited 

I may have to go buy a junk shotgun to make a painting video.

[duck_arse]

painters! I have a problem.

I use steel panels cut from pc cases, and scribe measures/markings through the epoxy paint stuff. it makes it a little easier to pick-up the point of the centre punch, and I can see how far we are wandering from the centre of the 'X'. the epoxy junk seems stuck on pretty good, so who am I to go taking it all off? I sand it flat some and use it as a chemical base for metal primer to bond to.

and so, all this last week I've been airbrushing a bend with acrylic, and thought I'd finished my under-colour (I thort, because I'd emptied the paint jar). only, it now seems those scribes are back to count their roosts. they seem about as apparent as the goolies on a canine.

the question is: should I forget the epoxy and sand back to bare metal, reprime and start fresh? or is there a water-based bogging something I can stick in and sand back smooth that I'm not familiar with? or just thick thick paint fill it them? nail polish/solvent glue?

suggestions, methods, techniques, products ...... I can't finish my semi-acoustic fuzz face without good paint.

[...... there is no knife. or gun.]

[greaser_au]

the question is: should I forget the epoxy and sand back to bare metal, reprime and start fresh? or is there a water-based bogging something I can stick in and sand back smooth that I'm not familiar with? or just thick thick paint fill it them? nail polish/solvent glue?

What about spray putty (readily available at places like supercheap auto)?   (not water based, though)

david

[davent]

I think you'd be hard pressed to apply anything that would bond to the steel as well as the epoxy coating so i'd leave it. I use BIN Sealer/Primer after self etching primer as it's a heavy bodied material that fills the pits and scratches and sands well. Alcohol based (shellac) and i apply it with an airbrush, relatively easy to clean up, can be brushed on or also comes in a spray can but those are so wasteful of material when you only need a small amount, they clog and spit, a waste, the airbrush is far superior. Filter the BIN through a piece of old pantyhose before spraying with your airbrush.

And like mentioned, glazing putty will do the scratches and small pits, nasty fumes so you want to be outside to use it and then still need to prime with something like the BIN as i've had Bondo show through acrylic paint.

http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/b-i-n/

dave

[amptramp]

Paint + gun =



Actually a paintball gun finish could be spectacular.

[GibsonGM]

^^  +1,000 on the BIN.  Ventilate!  Or be drunk  
You can clean things up with ammonia, or denatured alcohol (smelly, very flammable...).
Don't get BIN on anything you don't want to be permanently shellac'ed!

I'm a professional residential/commercial painter, and you cannot beat BIN for a primer on 'tough' surfaces.  Most NOTHING can bleed thru it.  NOTHING.  Smoke, etc etc.    Forget the others, Davent is right.

[duck_arse]

thanks guys. I have a tin of this:

which is old and drying and needs thinners to thin it, because it doesn't go on smooth enough, and it melts chunks of paint, and I then need to sand the fill out because it ain't filling.

I had some fun with testing this, it seems there is loads of low spots and dings on my bend that are now "filled". and now also a few high spots, and a few very bald spots.

[greaser_au]

thanks guys. I have a tin of this:

which is old and drying and needs thinners to thin it, because it doesn't go on smooth enough, and it melts chunks of paint, and I then need to sand the fill out because it ain't filling.

I had some fun with testing this, it seems there is loads of low spots and dings on my bend that are now "filled". and now also a few high spots, and a few very bald spots.

So..... you HAVE been to supercheap, Duck!      this stuff is not so super cheap any more...       I have a tin for my dodgy woodwork/metalwork efforts around home - a year ago half a kilo was something like $14. 

Car bog is usually polyester (or styrene) - like 'Plasti-Bond' (the safe one from 20 years ago- not the stuff from the late '60's  that used MEKP as a catalyst - deadly - I still remember that peculiar stench).  I'm not sure you CAN thin the uncatalysed monomer, though I'd separate a small sample and try a few things that are to hand, maybe acetone (that worked for epoxy back in my coil winding days)  or acrylic lacquer thinners. One can't easily buy dichloromethane any more - except from the plastics suppliers in tiny little cans.  Mix in the recommended amount of catalyst and see if it still goes off.  I did research 2-part acrylic (like they use for dentures) a while back  - very expensive!

In my experience the trick with any 2-part mix of this sort of consistency is to mix it flat/thinly so that you don't include too much air.  Also key the target surface well (medium sandpaper, maybe) - otherwise *any* flex and it will just pop off creating a nice reverse impression of your surface. 

david

[duck_arse]

david, yes, many years ago when I lived walking close to a supa cheap, but not since. could also walk to bunnings then, but that's buy-the-by,

frankly, I don't want any thinners laying about, I'll be tempted to mix it with all sorts of stuff. I'll try and find 'what will work' that I can get in the smallest amount gettable ...... acetone will be too oily for thinning this, won't? all that other stuff you said went whoosh through to the keeper. except about the dentist.