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Door paint spraying

Spray painting for the novice is not easy. It takes a lot of good prep and experience for the best results. We started by putting up plastic all around one of our garage spots to create a dust-less space. That took some time because we had to figure out how to drape it.

Then I tested out the sprayer on scrap wood and it seemed easy enough.

However, there would be a lot more to it then just that. I did not realize how loud and how much air was constantly spraying through the gun and from out from the turbine. I did not thin the latex primer I'd be spraying because I was told by the customer service reps that it was unnecessary to do so. I would figure out they were wrong about that one. Then, I started struggling with the plastic itself. Some breeze was still getting into the area, causing the plastic to flap (It would eventually stick to one of the newly painted surfaces.) I would discover all of these items would create problems.





Everything seemed to be going well so I decided to take a break. This would be a mistake because after my break, the sprayer seemed to be spraying less material. I stopped and consulted the manual and came to the conclusion I had to quick clean it by pouring out the primer and shooting warm soapy water through the gun. This didn't work. Nothing came out. At the same time, I discovered the tip of the gun had begun to build up primer on it. I figured this was also inhibiting the spraying and my break had given the primer time to dry within the gun, causing it to clog.

I decided to disassemble and clean out the entire gun per the instructions. After doing so, I returned to spraying and it went fine for a little but then it started to clog again. At this point, I decided to thin the material, which is a perfectly normal practice with paint sprayers and wipe off the build up from the gun tip. Consequently, the gun finally started spraying and kept spraying! Hallelujah!

Coming back to the flapping plastic, Allison suggested I screw the plastic to the walls. I did so, and it took care of that problem.

I then took a closer look at the doors and discovered they were covered in small specks, giving it a rough texture. I surmised that the gun and the turbine were kicking every bit of dust and dirt into the air inside of the paint room and getting it everywhere! I decided that once they dried I would sand everything down, which is what I'd have to do anyways.

Next, when I spray the final top coat of paint, I'm going to thin the paint, wet the ground to keep the dust down, wear hearing protection, use the bigger tip (to cover more area), stretch (my right shoulder hurt by the end of the day from the repetitive sweeping motion) and have the turbine outside of the paint area. I think this will drastically speed up and improve my results. If you're a newbie, learn from me so you don't end up making the same mistakes!

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