One for the painting gurus.

[dales133]

So i purchased a new spray gun the otherday as it was getting a bit expensive in aerosols.
I mixed the paint to thinners just by eye but its aprox 25% thinner to paint ratio...so my first go with the new gun and it came out way more orange peeled than i hoped or expected.

1.So... what psi do you recomend to set the compressor to.
2.is it likly to be an air pressure issue or a paint to air mixture issue.
I had the pressure set to 80 psi but its only a small compressor.

This is realy close up witch make it look worse but i want the gaurds like car finish.
Thanks in advance

[KennethW]

Was it humid when you were painting?

[Padilen]

Looks like heavy orange peel. You can google orange peel for different ways to avoid it.
I actually like it kind of like "hammered" paint.

[dales133]

Thanks for the replies. Yea there has been a fair bit of moisture around and athough it was sunny when i sprayed it the temperatures plummeted in recent days.
I have painted the trailer itself black hammered finish bit as these are right by the black doors and the only other black on the camper i wanted them smooth

[dales133]

Well i just spent a couple of hours wetsanding the orange peel off and read a few thtorials online so time for another crack at it

[pete49]

While not a guru but having done plenty spray painting and just recently painted my guards to match the car I will try to help. I use a gravity fed gun and my pressure is around 30psi. Also make sure you have a water trap on the compressor as that can make for problems if you don't have one. From memory with my old high pressure guns I used about 80 psi. Hope this helps
Pete

[GPW]

Maybe applied too exuberantly all at once ... We put down a light tack coat , then progressively heaver coats with appropriate drying sessions between ... Could be the paint was not thinned enough ? Or with then wrong temp thinner ( do they even have that anymore ?) .... Been a few years now since we sprayed anything large ... Things likely have changed .... Did you READ THE CAN ??? That always helped ...

[jstrubberg]

Definitely orange peel. When it's happened to me, either I have the paint too "dry" (not enough thinner), or I'm spraying to close/too heavy.

You get orange peel when the paint begins to dry before it can flow and level out.

[dales133]

Thanks for all the input.
I did some research and found i had the gun settings all over the place and my second attempt while not perfect is miles better.
I dont think my thinner ratio was right either.
Ill take some pics of the new result

[doug hodder]

So what type of paint are you shooting, just an oil based enamel? If so, don't use regular thinner to thin it...use something like Xylene. It almost appears that the orange peel is so heavy it looks more like fisheyes, especially in the top photo, which is a contamination thing. You can see how it's almost pulling away from the material in the center of the spot. Also...not all tips on spray guns are made for every type of paint. Did you have an air dryer on the line? Doug