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+-- Thread: Spraying Paint with LVLP Question - Touch up and Top Coat (/showthread.php?tid=7378328)
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RE: Spraying Paint with LVLP Question - Touch up and Top Coat - Cabinet Monkey - 05-26-2025
(04-21-2025, 02:04 PM)jteneyck Wrote: Yes, but I didn't see any benefit. When I need to thin the paint, I use water. Most all paints I've used can be thinned up to 10% w/o an issue. Sometimes that's still not enough to lower the viscosity enough to spray, at which point I punt and use a different product or a different application technique.
Floetrol is not a thinner
It’s an extender / conditioner just like the BM stuff you mentioned.
It’s not going to make any difference in the viscosity of your material. If that’s too thick and/or your gun has too small an orifice and/or is under powered - you ain’t gonna get satisfactory results. Period.
The material must be matched to the equipment - actually vice versa.
If you’re going to spray , you need one of these :
https://spraygunplaza.com/pages/how-to-use-a-viscosity-cup
Or a Ford cup. Measure your coating and use the cup’s reference chart to select the proper needle and nozzle for your particular gun.
RE: Spraying Paint with LVLP Question - Touch up and Top Coat - jteneyck - 05-27-2025
(05-26-2025, 09:42 PM)Cabinet Monkey Wrote: Floetrol is not a thinner
It’s an extender / conditioner just like the BM stuff you mentioned.
It’s not going to make any difference in the viscosity of your material. If that’s too thick and/or your gun has too small an orifice and/or is under powered - you ain’t gonna get satisfactory results. Period.
The material must be matched to the equipment - actually vice versa.
If you’re going to spray , you need one of these :
https://spraygunplaza.com/pages/how-to-use-a-viscosity-cup
Or a Ford cup. Measure your coating and use the cup’s reference chart to select the proper needle and nozzle for your particular gun.
It seems I implied that Floetrol is a thinner. It is not, as you pointed out. Actually, I can't see what it is. The two times I tried using it, it had no benefit of any kind.
I'm a poster child for measuring the viscosity of anything I want to spray. I have a chart packed with my spray gun that lists the viscosity, as received, and the viscosity if I thinned it, along with every gun setting to spray it. Recommended N/N set ups are a starting point, but I've found some products don't spray well no matter what set up I use. The problem with using any viscosity cup is that it can't account for the shear thinning that may or may not happen at the nozzle. Some products, like BM Advance, have very high viscosity, essentially off the chart with a Ford #4 cup, yet it sprays really well with my pressure assisted HVLP gun using a 1.5 mm N/N set. No way it should, but it does, and it must be due to how much the viscosity decreases under shear at the nozzle. Other products with a more constant viscosity, regardless of shear, don't spray well in my gun no matter what N/N is used. SW's Duration comes to mind. Those products need an airless to atomize well.
John
John