What you’re trying to achieve when spraying EkoPoly

[jason gerard]

#6606

The whole concept of spraying paint in multiple tac or fog coats is to achieve an even color distribution, obtain full color saturation, and provide a tacky surface for the final “wet” coat. There are many ways you can do this and out instructions and DVD’s show one way that is simple to follow but does not go into enough detail to describe what you’re trying to achieve. Over the years teaching many people how to paint it’s become very obvious that it’s more important to tell some one what you’re trying to achieve rather than how to achieve it. EVERYBODY had a different technique for handling a paint gun, air supply systems are different, and the temp and humidity varies greatly. You must remember that our instructions are just simple guide lines and a good place to start. Also our directions are ONLY specific to the equipment we are using. Each gun mfg has different set up instructions. Different combinations of equipment will effect how you set up each gun. If you take my gun and use it in your booth chances are you’ll use different settings. It’s easy to tweak the gun to perform if you just know what you’re trying to achieve.

Our EkoPoly does not like to be dumped on wet from the get go. It’s better to apply multiple tac coats evenly so that you don’t have light and dark spots across the surface. Some colors cover better than others so it’s important to practice on scrap before you go after the real thing. The idea is to build a tacky base that has no tiger striping or dry spots. You want even color saturation and a uniform looking surface. Once that has been achieved and the surface has tacked up properly to a post-it note type sticky feel with minimum to no color transfer you can then spray a medium wet to full wet coat of paint. How heavy you put it on will depend on your technique and what you’ve found you can get away with with out getting runs.

If the tack coat surface is orange peel you’ll most likely get an orange peel looking finish too. Remember that paint amplifies the surface it’s going over. Try to make your tack coats as smooth as possible. Temp and humidity and how much water you used to reduce the paint all have an effect on how fast the tack coats tack up and how heavy you can lay on the wet coat.

If you never spray out a wet coat you’ll never get the high gloss look. Sure you can fog 10 coats of paint on and have a satin finish but it’s going to look very thin and not very professional.

Jason

[Author]

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