I actually had that gun- the devibliss starting line touch up. One problem was it operates at 8 cfm. I have a 2.5 horse compressor with a ten gallon tank. I'm not sure i could keep up with the gun. The dude at the auto body supply recommended a brand called astro. Well all this and I was able fix my hf touch up gun the nut that attaches to the needle was loose (and get ready for this) I tightened it! It did what Casey said and it did a good job from what I can tell. I was definately not letting enough paint through.
Now hears a question- if I buy say house of color paint should I use their clear or is any clear ok? I know they say that their clear is specially formulated to work with their paint. Yeah but they all say that! It sounds more like a "buy from us plea" than any breakthrough in paint tecnology or special formulation.
I sprayed some clear tonight and I think I sprayed too much as it looked like milk in some parts.

If you were painting a car, I would say stay with the same MFG for your primer / base / clear etc. Granted, I know you can mix and match at times however what happens that one time things goes bad. Trust me you dont want to be sanding an entire clear job off a car because it fish eyes all over.

Now, as far as rods are concerned go with the clear you have. Odds are it will be fine and in a worst case scenario you sand or wipe off the finish and start over.

I routinely mix and match when painting rods. Just the other day I was spraying HOK base with matrix clear. I even went as far as using HOK activator in the Matrix clear because I ran out of the correct activator. Everything turned out fine. I dont recommend that, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

As far as the clear looking milky, I have no idea. Even if you sprayed it so heavily that it ran it should still be clear. Are you sure you didnt get water in the lines or something else? Did you get a bunch of runs in the finish?

I have to agree with Bill regarding the paint gun situation. I love Devilbiss and have a couple of their high end guns I use for auto painting. I however dont recommend any of their guns for this application. Even at 80.00 for the low end gun its still 10x overkill at this point. Those little HF guns are crap,and I get that. They however are capable of spraying a finish that is as good if not better than most oem. Learn on the HF gun then possibly move to a better Devilbiss gun.

but thats my opinion and we know what they say about opinions. :)

I should have been more clear I ran into problem with white milky finish using spray max 2k aresol can. After buying clear for the paint gun I get a much better appreciation for just how expensive this stuff is at 20 dollars a can. I think maybe I didn't let it flash long enough between coats. I also got some wrinkling in the paint on one rod not sure what caused that either. But I got one of four rods that looks awesome Pavo purple over light primer looks awesome!

LOL yes auto paint is VERY expensive... One good thing though is that a quart of clear should be good to clear MANY MANY rods. This is why im not a big fan of the spraymax clears... once you activate the can its life expectancy is limited. I have heard you can extend it several days by putting it in the fridge but still it eventually is no good. The only way I could see it being worth while would be for someone who cannot purchase a gun and compressor, or someone who can stand up several blanks all at the same time for clearing.

Wrinkling of the finish is usually from the base (Primer or color) not being completely cured. The clear will want to almost eat the base up and create a wrinkled finish. This happens a lot for people who are using spray can paint then trying to clear with 2k and not allowing enough dry time.

I was just wondering how many coats do you use? I have been doing 1 primer, 2 base and 3 clear coats. Is that too much or too little? at what points are you wet sanding and with what grit? Thanks again so much for all the help!

Unless you are painting white over a dark blank or are using very transparent colors { will take several coats to cover }. I would not use primer, in this case i believe it is not necessary. I would also go with 3 coats of base and 2 coats of clear. This is assuming you are not reducing your clear. Todays clear coat has a high enough build and UV protection that 2 coats are sufficient unless you are sanding and buffing. If you need to sand your base coat 1000 grit sand paper will do.

I shot the hok color Pavo purple over two blanks one was dark and the other I put light gray primer. There was a definite difference as the purple over the light primer looks much brighter. As most of the blanks I get are black I thought I needed primer. Hum gotta try without too good point. I have 1000 grit and red scotch bright pads which I believe are 2000 grit equivalent. I also don't understand the point of wet sanding vs dry sanding.

You do two things with wet sanding
The water cleans the paper and the water washes the dust off the blank Wipe it off well make sure it is completely dry before painting

Bill - willierods.com

mike langevin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I shot the hok color Pavo purple over two blanks
> one was dark and the other I put light gray
> primer. There was a definite difference as the
> purple over the light primer looks much brighter.
> As most of the blanks I get are black I thought I
> needed primer. Hum gotta try without too good
> point. I have 1000 grit and red scotch bright pads
> which I believe are 2000 grit equivalent. I also
> don't understand the point of wet sanding vs dry
> sanding.

IMO HOK is very finiky about what you spray it over. A light base primer will produce a lighter finished product. If you are okay with a darker finished product then you can probably just spray right over a properly prepped black blank. Most of what I do is restoration where I strip to bare glass. so I always need to use a primer coat.

In your case I would still probably go with a sealer. Granted, you probably dont have to, but I feel sealer gives you a solid foundation for the base color to go on. It will fill any voids the eye may missed and seal out any oils erc that may have been missed. Plus it give you one solid color of your choosing to apply the base coat. Its maybe not a must... but I like to do it.

mike langevin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I shot the hok color Pavo purple over two blanks
> one was dark and the other I put light gray
> primer. There was a definite difference as the
> purple over the light primer looks much brighter.
> As most of the blanks I get are black I thought I
> needed primer. Hum gotta try without too good
> point.

What you are seeing in the brighter blank is your primer through the color. If you choose to put on a primer coat. Use a primer/ sealer, Sealer comes in several shades to reduce the amount of base needed to get cover. If personally think sealer on a rod blank is unneeded weight unless you need the right shade to reduce the amount of base coat required to get coverage.

Wet or dry sand whatever works best for you. Some times wet sanding plugs the paper up less. If you are just scuffing up a blank, scotchbrite is fine. If you are removing imperfections, use sand paper

Looked at the rod I thought came out well and it didn't. It has the dreaded orange peel. Now do I have to sand and buff and the re-clear or just sand and clean and re-clear? I have been using denatured alcohol to clean blanks, should I be using that cleaner/degreaser that ppg makes instead?

Just sand the clear then recoat... Make sure to not sand through the clear or you will need to apply more base first.

To be honest I use windex to prep my rods. Even use the same stuff on auto parts and have never had an issue.

+1 on the windex. Not only does it clean it helps with static electricity. Try reducing your clear , could help with the orange peel.

Wow windex huh? Never would have thought that thanks. The orange peel may be coming from orange peel in the basecoat. I think the base coat is going on bumpy because I am shooting to close to blank not giving paint enough time to atomitize and spread out. You WERE right I should have practiced on pipe first. Blanks look ok but with a slightly bumpy scaley finish.
When you all spray how much overlap is there 50 percent , 75?

mike langevin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow windex huh? Never would have thought that
> thanks. The orange peel may be coming from orange
> peel in the basecoat. I think the base coat is
> going on bumpy because I am shooting to close to
> blank not giving paint enough time to atomitize
> and spread out. You WERE right I should have
> practiced on pipe first. Blanks look ok but with a
> slightly bumpy scaley finish.
> When you all spray how much overlap is there 50
> percent , 75?

I would do a complete pass the entire length of the blank. Then turn the blank 1/4 turn and make another pass. Do this 4 times and allow the blank to flash according to the tech sheet

For the next coat I like to immediatly turn the blank 1/8th turn then make my first pass. Then go back to the 1/4th turn method.

Repeat the process until the blank has complete coverage.

remember spraying base is not like spraying clear. You just gotta learn the feel of it

Do a Google search on - How To Paint a Car You should get a lot of info

Bill - willierods.com

Painted another blank today and so far so good. I got three base coats of silver down and one coat of intercoat clear with mica pearl additive. Planning on hitting it with three coats burple candy tomorrow. Then clearing it.
Let me just say this that if anyone is reading this and wants tobget started with planting blanks with an hvlp gun please do yourself a favor and follow the advice of Casey... Everything he had said thus far has been spot on. Practice on pipe first!!! This paint is expensive but practicing will save you more paint then you think you will waste practicing. Everyone else has been great too, very helpful thanks again.

Im not familiar with the mica pearl but I am familiar with candy burple... Candy Burple is a pretty dark color... Its almost a purple / blue color. Since its so dark the pearl underneath may not show through..

Let us know what affect the pearl has. I have been wanting to experiment with some different techniques involving candy. I just havent had the opportunity lately.

If you are looking for flash... and I mean bass boat type flash... Get some of the fine metal flake in silver. Mix this with the intercoat and spray it as the base until you have coverage. You are basically replacing your silver base coat with metal flake. Then apply a clear coat. Then follow with your candy paint then clear again.

It would be a lot of paint... and add weight etc... but the rods I paint are typically large surf live bait type rods that weight action isnt a big deal.

Ill give that a shot. I haven't had the rod I've done with burple candy in the sun yet but I can see life through the burple. Meaning that I can see some holographic pearl through the paint. So I think it will look awesome. I used hok clear this time uk35 looks smoother than past attempts. I let the paint flash longer. They said paint should feel sticky but not stringy and then recoat. I have no idea what stringy means.
I ordered some createx auto paint. This is water based paint so I'm not sure if I have to wear a resperator when painting this. Will a water based paint rust my gun out? This is a pearl line green haha too much fun