What a crappy day... - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

**Leo G** · 05-28-2009, 08:00 PM

Starting to do the finish on a kitchen that I built. It will end up a high gloss white. I am using a catalyzed primer, post cat conversion varnish pigment and clear.

Using a Kremlin in my spray room we started to shoot the primer on the classic core (3 layers of plywood and two outside layers of MDF). 1st drawer front, good, 2nd had a fisheye, 3rd had a few and then it got worse and worse. It's happened before, usually something in the airline or in the air. So we sanded the panel again and shot it - fisheye. So we try a few more and it is still bad fisheye. So now I know we have an issue. I mix up a new batch and put it into my pressure cup gun. Spray a few panels and still have fisheye. I go out to the truck and get my oil-less compressor and its airline. We mix up a new batch of primer, 20 oz primer, 10% catalyst and 20% standard thinner, like I always do. Using all new containers that have been cleaned out using thinner right before mixing. All new mixing sticks, cups everything washed out and dried. Using no air from my normal system. Take the airline off and wash it out with denatured alcohol. Rinse out the Kremlin with dirty thinner then clean thinner and let it circulate and then clean thinner and just spray it through. Then introduce the new mix of primer and get a new panel to spray. FISHEYE

Now we're pissed, and baffled. So far about 4 hours have gone by and we are no closer to getting this problem solved. We break for lunch, my buddy goes to walk his dogs and I eat. I can't relax, I need to solve this. I started to go over everything. What the hell is left. I have Isolated the air system, cleaned out the pump, mixed several new batches using new and cleaned equipment. Scratching my head. So I go rummaging in my drying room and I find a 1 gallon pail of the primer that I got a few weeks ago. So I try a new mix, I used 20 oz of primer and 10% catalyst, then 10% reducer, not the thinner I had been using. I spray a test panel and no fisheye. I try a few more, I neglected to strain my primer because I didn't expect this to work. So I have no fisheye but have crap in my finish. But I have no fisheye.

So after about 7 hours of frustrating hunting I have solved the issue. But now I am not sure of the real problem. It is either the primer or the thinner. Neither of which I will be using again. Now all I have to do is convince the distributor they sold me a bad batch.

Hope your day went better.

rbsremodeling · 05-28-2009, 08:07 PM

1. go home get a shot of J.D.

2. Tell momma you had a bad day and your really glad to see her

3. another shot of J.D.

4. Tell momma you thought about that time 5 years ago (insert story here that ends with you two doing the hoochie coochie)

5. One more shot of J.D.

6. Tell momma its time to bring the good times back

7. If I got to type step 7 we have a problem

**Teetorbilt** · 05-28-2009, 08:30 PM

Sorry about your day. Mine ended early in a deluge of Biblic proportions.

Ever use this stuff? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SMOOT...51310006r11508

I sold a ton of it when I worked for a auto/marine supplier. I don't spray often but it goes in every batch when I do. I really learned the hard way, having to repaint a 36' boat hull with VERY expensive marine paint.

**Leo G** · 05-28-2009, 08:36 PM

Oh I've heard of it. But that is a last resort. This is a high gloss finish, and when I use the smoothie it gives it a weird texture. Would be fine if it was dull or satin, but not gloss. And all the cleanup afterwords to try to get the smoothie from affecting everything else later down the line. It is an infectious thing - silicone. It is solved (hopefully)

WarnerConstInc. · 05-28-2009, 08:45 PM

Leo, You probably spilt some of that coca-cola in something!!

**Leo G** · 05-28-2009, 08:47 PM

Thanks for the sympathy....Go play with your chop saw.

WarnerConstInc. · 05-28-2009, 08:52 PM

You didnt have any sympathy for me, why dont you go mix some more of your secret recipe?

**Leo G** · 05-28-2009, 08:56 PM

I stopped smoking that secret recipe 7 years ago..

**Teetorbilt** · 05-28-2009, 09:09 PM

I achieved a very glossy finish with AwlGrip on that boat. The problem was that it was an active boatyard and who knows what somebody is spraying on something 5 or 10 boats down? It's also coastal FL and we always have a breeze from somewhere to carry contaminants.

**Teetorbilt** · 05-28-2009, 09:14 PM

Second thought; maybe it's the finishes that you are using. I sold most of the stuff to the auto body repair industry and you know people expect a shiny car repair.

**Leo G** · 05-28-2009, 09:29 PM

This is a finish that I have been using for years. Using it in the same proportions and through familiar spray guns. It was just baffling on why this problem started and why it because fixed. It is hard for me to believe that it was the primer, or the thinner. I had just opened the 5 gallon can of primer up the night before, the thinner a week ago. I sprayed 4 doors, front and back the night before and then the 2nd coat this morning, front and back. No problems. Then 1 1/2 hours later, through a different (better) system the problems began. Using all the same products. Baffling.

**Teetorbilt** · 05-28-2009, 09:45 PM

As you know, sometimes crap just happens. At least you got it figured out in a day.

**Leo G** · 05-28-2009, 09:49 PM

Unfortunately tomorrow is another day.