Keep your spray gun in top shape!
From our friends at PPG
Understanding proper spray gun maintenance is critical to ensuring its peak performance. After all, the spray gun is a painter’s primary tool. Treating your gun properly will not only ensure a superior finish, but will maintain the performance of your investment for many years to come.
Here are a few tips on how to keep your spray gun in optimal working condition:
- Clean Daily: Clean your gun as soon as possible after spraying. The longer you leave paint in the gun, the harder it will be to clean it. A total breakdown of your gun weekly for a deep clean is also a good practice.
- Use Appropriate Tools: Only use the special tool included with the gun kit to disassemble the nozzle. Using tools not designed for your spray gun can damage the fluid tip leading to improper gun performance. Always clean the air cap and other nozzle components with the cleaning tools provided in your spray gun kit or by the manufacturer. These tools are specially designed for the small parts of the gun. Using a nail, wire, or other metal instruments can damage the nozzle components adversely affecting the spray pattern and gun performance.
- Use Clean Wash: Always use clean wash solvent or thinner to clean your spray gun. Using dirty or “used” solvent can clog the air and fluid passages over time resulting in poor spray quality. Using clean solvent or better yet, a gun washer, is the best option.
- Don’t Soak: Avoid soaking your gun in solvent for long periods of time. This includes storing your gun with solvent in it. This can swell and harden internal seals resulting in air leaks and overall poor gun performance.
- Dry Well: Dry all parts with a paper towel or compressed air. Compressed air is great to clean holes and moving parts that can’t be wiped down. However, ensure your air compressor can supply clean, dry air. Contamination in the air supply from oil, water or dust can not only affect the performance of your gun, it can lead to low quality paint jobs and even expensive redos.