My $400 paint gun clogged mid-job on a pearl white bumper

Sand it down, re-spray, and it's still in the booth overnight while the customer keeps calling, so has anyone dealt with a mystery clog that comes back after you clean the tip twice?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan_thomas8426d ago

Is it really that serious though? A $400 gun clogging twice sounds more like a bad habit or some cheap clear than a real mystery. I mean, you cleaned the tip, but did you actually pull the whole nozzle and fluid tip apart and check the air cap, or just run some thinner through it? Pearl white hides a ton of small trash anyway, so if it's a little speck here and there, that's just Tuesday for most painters I know. I'd bet it's a tiny piece of dried paint stuck deep in the fluid passage, not some ghost in the machine.

ninaowens25d ago

Read somewhere that most clogging issues with pearl whites come from over-reducing the clear, not the gun itself. That stuff settles fast and if you're not shaking the cup every couple minutes it'll build up right at the tip. @rowan_thomas84 is right about pulling the whole nozzle apart, I've seen guys skip the air cap and wonder why they keep getting spits. Also, cheap clear with bad leveling will leave trash you never even see until it dries. Take the fluid tip out and soak it in a proper gun cleaner overnight, bet you find a chunk in there. And honestly, if it's only happening twice, that's not a pattern yet, that's just painting.