Poly Fiber Compressor Requirements

[LSaupe 123]

I am looking at Stewart Systems and Poly Fiber.  I prefer the Stewart Systems, however it requires a large compressure 14 CFM.

 

I have a smaller compressor (6 CFM) and am curious as if the Poly Fiber spray requirements are less.

 

Anyone have experience with this?  Are there recommended guns and flow rates for Poly Fiber?  Couldnt find anything specific on the PF website.

 

Larry S.

[Av8r3400 1178]

6 CFM is awful light for spraying any type of paint.

 

To run an HVLP gun (the normal tool for spraying paints) usually takes 9-15 CFM at 40 psi.

 

The old style syphon guns used more like 90 psi and 5-6 cfm, but create a cloud of mist and overspray (very dangerous especially with the extremely poisonous Stewarts Paint) and are much more difficult to get a good finish.

 

An option you may want to consider if you don't want to buy a larger compressor is to buy a second small unit, chaining them together and/or adding another tank to increase your reserve volume.  These can often be found cheap at the local pawn shop...

[EDMO 1078]

6 CFM is awful light for spraying any type of paint.

 

To run an HVLP gun (the normal tool for spraying paints) usually takes 9-15 CFM at 40 psi.

 

The old style syphon guns used more like 90 psi and 5-6 cfm, but create a cloud of mist and overspray (very dangerous especially with the extremely poisonous Stewarts Paint) and are much more difficult to get a good finish.

 

An option you may want to consider if you don't want to buy a larger compressor is to buy a second small unit, chaining them together and/or adding another tank to increase your reserve volume.  These can often be found cheap at the local pawn shop...

I agree with what Larry said above - although I think Stewart says to set the gun pressure at about 20 to 25 psi.

I was planning on using Stewarts system, and still plan to use the glue - However, after seeing the crinkles in the primer from Mogas spill/leak, I have been considering using the Superflight system 7 primer instead - Ron just sprayed his bird with this - the viscosity sounds a little critical for its use - it seems to need to be very thin - You probably still need more air volume to spray it.

EdMO

Edited 28 Dec 2014 by Ed In Missouri

[akflyer 1427]

See if anyone around the area has an HVLP turbine you could borrow or rent.. or buy one and sell it when you get done.  The savings on wasted material will pay for half the turbine set up.  I borrowed a grayco turbine HVLP system from a buddy and used almost half the paint that they said was required to do a plane my size.  I ended up with a gallon of poly spray, a gallon of red and almost 2 gallons of white left over from my Avid project.  Not to mention that you can turn the air down right at the gun and get VERY little overspray while still laying down a nice pattern.

 

Something that really worth checking into!

 

[akflyer 1427]

With that being said... I just painted my landing gear with a touch up gun and my craftsman compressor and it didnt have any problems keeping up.  But I really would not want to paint the whole plane with it.  That would be about the same as doing the whole plane with an airbrush.. not much fun if ya ask me

 

You may check to see if the local equipment rental house has a larger compressor you can rent as well.  If you have everything covered and ready and set up, your looking at 2-3 days to have the plane painted unless your doing some wild scheme on it.  I had the fuselage up to white paint in 1 day (poly brush, poly spray and white top coat in one day) then I masked it off and sprayed the red trim the next day.  Wings and tail feathers were all painted the solid red in one day from bare covering to top coat, but it was a long day of painting.  The spraying the polytone on the wings, by the time I went from one end of the wing to the other, it was dry and ready for another coat.  I just kept walking around the wings and shooting paint till I had 3 coats on it, only stopping to refill the gun.

 

[EDMO 1078]

Leni,

How many gallons for one cross-coat on whole plane? Maybe I should ask Ron how much primer he used recently on his plane.

EDMO

Edited 28 Dec 2014 by Ed In Missouri

[LSaupe 123]

Great feedback.  Wil have to find out more about the HVLP turbine.

[EDMO 1078]

Great feedback.  Wil have to find out more about the HVLP turbine.

If you are planning to spray urethane, then you need a fresh air breathing system in a closed space.

EDMO

[cliff 45]

I don't have any experience with the Stewart system. I have used all the Poly Fiber products and they seam to work great. That being said, if you use PolyFiber, I think you could use your small compressor for everthing except the final color coats. You will probably end up having to stop spraying to let the compressor catch up but that doesn't really matter when spraying poly spray, since you will be sanding it before you put on the next cross coat. Try to get a decent water trap or at least use the screw on moisture balls, water and paint don't work well together. When you are ready for color coats you could try to borrow a compressor from a buddy or rent  one and hook it together with your compressor, like some one else mentioned, or you could take it to a local body shop for the color coats. If you have it sanded and ready to paint, it shouldn't cost that much to spray a couple of coats of color on each part. Try to find a small owner/operator bodyshop. Don't go to a chain store type or a car dealership unless owned and operated by a pilot/aviation person. I own and operate a small body shop and have sprayed several airplanes for people who did all the prep work. The actual painting is the easiest and the least time consuming part of the job but requires the most controlled conditions to achieve a smooth, dirt free finish.  Good luck with your project.

[EDMO 1078]

Cliff,

     About what should a small bodyshop charge for spraying the final coat on a rag plane?

EdMO

Edited 29 Dec 2014 by Ed In Missouri

[cliff 45]

shop rate mutiplied by hours taken to do the job. If it comes sanded, taped, and ready to spray, a shop could have 10 hrs in it depending weather they have ceiling hooks in their booth. That is to paint everything the base color. In my current booth at my auto shop, I can hang both wings and control surfaces for the first batch. Fuselage,struts, and doors in the second batch and cowl gear turtledeck and the rest of the little stuff on the third batch. It takes a couple of hours to hang everything up, solvent clean it, tack and blow and spray 3 coats of color on that batch. Then after it dries you need to remove it from the booth and start the next batch. 

 

 The plane then needs to be reassembled where stripes are going to overlap and then the stripes layed out, dissambled, bag off the rest of the areas that shouldn't get paint on them , then spray the color. The more colors and difficult the scheme, the more time it takes. A simple 2 color stripe design can ad 10 hours labor minimum to a paint job. I would recomend keeping the paint scheme simple so he could do it himself with his small compressor. In PA the average body shop rate is 50 bucks an hour.

[EDMO 1078]

My lungs are worth more than $500 or $1000 - and I am not about to spray urethane!

The aircraft paint shop gave us a bid of $7000 to paint the Luscombe - We decided to just get a touch-up job and use the money for gas and groceries.

EdMO

[Geoffrey Thorpe 31]

I am looking at Stewart Systems and Poly Fiber.  I prefer the Stewart Systems, however it requires a large compressure 14 CFM.

 

I have a smaller compressor (6 CFM) and am curious as if the Poly Fiber spray requirements are less.

 

Anyone have experience with this?  Are there recommended guns and flow rates for Poly Fiber?  Couldnt find anything specific on the PF website.

 

Larry S.

14 CFM at what pressure?

 

6 CFM at what pressure?

 

What kind of spray gun are they assuming? Air requirement are mostly a function of your gun, not the paint. 14 CFM sounds like a HVLP (High volume, low pressure) flow requirement. Do you have an HVLP gun?

 

The PolyFiber manual says to go with the spray gun manufacturer recommendations for flow rate / pressures / etc.

 

Three options: 

 

The old stye high pressure gun (40-60 PSI) - downside is the volume of overspray, but in my case I will be digging out my old Binks 95 later this week because that is what I have and I am spraying a repair not a whole airplane.

 

HVLP turbine - probably what to buy if you are going to do an airplane from scratch.

 

Conversion Gun - runs off a regular compressor but is supposed to work more like an HVLP gun - I have no idea how well they work.

 

Opinion: An airplane is a lot of work - don't eff it all up by trying to get by with a cheap spray gun. I've seen cars fall victim to a Sears spray gun - it's not a pretty sight.

[cliff 45]

Ed,

 

 I painted a Luscombe this summer.  I did all the work except disassembly and re assembly. Strip, dent repairs, prime, paint, and stripe. The mans bill was 7000.00. Materials were about half of the total cost. When I told you a price of 10 hours, that did not include any materials. A normal body shop will not have materials compatible with a fabric airplane. The customer will have to supply the paint. 

[EDMO 1078]

Thanks Cliff - Guess the price was not out of line for the Luscombe - It just didn't need paint that bad.

ED

[Geoffrey Thorpe 31]

Something like this: http://www.binks.com/products/spray-guns/manual-spray-guns/hvlp/sv100-gravity-feedwould (I think) work nicely for you. It needs 10-14 CFM at 20-27 PSI  which your compressor may come close to delivering if the 6 CFM rating is at 90 PSI.

[Av8r3400 1178]

Remember, a small compressor running nearly continuously will generate a flood of liquid water. This will ruin your pain job very quickly. At the very least you should look for a surge tank to increase your storage volume of air. This will also give more volume to precipitate out the moisture.