Fuji turbine question

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PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2022 8:46 pm
Hello, I am new to this forum but it looks like a wealth of information can be found here.

I am in the market for a turbine spray gun for automotive base and clear. I’ve been looking at the Fuji mini mite 3 & 4. I really don’t want to spend much more than 1k for a setup unless someone thinks the adjustability of pressure and the extra .5 psi is worth it for the Q5. As well, should I spray the base and clear both with .8 tips?

Secondarily, does anyone have a good combo of base and clear as far as brand and part number and reducers amounts etc? I have read here that it can take some tinkering to get the liquid to lay flat. I will be spraying in 60 degree weather.

Thanks,
Brian

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PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2022 11:27 pm
Okay, go read this thread.....
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=29168&start=0
If you have about 4 hours of time to spare and would rather build a 6 STAGE system that will blow those other models out of the water..... and most importantly of all would rather spend more like $450 to $650 follow my advice in that thread.
Current wisdom with high solids clears..... I'd prefer to see a minimum of 5 stages and 6 is much better. And, yes, those extra incremental (1.5 to 2.0 psi per stage) steps are helpful and makes it so you don't have to tweek your mixes as much.
Where did you get that .8 tip reccommendation at? Almost all of us that are using turbine systems are using 1.3 and 1.4 tips. Even Harbor Freight's new competitor gun comes with a 1.3.... look here... https://www.harborfreight.com/hvlp-turb ... 57641.html Oh, and you may notice on their web site a complete 5 stage setup with that gun.....Not recommending that setup because I'm still trying to figure out how a 5 stage only produces a 6 psi cap pressure.....
Go look at the Store Front here at the Tamco line. Decent pricing, pretty great products.
Okay, so what's up with trying to shoot at 60 degrees???? Not saying you can't do it but it's extra hassle/work. I really don't like to shoot at less than 70 anymore.....
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PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2022 3:06 pm
Darrel thanks for the links. I watched the video and that doesn’t look too hard to pull off. I looked at the those sprayfine guns and systems. They are a lot cheaper than the Fuji system if I decide not to build one for the 5 stage. 800ish vs 1500 for the Fuji. Are they decent quality? I wouldn’t mind saving myself the 4 hours and buying something already assembled especially if it is under 1k.

Regarding the .8 tip, I had watched a few videos from paint society on YouTube and he spoke about using one to help the clear lay down smooth. I think there is another guy Jake Lozada and a few others who talks about the same thing. There isn’t a ton of information out there on setups that work correctly.

Yeah, I live in San Francisco so it’s basically ambient 50-60 degrees year round without a heater. I get it is not optimal but that’s what I’m stuck with.

Thanks again for your input and time.

Brian

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PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2022 3:24 pm
Brian, so yeah, if you are not going scratch build Sprayfine would definitely be the way to go so not only save bucks but literally to get the same turbine motor brand/model as used in the Fuji units. I own one of Sprayfines air supplied breathing systems and it has been a great unit. I also have a couple of the Sprayfine guns as well as a half dozen of the older style Sicmo guns.
That 50 to 60 degree range is just not going to cut it. You are going to have to have air temp.s and also METAL temp.s at least in the 60s if you want coatings to dry/flow/cure properly. Even a temp. style torpedo heater will bring a room up quickly.
Also, those guys were using .8 tips based on "old think" with 2 and 3 stage turbines. Back when we were initally using turbines 30+ years ago it was common to increase the atomization by going with smaller tip/nozzle combinations because of the limitations of the turbines themselves. Again, now everything should be 1.3 at a minimum. Epoxies are 1.3 to 1.5 and high build primers can go up to 2.0.
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PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2022 3:34 pm
That makes sense why they were turning down the pressure from 9.5 to 5.5 psi using the .8 tip then. It didn’t make a ton of sense to me why they would be using a lower pressure but after you explained that theory they were still abiding by, I get it.

I will either wait till we have one of our three 75 degree days a year or preheat the work area if it’s in the low 60’s.lol

Should I buy anything else besides this 5 stage sprayfine system, any additional length hoses etc?

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PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2022 6:54 pm
Hose length will depend on how you want to configure your system. If the turbine will be outside the building (cleaner, no chance for contamination) then probably a total length of 30 to 40 feet plus what is called a "whip" section up by the gun itself would do. Back in the good ol days of less powerful turbines we could not support that much hose very well so we went with about 20 feet or so with the turbine being on wheels following us at the other end of where we were shooting. Honestly, I think I would not order any additional hose at this point, set everything up and see how things are. If you found you only needed another 10 or 15 foot you could just add some simple heavy rubber garden hose at the turbine, then connect on with your turbine hose.
I picked up a tool rental business closeout over the winter of a 150,000 natural gas torpedo heater. It was about $250, even had a built in thermostat that was pretty accurate. I just put another port in my natural gas line in my steel building. It could bring up the shop to shirt sleeve temp.s in a few hours and easily maintain that for days....
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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2022 12:35 am
Darrel, thank you for your assistance sir!

I ordered a heater on Amazon. That was a great idea, not sure why I was holding out on getting something to up the temps.

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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2022 10:34 am
Good.... trying to fight temp.s just adds another variable you don't need when learning to shoot with turbine guns. The materials we use are just sooooo expensive now that a possible "do over" sanding back off mistakes is painful. You will find that the 5 stage really kicks butt with auto coatings.
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PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2022 11:30 pm
So I ordered my sprayfine 5 stage, anyone have an opinion on if I should get the gravity feed they offer or stick with the siphon style that comes with the kit?

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PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 8:26 am
For automotive you really need gravity in my opinion. Phil's gravity cup is also pressurized as well. The regular "cup under" design is going to be limited to your turbine pressure which is very good however the extra fluid push you get from gravity really helps with the thicker fluids and makes it so you, again have to do less reducer/thinning to your mix. I found out back in the 80s that not having higher air pressures were only part of our problems with turbines. We also were not getting enough fluid pressure to the cup. It is the main reason that we switched to 5 gallon direct pressure pots back in those times for our wood shop operations. With the old 2 and 3 stage turbines we would run a 10 to 12 psi pressure for the fluid feed. Back then, for cars, I also used to run a 2 quart hip pot with separate fluid pressure feed for the same reason.....
Go gravity.... only downside is the cup is 20 oz. however you can easily rig up a 32 ounce cup if wanted.
Oh, and just to be clear about that... his regular gun is not "siphon" feed. When you see a clear or black small hose coming off the gun head area on a turbine gun that is the fluid pressurization hose which goes to the gun cup to "pressurize" the fluid up the pickup tube. The pressure in that tube/cup will be whatever the pressure of your overall system is.... in the case of a 5 stage thatwould be roughly 10 psi.
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