Batteling Fish Eye

[RandyL]

Might be onto something here. I too have a separate hose I use just for painting. More importantly I have a good filter I connect when painting, here is my setup.

A belt-drive compressor (oil bath crank) will put a small amount of oil the the line. This is fine for normal air tool use but of course not for painting.

When painting I connect one of those coiled 3/8" yellow hoses to the compressor and run it up the wall then back down to my filter (pictured in the link above) to cool the air. Then I connect my "painting hose" to the filter and paint away, no additional filter at the gun. This setup has painted three planes with no fisheye.

[DanB]

Might be onto something here. I too have a separate hose I use just for painting. More importantly I have a good filter I connect when painting, here is my setup.

A belt-drive compressor (oil bath crank) will put a small amount of oil the the line. This is fine for normal air tool use but of course not for painting.

When painting I connect one of those coiled 3/8" yellow hoses to the compressor and run it up the wall then back down to my filter (pictured in the link above) to cool the air. Then I connect my "painting hose" to the filter and paint away, no additional filter at the gun. This setup has painted three planes with no fisheye.

Randy, It looks like we have the same compressor. I looked up your filter and it looks reasonable in price. I'm going to take back the Harbor Freight and exchange it to see if #2 will allow the air through...If not, I will order the M-30. I Plan to get a new hose as well. Hopefully this will take care of the problems.

Eric, Thanks as well for the tips. As I was reading how to correct issues w/ fisheye I did read how sometimes lightly spraying only solvent across the area allowing the contaminent to "bleed out" might work.
cheers

[Slyfox]

If I'm reading things right, you say that the fish eye happens in the same spot every time. That means there is contaminate on that surface. I to have had that problem, really pics a guy off when you do a beautiful job, come back an hour later and it still looks ok, but now you have a little pin hole, 2 hours later... BAM it looks like doggy doo. The best I can explain is to take some MEK and put it over the affected area, let it dry good and cross your fingers and paint again.

[Slyfox]

I would like to add one little tid bit that just might help. If it's fish eye that starts with a little pin hole while painting, you can take your finger nail and swirl it in the center, than on your next pass with paint it generally sticks and fills in. Worth a try.

[DanB]

In my quest to get things working correctly I mentioned above that I was going to exchange the original air/oil filter from Harbor Freight. I did this today and the second one does the same thing the first one did...It does not hold pressure to a constant when holding down on the sprayer trigger. I officially deem this filter a P.O.S. Don't waste your time. Looks like I will be ordering that M-30 Randy.
POSregulator.jpg

[Skybolt]

[QUOTE=DanB;1547]In my quest to get things working correctly I mentioned above that I was going to exchange the original air/oil filter from Harbor Freight. I did this today and the second one does the same thing the first one did...It does not hold pressure to a constant when holding down on the sprayer trigger. I officially deem this filter a P.O.S. Don't waste your time. Looks like I will be ordering that M-30 Randy.

Dan.
This could be getting off topic and going down another path...
A filter that removes oil aerosol does cost.
In the Auto Painting industry these water and oil filters can cost about $1,200 and could be around 2.5 thousand and up.

You say that this new filter and regulator does not hold pressure to a constant when pulling the trigger of the spray gun.

These canister filter / regulators are not supposed to maintain a constant pressure. It is the compressor and holding tank that does this. Most filter / regulators like the one shown should handle about 80 CFM at 120 psi (this does vary very much)

Lets say that your compressor delivers 10 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air but the spray gun you are using consumes 14 CFM; the system will run down and you will see the pressure guage slowly move to the negative of what you started spraying with and before you know it, the atomisation of the paint gets poor and you will experience orage peel to say the least!

[DanB]

[QUOTE=Eric Ashman;1552]

In my quest to get things working correctly I mentioned above that I was going to exchange the original air/oil filter from Harbor Freight. I did this today and the second one does the same thing the first one did...It does not hold pressure to a constant when holding down on the sprayer trigger. I officially deem this filter a P.O.S. Don't waste your time. Looks like I will be ordering that M-30 Randy.

Dan.
This could be getting off topic and going down another path...
A filter that removes oil aerosol does cost.
In the Auto Painting industry these water and oil filters can cost about $1,200 and could be around 2.5 thousand and up.

You say that this new filter and regulator does not hold pressure to a constant when pulling the trigger of the spray gun.

These canister filter / regulators are not supposed to maintain a constant pressure. It is the compressor and holding tank that does this. Most filter / regulators like the one shown should handle about 80 CFM at 120 psi (this does vary very much)

Lets say that your compressor delivers 10 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air but the spray gun you are using consumes 14 CFM; the system will run down and you will see the pressure guage slowly move to the negative of what you started spraying with and before you know it, the atomisation of the paint gets poor and you will experience orage peel to say the least!

Eric,
I understand what you are saying about the pressure is and should be held by the compressor. When I paint without putting the filter in line, I can maintain a constant pressure at the gun no problem. I can and have held the trigger for long stretches w/out my gun pressure dropping. When I put this goofy filter in line, strangely enough I will loose pressure at the gun all the way to zero. This I don't believe is normal operation.

[DanB]

I would like to add one little tid bit that just might help. If it's fish eye that starts with a little pin hole while painting, you can take your finger nail and swirl it in the center, than on your next pass with paint it generally sticks and fills in. Worth a try.

Steve,
I believe you are mistaking fisheye (a contaminant on the surface) with what happens when you miss a spot in the fabric weave when using Poly Brush. You will continue to get a pinhole when spraying until you manually fill in that hole.

[Lion8]

Painting issues. I used to restore old cars and custom painting same. I had the problem with oil in the line. On day while working my day job, I was tending a diver on a pile driving water rig when I asked the hard hat diver how he could breath that air with oil in it. He said he uses 'Synthetic oil' in his compressor. It doesn't vaporize. I changed it as soon as I got home.
Also, I don't paint in the rain or at night. If you do, you deal with high humidity (Blushing) and Bugs at night. This stuff should go into the tips and tricks section that John Pitkin started. -Tom, N.J.

[Dave F]

Here is what I buy for our industrial set up. We run up to 2000 CFM from 3 compressors.

http://www.super-dry.com/images/Catalog.pdf

Also - fish eye is usually caused from the surface being painted. Some contamination is the culprit most of the time.