John Hristias – PPG Business Support Manager Asia/Pacific
Spray gun maintenance
Understanding correct spray gun maintenance procedures and religiously using them is a no-brainer for painters. After all, the spray gun is a painter’s primary tool so it impacts every job. While they are not fragile, guns do need careful looking after to ensure peak performance over a long lifespan.
Tips and recommendations
Many common issues we see from painters can actually be traced back gun maintenance. Either they have picked up bad maintenance habits or they didn’t learn the correct process in the first place. Check your spray gun manufacturer’s recommendations but correct maintenance tends to be very straightforward.
How often should you clean: Typically, the end of each day is best. Between jobs, the gun generally just requires a thorough flush out of the materiel passages before moving on. I don’t recommend stripping and assembling more frequently because this process actually creates wear.
Daily clean: Removing the nozzle set is generally as far as you need to go on an end-of-day clean. Ensure the material passages are clear, wipe the exterior and apply the recommended lubricant to the back of the needle and on the threads and you will be ready to go next morning.
No poking: Use the recommended cleaning method and paint material should never build up in the nozzle. Whatever you do, don’t poke anything hard into the nozzle’s fine holes – this is the equivalent of buying a shiny new car and cleaning it with a grey scourer! These holes are precisely machined to produce the required spray pattern and your prodding will change their shape and, hence, the gun’s performance.
Get the appropriate tools: For example, SATA offers a specialised cleaning kit which contains everything you need to get into the hard to get to places without doing damage. Yes, there is a cost to purchase it but, weigh that against the cost of having to replace just one nozzle set, and it’s money well spent!
No dunking: Don’t be tempted to submerge a gun in a container of cleaning fluid, especially overnight! Compressed air passages are not designed to have cleaning fluid in them and this can cause corrosion and other issue. It’s particularly destructive to air gauges, including SATA ‘DIGITAL’ models which have a gauge built into the handle, because cleaning fluid can get into the mechanism resulting in false readings or no reading at all. Overnight dunking can also destroy the guns exterior surfaces and react badly with a whole range of seals and components, made from rubber, plastic, etc.
Major service: If used for regular spraying, you would consider replacing the nozzle set around once a year. Even with regular maintenance, paint materials will still wear the precise nozzle holes over time and even the action of operating the trigger causes wear on the needle. Be sure to replace the entire nozzle kit as they are machined as a matched set. After this, the typical feedback we get is ‘wow, it’s like a new gun!’