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Re: Cleaning paint guns

To: Eric J Petrevich/LRM <inch@megageek.com>
Subject: Re: Cleaning paint guns
From: Roger Gibbs <rgibbs@pacbell.net>
Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 16:34:14 +0000
Eric J Petrevich/LRM wrote:
> 
> I have always wonder how people clean their paint guns.  I hate to do it
snip

Funny you should mention that.  I just came in from the garage where I was 
spraying 
some speaker cabinets, followed by cleaning my paint gun.  I am using lacquer 
and here 
is what I do.

1. Pour the unused paint back to the stock (I thin the lacquer to the proper 
level and 
store that mix in a bottle).  This includes draining as much paint as I can 
from the 
gun.

2. Wipe the paint cup and siphon tube with a paper towel.

3. Pour a little of thinner into the cup, reattach the cup to the gun and shake 
so as 
to distribute the thinner.  Wipe again with a paper towel. Dump this thinner.

4. Pour enough thinner into the cup so that I can spray a little through the 
gun. Spray 
for a few seconds. Dump this thinner (I sometimes save this thinner for the 
next 
cleaning if I plan to do more spraying soon).

5. Remove the air cap and needle and wipe clean. Wipe the insides with a q-tip 
and or 
paper towel wet with thinner.  Put a drop of oil on the needle packing and 
reassemble 
the gun.  Done.

It takes longer to write about it than it takes to actually do it.  My personal 
experience is that just running thinner through the gun does not do an adequate 
job of 
cleaning.  (it also is wasteful of thinner). It took me awhile before I was 
comfortable 
disassembling the gun to clean it, once I got over that hesitation the job 
actually 
goes much easier.  Latex gloves makes the job neater.

-Roger

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