first attempt at HVLP finishing

You can laugh at me. I decided to do a make a picture frame and waste some lacquer on it as I learned. I have a Fugi turbine with a gravity feed gun. I got started on a large piece of ply and experimented and then got out the frame. It was a disaster with uneven coatings followed by drips out of the top of the gun. I sanded it all down and experimented again today. I was getting some bubbles, so I turned down the air to about 1/2 open position and that seemed to get rid of the bubbles. I sprayed a piece of scrap wood that matched the frame and thought it was good enough. Once again I try the frame and it seemed to be very good. I decided to turn the gun and get the inside vertical edges of the frames and outside edges and then got the drips again. I forgot to keep the cup in the vertical position (I guess). I will sand it back down and do it again tomorrow. Any advice appreciated.

Do you mean drips out of the top of the paint cup? If so, don't tilt the gun that far. Simple as that. You have limited range of motion with a gravity feed gun. This is one reason I like and highly recommended the 3M PPS system. You can spray at any angle, including upside down. Without it you have to reposition the work to stay within the limits of how far you can tilt the gun.

John

I thought it may be from tilting the gravity gun too far. I just redo the frame and start noticing the drips again. This time it did not get onto the frame and as I experimented to find the drips, they were coming directly off the tip of the gun, from the end of the needle. This is a brand new gun, and I have sprayed large amount of lacquer thinner though the gun following my few sprays

You have either a small piece of foreign matter stuck inside the fluid tip or a faulty gun where the tip is not seating against the inside of the fluid tip. Take the front of the gun apart, clean everything, especially inside the fluid tip and have another go. If that does nothing take it back to the shop and get it replaced. Cheers

I took the gun apart, cleaned it, and finished the project with zero drips.

Good result! Cheers