Earlex 5500 Cleanup

[Dick Rowe]

Hi,

I am just getting into spray finishing and recently picked up an Earlex 5500 unit. I plan to only use it with water-based finishes to keep cleanup and odors to a minimum.

My question is .. if I am spraying multiple coats on a project, and each coat takes less than 30 minutes to dry, do I have to clean the gun after every coat, or can I just leave it until I am done with my 4-5 coats?

Thanks.

[Jack Lemley]

I leave my cup closed while coats flash but do have a damp cloth handy to wipe overspray off the gun, cup, and nozzle between coats.

Jack

Hi,

I am just getting into spray finishing and recently picked up an Earlex 5500 unit. I plan to only use it with water-based finishes to keep cleanup and odors to a minimum.

My question is .. if I am spraying multiple coats on a project, and each coat takes less than 30 minutes to dry, do I have to clean the gun after every coat, or can I just leave it until I am done with my 4-5 coats?

Thanks.

[Curt Harms]

I leave my cup closed while coats flash but do have a damp cloth handy to wipe overspray off the gun, cup, and nozzle between coats.

Jack

I agree with Jack. 30 minutes should be no problem at all. I spray either water clean-up finishes or shellac. When I finish a coat I wipe the tip with a paper towel and water or alcohol as appropriate. I've gone a couple hours between coats, never been brave enough to leave it overnight without cleaning though. Earlex guns are really easy to clean especially for water clean-up finishes. Remove the needle & tip assembly, run a bunch of water through the tip & gun body and - that's about it. There are no intricate or convoluted fluid passages to deal with.

[Dick Rowe]

Thanks for the replies folks!

I just didn't want to have the finish harden inside the gun on me between coats, and I sure didn't want to clean it out completely after each coat.

Sounds like as long as I cover the cup and wipe off the exposed parts of the gun real carefully with water I should be ok.

I was also thinking maybe putting the gun part into a sealable plastic bag between coats (after wiping it down) might help keep the finish from hardening?

[Larry Heflin]

Not that I'm recommending it, but I've left shellac in mine for two days and picked it up and started spraying again without any problems at all.

[Rick Mosher]

Get some of these or a similar brand. Just wipe the tip off with a damp cloth so you don't get build up on the tip and you should be fine. With the liners you don't have to clean the cup when you're done either. If you have plenty of extra cash you could also go for the 3M PPS for siphon cup.

[Curt Harms]

Get some of these or a similar brand. Just wipe the tip off with a damp cloth so you don't get build up on the tip and you should be fine. With the liners you don't have to clean the cup when you're done either. If you have plenty of extra cash you could also go for the 3M PPS for siphon cup.

I'm sure the PPS system is nice but $holy crap!$, at least for us weekend warriors. What is interesting to me is nylon cups with lids. I know of one source but I don't know if they'd work with the Earlex gun and the business showed little interest in finding out.

http://www.finishsystems.com/sprayguncups.html

nylon_cup.png

This site pretty clearly doesn't want to deal with onesies and twosies. The cup costs $5.90. The order total for one to try would be $28.29. I don't think so. There was another site that had them but I can't find the bookmark. Grrr. They were more money, maybe $9.95 but shipping was much more realistic.

[Dick Rowe]

I was thinking possibly to cover the finish cup with plastic wrap and a rubber band to protect the finish for short intervals between coats.

[Frederick Rowe]

As others have mentioned, no problem just letting gun sit as a coat drys. Even if you get distracted and let things sit overnight, anything that has hardened in the gun can easily be cleaned up with acetone. I spray Target Coatings EM 6000 mostly and have never had any problems.

[Peter Froh]

I read somewhere that putting a small dab of Vaseline on the spray tip helps to keep it from clogging up between coats. I've tried it and it works but don't forget to wipe it off prior to spraying.

[Ed Edwards]

Rick Mosher, I like your cup liner, but have been hesitant to try them. How sloppy is it pouring any left over paint back into the can?

Peter Froh, again great idea with the Vaseline

Thanks for the help, alway something to learn on this site
Ed