cleaning gun from slick sand

[Cameron]

Hi everyone

I've just ordered some slick sand, on advice from y'all. I have a 2.2 tip on my dedicated primer gun so I think I'm all set. I've heard some comments about making sure to do a good job on gun cleaning but haven't heard about what solvent works best. Is acetone suggested? regular multi-purpose solvent? something else? I checked the tech sheet but it really didn't say much.

Thanks

[Bob K]

I don’t use Slick Sand but I spray Feather Fill and I think they are similar. I clean the gun with lacquer thinner or acetone, whichever one I have on hand at the moment. They both work. The thing with the Slick Sand or Feather Fill is that they don’t wash off easily. The product wants to stick to the gun unlike paint that dissolves and washes away easily. You need more aggressive brush work to clean the gun. Then there is the fact that they both harden quite fast so get the gun cleaned as soon as you are done. Hope that helps.

Bob K

[Cameron]

Thanks Bob, that does help. The thing that has me wondering is, according to the product info..

Use a primer gun with a 2.0 or larger fluid nozzle/air cap (Spray at paint gun Apply 2-3 medium wet coats allowing 10-15 minutes flash time between coats

It's also recommended to not let the SS stay in the gun for longer than 30 minutes. Does that not mean that you have to do 3 different mix-ups if you want 3 coats? That seems kinda like a pain but clearly if it shouldn't be in the gun for longer than 30 minutes ...

thoughts?

[Bob K]

You can do two coats with a short time between but I would respect the 30 minutes in the gun. I don’t want you to think it’s an extremely hard job cleaning the gun, because it isn’t, it's just a little harder than cleaning paint unless you wait too long. I do clean the gun when I am spraying a lot of filler. I did several sessions when I sprayed my trailer. That was to big of a job to just keep going mixing more batches and letting the gun go. I stopped and cleaned it between batches but I worked maybe an hour on the thing. A quick clean while the stuff is liquid is a minor project. Wait too long and it’s a job you’ll regret.

Bob K