Streetneat painting tips

[streetneat]

I have just been reading elsewhere on this site about the problems experienced with fish eyes and the reccomendation to use silicone drops in 2k.. I n a word ... DONT!!!.. It will dull off the 2k paint and weaken it...Not to mention you will contaiminate the spray equipment and spray enviroment with SILICONE... Yes siicone drops are made of silicone..... Whilst it does work it is a false sense of security ... To explain 2k  its a highly refined enamel... the hardner is the poisonous bit when its in a liquid or spray form.. When dry including the dust its relatively harmless and only serves  as an irritant to make you slighty more susceptiable to Iscocynate poisoning from the free organic Isocynates Read carcenogegenics.... or cancer causing.. So I beg to know why there are guys out there painting two pack at home? If caught by the EPA  you will be in very deep trouble.. It happens every day of the week and they have more officers out there now trying to justify their existance by nabbing people for home use of two pack.. The products are not even supposed to be sold to the public and  the retailers doing so face stiff penalties as well.... Supa cheap sell an ISCO free two pack but this is still poisonous.... I am a proffessional panel shop operator and whilst this sound like an attempt at getting more work its not ... I am letting those of you  out there that are spraying two pack at home the consequences of what you are doing.. I would rather see the enthusiasts ot there  taking proper precautions and not lining the coffers of the EPA. The money is better spent at putting more cars back on the road... ( another thing to get up the noses of the EPA)
Cheers streetneat ( maybe this should have been kept in rants and raves....)

[FCwagon]

Good advice Streetneat.
Last year when I had the FB  painted I hired a panel shop's spray booth & equipment on a Saturday arvo. Left it in the oven overnight (not operating tho') and arranged to collect it Sunday morning. A lot of smaller places are happy to do this so long as you clean up after.  
For a couple of hundred bucks extra, there's no dust, wind or temperature problems, usually there's more work room and their compressor is most likely more efficient. The end result will be a better finish to boot.

[Ed]

Hi streetneat..

I'll confess my sins of using 2 pack at home.

My work area is out of residential areas, I use respiratory protection, space suits and everything like that, to be honest if I could afford to shop out the painting i probably would... given the potential fines it is probably cheaper too.

I do run the risk of EPA catching me, but not being a commerical operator in a sparsely populated area I guess is working in my favour.

but with so many fly-by-night operators about, I'm sorry I hafta run the risk.. just one last time..

do the same laws apply to acylic use?

Cheers

Ed

[streetneat]

No the same laws DO NOT apply to acrylic but they can fine you if you piss 'em off enough...Strangely Acrylic has been out lawed from use in the USA for over twenty years now... Its the High VOC ( volatile Organic Compounds )  That gets up the EPA 's nose...so to speak... Becuase the acrylic is applied with conventional spray equipment and relies heavily on solvents to carry the paint to the job, it was deemed an enviromental ,ozone depleting bad substance... much better if everyone used a product that only kills people ,not the ozone layer.. so two pack in the States is allowed to be used Adfinitum..... Its the opposite here and strangley enough we have not decided to copy the US lead and followed suit. Our EPA officers think acrylic is fine and when asked why its a very bad thing in the USA  and not here, they are suprised to learn its been banned there for some time... So expect to see any sort of painting banned here eventually as well. My shop is required by law to use HVLP spray equipment for two pack application... (Hi Volume Low Pressure). As I pay large amounts of money to the council to operate my business so I tend to track down and have closed down any Backyard operators in my area...The council also expects this of me, and I generally warn the individual first and if they tell me to get stuffed I just pass it onto the council.... Not a very Aussie attitude I agree but at least I give them a sporting chance... the council dosent.... I reccomend using a shops booth as well as all the saftey gear... getting sick and dying slowly whilst being raked over the coals by the council/EPA, leaves a lot to be desired in my books... I charge $200 for booth hire but I no longer really rent it out anymore... The customer has to get past my rabid Kiwi painter first.....  
Each full paint job I do is charged out at $200 for booth and enviro levy .. this we tell the client up front where as many shops hide this expense... At nearly $1000 for booth filters every few months , you can see we dont make any money out of it... it just covers running expenses... Cheers streetneat......

[Ed]

what strange laws.....

well instead of flauting the law, I can use acrylic.

If I were running a business and heard of some backyard operators taking my business, I would probably do the same.

I may still check out some local paint shops for booth hire.

Cheers

Ed

[ekdave1962]

ah aint it a funny world guys like streetneat etc have to spend hugh $$ on the equipment but just take a drive past most yacht club and marine repairer and u will see them spraying all sorts of stuff .. wonder if it has the same effect that 2 pac does .. i suspect some of those anti fould agents they treat boats with would be a lot worse ..

D

[Ed]

...The difference is the people that own those boats are usually fairly wealthy people in prominent positions within society.

[ratbox]

as street neat mentioned there are costs to be covered in a shop, but after using 2pak for the first time ever the other day and finding how easy to use it was, maybe less people would be doing it at home if the cost was more justafiable in a shop