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Author	Comments
Huff'n'PuffRyan Posted: Jul 27, 2016 05:55 PM	Consistent Spray patterns Hi guys, I'm fairly new to the industry and need some advice. I'm trying to get the spray patterns or "fingering" as consistent as possible. My co-worker has been spraying for about 13 years and has the ability to adjust his pattern as necessary on the fly, however I've done some looking around on this site and believe that to a certain extent we should be able to keep our pattern more consistent. What in your opinion would be the basics for making this pattern easy to obtain? We are ordering a new gun as our Probler is approx 7 years old and has seen a TON of foam. Also we do not currently has a A/C unit in our rig how much could this factor in? Today it was 110 degrees in the trailers. We use Wall-tite Eco v3 and a Graco H-25 rig. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, Maybe I will just have to adjust constantly but with the technology out there today I find that a hard pill to swallow. Thank you
AirEquipment Jason Weber Director of Marketing Air Equipment and Repair, Inc. Posted: Jul 27, 2016 07:16 PM	The best advice I can give you about achieving a more consistent pattern is to get a newer/better gun. The Graco Fusion gun in any of the three offered setups(Air Purge, Mech. Purge, and Clear Shot) will give you a more consistent pattern than the Probler. If you are looking from a more economical standpoint the PMC AP-2 gun is a cheaper option and with the ability to pair the air cap and mix chambers together in different sizes will offer the ability to get the pattern you want. As far as the A/c goes, it all depends on what temperature you are needing for the chemicals.
AirEquipment Jason Weber Director of Marketing Air Equipment and Repair, Inc. Posted: Jul 27, 2016 07:19 PM	If you would like to speak directly to our Service Tech here at Air Equipment, give us a call at 1-800-677-3487 I hope this information helps you.
DavidStanley Posted: Jul 27, 2016 09:33 PM	I to am fairly new to the industry. 3 years. But... When i took my course one comment stuck." Your spray pattern is only as good as your tip is clean." My instructor told us to dip the drill bit in gun cleaner. Makes all the difference in the world. I have also always kept my product between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius I use a fusion ap but would definitely go Fusion CS next time. Hope this helps.
Huff'n'PuffRyan Posted: Jul 28, 2016 01:19 AM	I'm told the reason for the Probler 2 is its small size, I should mention we do 90% residential, a lot of small crawl spaces. We always have our chambers soaking when not in use. So is it safe to say that spray patterns always changing is not something we have to live with? Thanks for all of the help
AERtech Repair and Tech support for Air Equipment & Repair Posted: Jul 28, 2016 02:40 PM	The probler isn't much smaller than the AP2 gun. Ideally you want the chamber and tip on any gun to be clean as clean gets. Soaking a chamber isn't really the answer unless you drill it before hand. I have a customer that all they do is crawl spaces, with the AP2, and after training his guys on care and maintenance of it, they never have a complaint on pattern consistency.
Huff'n'PuffRyan Posted: Jul 28, 2016 08:10 PM	What do you mean by "drill it before hand"? we have our drill bits that we clean them out with by hand?
Huff'n'PuffRyan Posted: Jul 29, 2016 05:42 PM	This leads me to a few more question, and guys I appreciate the help. IF anyone here is using the Probler p2..how often to you clean the mixing chamber.? What is the life expectancy of a mixing chamber? or tip? Thank you again guys
AirEquipment Jason Weber Director of Marketing Air Equipment and Repair, Inc. Posted: Jul 29, 2016 06:53 PM	The life of a mixing chamber is hard to judge as there are too many variables in play. How often are you spraying? How well and often is it being cleaned? A good rule of thumb is, as long as the mixing chamber and side seal is smooth with no gashes in it, it's more than likely in good shape.
DavidStanley Posted: Jul 31, 2016 02:55 AM	When we clean our tip we use Walter bits in a drill. We stopped using graco bits because the kept breaking in the tip. We also do a lot of rim joists and need to clean at the end of each job. Once again dipping the bit in gun cleaner will make your life a whole lot easier.
Dakotafoamboy Posted: Aug 02, 2016 01:49 AM	You mean your spraying closed cell foam and its 110 degrees in your trailer where your chemical is? Your drums must look like footballs. Your loosing blowing agent which equates to loss yield. I have 2 15,000 btu ac units on my rig. One of which runs on shore power at all times to manage moisture inside my rig, the other which gets run also when I'm spraying to keep my rig nice and cool. Nothing quite like coming into your ac rig and unzipping when it's a hot sticky one out. I cook all my gun parts in a crockpot of glycol ethylene at about 350-375 for 3-4 hours. Everything comes out like brand new, except for your anodized aluminum parts that no longer have the black color anymore. Just rinse with water and blow dry with compressed air. I can't speak for the longevity of mixing chambers because I've bought more than one brand new that would shoot a good pattern. Graco has an issue with their 5252 chambers straight from the factory, but it seams they also have issues with their 4242. I've sent many back for warranty and it's disappointing that you can spend $200 on a mixing chamber with a 50 50 chance that it won't spray for $£17. Anyone else had issues with Garcia chambers straight from the factory?
Huff'n'PuffRyan Posted: Aug 04, 2016 03:12 PM	This is all great information! Right now I am trying to find out why one job in particular came out so "bumpy". My two main sprayers (one has 13 years the other 3) usually get a pretty smooth finish, I just had to go deal with an unhappy costumer, after seeing the job I understood his mood. the job was particularly un-even. It was a full concrete basement very straight forward, the home owner was great at having things moved in preparation, It was a very hot day here in New Brunswick Canada in the 30 degree range (86F) and humidity was probably the highest of the summer thus far. I'm trying to find an explanation as to why out of all of the jobs we've done that this one looked so rough. I'm leaning towards lack of maintenance on the gun over weather but would like to hear some scenarios that may help pin point it. Thank you
Dakotafoamboy Posted: Aug 23, 2016 12:31 PM	I would say gun maintenance myself. I pretty much rebuild my gun after every job, so it sprays perfect when I get to the next. I'm currently having problems with brand new mixing chambers shooting heavy to one side of the pattern myself. While my old chambers shoot just fine. So replacing chambers is never a guaranty to a better pattern. So I'm going to send those 2 back for warranty and see if I can get some with a different batch number. If you gun isn't shooting an even round pattern that comes out soft, then the foam isn't going to lay as flat or smooth.
AERtech Repair and Tech support for Air Equipment & Repair Posted: Oct 21, 2016 04:05 PM	Dakotafoamboy, cooking ethylene glycol in anything is not good, for one those parts are anodized for a reason, not just to look nice, it is meant to protect the fluid head from corrosion and keep the sealing surfaces smooth. Another problem is cooking ethylene glycol produces carcinogenic vapors. I dip my guns in a vat of chemical stripper to loosen the foam without hurting the finish and just peel/scrub it off afterwords.

Author

Comments

Huff'n'PuffRyan

Posted: Jul 27, 2016 05:55 PM

Consistent Spray patterns

Hi guys, I'm fairly new to the industry and need some advice. I'm trying to get the spray patterns or "fingering" as consistent as possible. My co-worker has been spraying for about 13 years and has the ability to adjust his pattern as necessary on the fly, however I've done some looking around on this site and believe that to a certain extent we should be able to keep our pattern more consistent.
What in your opinion would be the basics for making this pattern easy to obtain? We are ordering a new gun as our Probler is approx 7 years old and has seen a TON of foam. Also we do not currently has a A/C unit in our rig how much could this factor in? Today it was 110 degrees in the trailers.
We use Wall-tite Eco v3 and a Graco H-25 rig.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, Maybe I will just have to adjust constantly but with the technology out there today I find that a hard pill to swallow.
Thank you

AirEquipment

Jason Weber Director of Marketing Air Equipment and Repair, Inc.

Posted: Jul 27, 2016 07:16 PM

The best advice I can give you about achieving a more consistent pattern is to get a newer/better gun. The Graco Fusion gun in any of the three offered setups(Air Purge, Mech. Purge, and Clear Shot) will give you a more consistent pattern than the Probler. If you are looking from a more economical standpoint the PMC AP-2 gun is a cheaper option and with the ability to pair the air cap and mix chambers together in different sizes will offer the ability to get the pattern you want.

As far as the A/c goes, it all depends on what temperature you are needing for the chemicals.

AirEquipment

Jason Weber Director of Marketing Air Equipment and Repair, Inc.

Posted: Jul 27, 2016 07:19 PM

If you would like to speak directly to our Service Tech here at Air Equipment, give us a call at 1-800-677-3487

I hope this information helps you.

DavidStanley

Posted: Jul 27, 2016 09:33 PM

I to am fairly new to the industry. 3 years. But... When i took my course one comment stuck." Your spray pattern is only as good as your tip is clean." My instructor told us to dip the drill bit in gun cleaner. Makes all the difference in the world. I have also always kept my product between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius I use a fusion ap but would definitely go Fusion CS next time. Hope this helps.

Huff'n'PuffRyan

Posted: Jul 28, 2016 01:19 AM

I'm told the reason for the Probler 2 is its small size, I should mention we do 90% residential, a lot of small crawl spaces. We always have our chambers soaking when not in use.
So is it safe to say that spray patterns always changing is not something we have to live with?
Thanks for all of the help

AERtech

Repair and Tech support for Air Equipment & Repair

Posted: Jul 28, 2016 02:40 PM

The probler isn't much smaller than the AP2 gun. Ideally you want the chamber and tip on any gun to be clean as clean gets. Soaking a chamber isn't really the answer unless you drill it before hand. I have a customer that all they do is crawl spaces, with the AP2, and after training his guys on care and maintenance of it, they never have a complaint on pattern consistency.

Huff'n'PuffRyan

Posted: Jul 28, 2016 08:10 PM

What do you mean by "drill it before hand"? we have our drill bits that we clean them out with by hand?

Huff'n'PuffRyan

Posted: Jul 29, 2016 05:42 PM

This leads me to a few more question, and guys I appreciate the help.
IF anyone here is using the Probler p2..how often to you clean the mixing chamber.?
What is the life expectancy of a mixing chamber? or tip?

Thank you again guys

AirEquipment

Jason Weber Director of Marketing Air Equipment and Repair, Inc.

Posted: Jul 29, 2016 06:53 PM

The life of a mixing chamber is hard to judge as there are too many variables in play. How often are you spraying? How well and often is it being cleaned? A good rule of thumb is, as long as the mixing chamber and side seal is smooth with no gashes in it, it's more than likely in good shape.

DavidStanley

Posted: Jul 31, 2016 02:55 AM

When we clean our tip we use Walter bits in a drill. We stopped using graco bits because the kept breaking in the tip. We also do a lot of rim joists and need to clean at the end of each job. Once again dipping the bit in gun cleaner will make your life a whole lot easier.

Dakotafoamboy

Posted: Aug 02, 2016 01:49 AM

You mean your spraying closed cell foam and its 110 degrees in your trailer where your chemical is? Your drums must look like footballs. Your loosing blowing agent which equates to loss yield. I have 2 15,000 btu ac units on my rig. One of which runs on shore power at all times to manage moisture inside my rig, the other which gets run also when I'm spraying to keep my rig nice and cool. Nothing quite like coming into your ac rig and unzipping when it's a hot sticky one out. I cook all my gun parts in a crockpot of glycol ethylene at about 350-375 for 3-4 hours. Everything comes out like brand new, except for your anodized aluminum parts that no longer have the black color anymore. Just rinse with water and blow dry with compressed air. I can't speak for the longevity of mixing chambers because I've bought more than one brand new that would shoot a good pattern. Graco has an issue with their 5252 chambers straight from the factory, but it seams they also have issues with their 4242. I've sent many back for warranty and it's disappointing that you can spend $200 on a mixing chamber with a 50 50 chance that it won't spray for $£17. Anyone else had issues with Garcia chambers straight from the factory?

Huff'n'PuffRyan

Posted: Aug 04, 2016 03:12 PM

This is all great information! Right now I am trying to find out why one job in particular came out so "bumpy". My two main sprayers (one has 13 years the other 3) usually get a pretty smooth finish, I just had to go deal with an unhappy costumer, after seeing the job I understood his mood. the job was particularly un-even. It was a full concrete basement very straight forward, the home owner was great at having things moved in preparation, It was a very hot day here in New Brunswick Canada in the 30 degree range (86F) and humidity was probably the highest of the summer thus far. I'm trying to find an explanation as to why out of all of the jobs we've done that this one looked so rough. I'm leaning towards lack of maintenance on the gun over weather but would like to hear some scenarios that may help pin point it.
Thank you

Dakotafoamboy

Posted: Aug 23, 2016 12:31 PM

I would say gun maintenance myself. I pretty much rebuild my gun after every job, so it sprays perfect when I get to the next. I'm currently having problems with brand new mixing chambers shooting heavy to one side of the pattern myself. While my old chambers shoot just fine. So replacing chambers is never a guaranty to a better pattern. So I'm going to send those 2 back for warranty and see if I can get some with a different batch number. If you gun isn't shooting an even round pattern that comes out soft, then the foam isn't going to lay as flat or smooth.

AERtech

Repair and Tech support for Air Equipment & Repair

Posted: Oct 21, 2016 04:05 PM

Dakotafoamboy,

cooking ethylene glycol in anything is not good, for one those parts are anodized for a reason, not just to look nice, it is meant to protect the fluid head from corrosion and keep the sealing surfaces smooth. Another problem is cooking ethylene glycol produces carcinogenic vapors. I dip my guns in a vat of chemical stripper to loosen the foam without hurting the finish and just peel/scrub it off afterwords.

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