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Does Tamiya Yellow cap Laquer Thinner have Leveler/Retarder in it?


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I keep my "workhorse" VL loaded with a #5 needle & cone.  I have a second VL ready to run loaded with a #1 set.  I have a third VL with a #3 needle and cone, but use the other two most of the time as the overlap between them covers all the bases. 

The older VLs seemed to work consistently from one AB to the next, but the "modern" ones each seem to have a different personality and I've come across a few that work very poorly (or not at all) out of the box new. 

I think the quality of the old ones is far better than the new ones.

Edited by Scale-Master
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1 hour ago, Dave G. said:

If you tend to shoot with the nozzle fairly closed down you may not see much difference between the nozzles. Opened up and if you have sufficient airflow it should be noticeable, if in no other way than over spray and the volume of paint going down in your cup or bottle. That #5 can be a guzzler in particular.. And if you mostly shoot it fairly closed down then it may not matter to you anyway.. If you're happy as is go for it !!

Additionally with full disclosure here, I've been using the H with the #1 tip lately myself. My #3 tip packing has loosened up so it hesitates ( air leak). A little bees wax works but rather than mess with it I just switched to the #1. Been getting along with it fine but the fine mist end of the threads has it cut off quicker than with the 3. That #1 tip would be great with a more gradual needle imo. Course if I really want that I have the very elderly Badger 200.

Yeah, I think that is my main problem.. I don't open it up enough.  I usually try for halfway to maybe slightly under.  Next time I'm going to use #3 (on my test bodies) and somewhere around 75% open.

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7 minutes ago, Scale-Master said:

I keep my "workhorse" VL loaded with a #5 needle & cone.  I have a second VL ready to run loaded with a #1 set.  I have a third VL with a #3 needle and cone, but use the other two most of the time as the overlap between them covers all the bases. 

The older VLs seemed to work consistently from one AB to the next, but the "modern" ones each seem to have a different personality and I've come across a few that work very poorly (or not at all) out of the box new. 

I think the quality of the old ones is far better than the new ones.

Thanks Mark.. you do an amazing job with those VLs.

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49 minutes ago, jchrisf said:

Yeah, I think that is my main problem.. I don't open it up enough.  I usually try for halfway to maybe slightly under.  Next time I'm going to use #3 (on my test bodies) and somewhere around 75% open.

How far I open depends on how I thinned the paint and air pressure setting. And 75% may be out of it's good flow zone fwiw. You gotta work the sweet area of the threads with the H, you can go too far and start losing the pattern in my experience. Thus the three nozzle sizes. That #3 is great with enamels and acrylic paints.

Edited by Dave G.
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19 hours ago, Dave G. said:

How far I open depends on how I thinned the paint and air pressure setting. And 75% may be out of it's good flow zone fwiw. You gotta work the sweet area of the threads with the H, you can go too far and start losing the pattern in my experience. Thus the three nozzle sizes. That #3 is great with enamels and acrylic paints.

I only spray lacquers on bodies with my H.  I use my Neo for Iwata to spray the detail stuff with acrylics.. Only Enamels I use are the AK extreme metals and use the neo for that as well.  I've got a spare body prepped and ready to spray this weekend so I'll be experimenting with the H at around 50% open and maybe play more with the air pressure too.  If I can't get this down soon I'll break open some more old Nascar kits and use their bodies.. Once I get it down the Super Clean will take care of getting them stripped so I can build them for real.

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1 hour ago, jchrisf said:

I only spray lacquers on bodies with my H.  I use my Neo for Iwata to spray the detail stuff with acrylics.. Only Enamels I use are the AK extreme metals and use the neo for that as well.  I've got a spare body prepped and ready to spray this weekend so I'll be experimenting with the H at around 50% open and maybe play more with the air pressure too.  If I can't get this down soon I'll break open some more old Nascar kits and use their bodies.. Once I get it down the Super Clean will take care of getting them stripped so I can build them for real.

Well good luck with all that. I shoot lacquers with my Badger and side cup....

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On 5/30/2020 at 10:06 AM, Dave G. said:

Well good luck with all that. I shoot lacquers with my Badger and side cup....

I think I finally figured it out!  I watched David Thibodeau's video below and barely opened the flow.. not even a half a turn.  I was barely moving across the body like he was doing and getting a nice light coat.  I think I was putting on way to much paint before with the flow opened up halfway.  Now I can test the VL because it has a that flow control on the front that I can use to adjust the initial paint flow.. of course, since I never need to let off the air doing it this way it should be easy to find the flow just using the trigger and maintaining it.  I also thinned my paint out more and it seemed to help too.  

 

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13 hours ago, jchrisf said:

I think I finally figured it out!  I watched David Thibodeau's video below and barely opened the flow.. not even a half a turn.  I was barely moving across the body like he was doing and getting a nice light coat.  I think I was putting on way to much paint before with the flow opened up halfway.  Now I can test the VL because it has a that flow control on the front that I can use to adjust the initial paint flow.. of course, since I never need to let off the air doing it this way it should be easy to find the flow just using the trigger and maintaining it.  I also thinned my paint out more and it seemed to help too.  

 

Glad it's working for you !! I actually shot some clear lacquer yesterday myself. The ladies were out of the house so I grabbed the opportunity lol ( one is asthmatic, along with about every other kind of matic so I don't spray lacquer when she's around even with the booth).

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Just tried the VL today for the first time and loved it.  I found it easier to paint with than the H.  It was sputtering at first.. not sure what was wrong with it.. but after blowing about half my mixed paint through it, it was fine.

Incidentally, I decanted some Model Masters Royal Blue Pearl Custom Lacquer and it sprays a whole lot better than the TS-47 I decanted.  Maybe I've got an old or bad can of Tamiya.  The MM went down smoooooth.

Edited by jchrisf
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2 hours ago, jchrisf said:

Just tried the VL today for the first time and loved it.  I found it easier to paint with than the H.  It was sputtering at first.. not sure what was wrong with it.. but after blowing about half my mixed paint through it, it was fine.

Incidentally, I decanted some Model Masters Royal Blue Pearl Custom Lacquer and it sprays a whole lot better than the TS-47 I decanted.  Maybe I've got an old or bad can of Tamiya.  The MM went down smoooooth.

Well hey we each have our favorite "things", maybe the VL is going to be one of yours. Good news, glad it went well for you! Which needle did you use ?

Edited by Dave G.
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20 minutes ago, Dave G. said:

Well hey we each have our favorite "things", maybe the VL is going to be one of yours. Good news, glad it went well for you! Which needle did you use ?

Thanks.. I used the #1 needle that was in it by default from the factory.  Haven't changed a thing on it yet.  I was shooting clear through it.

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2 hours ago, jchrisf said:

Thanks.. I used the #1 needle that was in it by default from the factory.  Haven't changed a thing on it yet.  I was shooting clear through it.

Nice ! That #1 is .55 evidently.

Edited by Dave G.
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23 hours ago, Dave G. said:

Nice ! That #1 is .55 evidently.

Yeah, the 5 is the same size on the two but the 1 and 3 are bigger on the VL as you know.  I used both the 5 and 3 today and they put out a lot of paint.  I used the 5 for Tamiya Fine Primer and it went down smooth.  Then used the 3 and put down Tamiya TS-16 that went down smooth as well.  I really like this AB.  I think I am going to go back to the 1 and see if it will work with everything.  The 3 and 5 can suck down a cup really quick.  I noticed my room really stank after using these two sizes but I did use a lot of Tamiya Yellow Cap so maybe it is just much stronger.  When I used the 1 I was using Mr. Color Leveling Thinner... not sure if it was the thinner or the amount of paint the AB was putting out and over powering my paint booth.

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14 hours ago, jchrisf said:

Yeah, the 5 is the same size on the two but the 1 and 3 are bigger on the VL as you know.  I used both the 5 and 3 today and they put out a lot of paint.  I used the 5 for Tamiya Fine Primer and it went down smooth.  Then used the 3 and put down Tamiya TS-16 that went down smooth as well.  I really like this AB.  I think I am going to go back to the 1 and see if it will work with everything.  The 3 and 5 can suck down a cup really quick.  I noticed my room really stank after using these two sizes but I did use a lot of Tamiya Yellow Cap so maybe it is just much stronger.  When I used the 1 I was using Mr. Color Leveling Thinner... not sure if it was the thinner or the amount of paint the AB was putting out and over powering my paint booth.

Ya, larger tips flow more paint or thicker paints. Simple enough lol !! Course there is the argument for not pulling the trigger fully back too. Sometimes it's nice when a brush has an adjustable needle stop on the back ( I have one like that and the main 1/1 gun I used years ago had one as well).. All that said, there is no model paint I know of that won't flow through a .55 nozzle assembly if properly thinned. As I've mentioned before I've shot many of them through a .25. Sometimes people like the larger needles for a couple of reasons, more spread at higher pressure and backed away from the surface for one. And/ or less thinner sometimes.

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5 hours ago, Dave G. said:

Ya, larger tips flow more paint or thicker paints. Simple enough lol !! Course there is the argument for not pulling the trigger fully back too. Sometimes it's nice when a brush has an adjustable needle stop on the back ( I have one like that and the main 1/1 gun I used years ago had one as well).. All that said, there is no model paint I know of that won't flow through a .55 nozzle assembly if properly thinned. As I've mentioned before I've shot many of them through a .25. Sometimes people like the larger needles for a couple of reasons, more spread at higher pressure and backed away from the surface for one. And/ or less thinner sometimes.

LOL.. honestly I didn't even pull the trigger back a mm. I stopped as soon as I saw the paint spraying out, just barely pulling it back.

One cool thing I like is I can setup the VL like the H where I can dial in a certain paint flow with just the press of the trigger like the H then I can pull back if necessary. 

The VL reminds me a bit of a perfect spray can where you can get down good coverage fast but with better atomization and not a lot of wasted over spray. I can tell it is not the quality of what I hear about Badgers but does a really nice job.

To me the VL is a lot easier to clean than the H too.

Edited by jchrisf
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3 hours ago, jchrisf said:

LOL.. honestly I didn't even pull the trigger back a mm. I stopped as soon as I saw the paint spraying out, just barely pulling it back.

One cool thing I like is I can setup the VL like the H where I can dial in a certain paint flow with just the press of the trigger like the H then I can pull back if necessary. 

The VL reminds me a bit of a perfect spray can where you can get down good coverage fast but with better atomization and not a lot of wasted over spray. I can tell it is not the quality of what I hear about Badgers but does a really nice job.

To me the VL is a lot easier to clean than the H too.

There's no extra magic going on in a Badger lol.  If you get a good finish and like using it is all that matters. Ya know when I shot 1/1 my main two guns were Devilbiss. Then I had two knock off guns, one of the Devilbiss and the other of a Binks. They all shot great.

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