I will be using my sharpe hvlp spray gun for the first time to spray some parts with acrylic enamel. The SW tech sheets for the Acryld product tell me to apply 2-3 medium wet coats, recoat after it becomes "hand slick", activated product has 6 hours pot life. Being mixed 8 paint to 4 reducer to 1 hardner. My question is this... after I shoot the first coat, what do I do with the paint in the gun cup while I wait for it to become hand slick. Do I need to pour it out and percolate clean the gun? Or can it stay in the cup until I can spray the second coat? How long will it take to become hand slick? Tech sheet says it dries in one hour. buffable after 24 hours

The coats are only going to be about twenty minutes apart. You don't do anything with the paint in the gun. It doesn't hurt a bit to stir the paint up a little in the cup. But not usually done between coats unless it is a high metallic color. If it is a high metallic color, I would say, yes, pouring it out and stir it up would be a good thing.

"Hand slick" means that you should be able to very lightly slide your fingers over the surface (on the masking paper or something that will not be seen) in sort of a "touch and go" sort of way. Your fingers should leave little to no mark.

bbhawk leave the stuff in gun, no need to remove and clean inbetween each coat.

About 2 weeks ago I sprayed a car trailer with S-W enamel, the flash time or hand slick time was roughly 10 mins. But this was when it was darn near 100 and around 80% humidty.

What ever you do USE the hardner. Enamel with no hardner when topcoated again likes to lift smile.gif

thanks guys. Thats what I thought. I am painting gloss black by the way. Should be a good simple start to learn. I appreciate all the excellent advise on this site. For example, I removed my front windshield and rear glass based on advise from this site, and reinstalled them last week using your tips. It went in very nice. Used the 3M ribbon weld. Excellent choice. Had I used the tube adhesive it would have made a big mess and I dont know about the seal on my 65, given the size of the glass to the opening. Now I'm at the prime stage. With the past posts I've read, I have confidence, but will need some advise from time to time. Thanks all. Best site on the net.