Slight orange peel with water based paint

[harmonpa]

If you get orange peel in your paint your not getting enough air into the paint. This means the paint has to be thinned or more air introduced, If you have an hvlp spray gun check to see if different air caps are offered some manufacturers provide higher cfm air caps which will do better breaking up thicker paint. As mentioned you can also consider thinning the paint with floetrol or water if water based, or if solvent based with solvent. If you buy a zahn 2 cup online for a few bucks hvlp does best with paint that runs at about 30 seconds in a zahn 2.

 

[Droogs]

If your set up is right the main reason for getting orange peel is usually due to the surface/air temperature difference. I usually leave the piece to be sprayed in fornt of a couple of those infrared heaters for 20 mins. this allows the piece to get to a higher even temperature and then spray. I learned this trick from an ex Rolls Royce spray painter who said they used to put the chassis in the oven for half an hour before painting in order to prevent orange peel when covering a larger surface as the production sheds were unheated. It has something to do with there being a greater than 10 Deg difference between the surface and the air.

hth