I was reading the instructions on Spectrum Color's website about spraying gelcoat. It said the the time before gelcoat reaches its gel stage is 5-10 minutes. I was thinking about using an automotive style gun to do the spraying of a transom. Does that mean that 5 minutes from when I did the mixing, I have to be cleaning the gun?

Thanks,
Eric

Ya gotta be quick, probably not 5 minutes, but definitely within 10 - 15. I use a cheap harbor freight gun, mix it light with MEKP and have acetone ready to clean immediately once it is empty, never refill without cleaning first or the leftovers will kick off, found this out the hard way. This is the one I use, order an extra, just in case it kicks off on you.

http://www.harborfreight.com/househo...gun-92841.html

this ones a little better for gel if you must use an automotive gun. Gravity feed guns need less air and subsequently cheap ones tend to atomize less which is perfect for gelcoat. For gel you want just enough air to pull the material out of the gun and get it to the surface, as little atomizing as possible. You will need to use Duratechs gloss additive though for thinning. And yes you must work fast

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-oz-h...gun-47016.html

These things are cheap enough to pretty much throw away after a few uses

At that price, c'bout a toss up to just toss it than spend money on acetone to clean.

Nice,

I didnt go with that one due to the 1.5 mm tip size, I just got the biggest tip size gun they had(2.0), but I quess 1.5 would work with thinning.

Yup,

I wasnt too upset when I ruined the first one, went back and got 2 more, which reminds me, I gotta build a throttle box to go in front of the new seats that will need to be gelcoated, maybe I'll stop by and get one of the ones Dave suggested

Just finished gel coating the bottom. I found this gun to have great flow for the gel. http://www.tcpglobal.com/spraygundep...o=TCP+G6600-25

I used the throw away cups from harbor freight . Duratec high loss additive works well. Don't spray without it. Thanks to GlassDave for all his posts that help all of us.

oops forgot to mention i mod them once in a while . . . . a that price i didnt feel to bad about taking a drill to it

Thank you guys. So use Duratech even when using a 2.3 tip?

I have done the same, wasnt sure if it was gonna work, but figured it would due to the needle being tapered, and it did