We have sprayed atleast 100 gallons of sherwin Williams kemvar plus. Mostly white, but quite a few other colors as well. Today for the first time everytime I spray there are fine specks showing up in the finish. The finish is spraying fine and laying nicely but then as it dries it shows more of these randomly distributed things that almost look like grains of sand. If you squeeze one they are soft and will basically dissolve between your fingers but they will harden when left on the surface. I have sprayed 3 different cvs I had in the shop and it is doing it on all and all had sprayed fine previously. I completely tore down and cleaned the gun I was using and tried a second gun and tried prefiltering in addition to the filter on the gun. The last thing I tried was I had a little catalyst left in an old bottle but using it didn’t seem to matter. The only thing I haven’t tried is changing to a new thing of reducer, which is the recommended r7 k310. If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you

Replace your fluid line.

We are spraying with an a Apollo turbine and cup gun, so there is no fluid line to clean unfortunately. I spoke with a sw rep and his guess is that it is actually micro bubbles showing as small nibs. Anyone else experienced that?

Could it be the flattening agent not completely agitated and dissolved?

Try cleaning your filters on the turbine. Maybe some dust got into the turbine as well.

Do you strain the finish when pouring into the gun?

So here’s an update and I am just as lost if not more at this point. To answer some questions, yes I cleaned and replaced turbine filters, on two separate machines. I predilter everything through a conical strainer before it goes in the gun. I even had a can of Kem Aqua plus laying around and sprayed that and had the same results, so no shared materials in that situation. So I figured it had to be something with the turbine system or hose. I hooked the gun up to my compressor and have the same specks spraying out. So basically I am rethinking my entire existence at this point

So I realized I was spraying the same cup of finish I had been working with last night. I strained it out of the cup and it was full of junk. So I then strained from the mixing cup it had come from originally and it was clean.
So clearly I am getting contaminated air somehow. Going to do a few more tests with compressed air now and see what happens

we use chemcraft product by Axnobil we normaiily mix 8.oz of acetone and 8.oz of MAK and 13.oz of catalyst and the finish is beautiful but this formula has to be all chemcraft its the best finishing product out there hands down

How's the weather where you are?
Is it possible that your turbine is picking up moisture?
I would go buy a cheap gravity feed spray gun and do a test
If it doesn't happen then it's your equipment
If it does happen then it's the product/environment condition

So I realized I was spraying the same cup of finish I had been working with last night. I strained it out of the cup and it was full of junk. So I then strained from the mixing cup it had come from originally and it was clean.
So clearly I am getting contaminated air somehow. Going to do a few more tests with compressed air now and see what happens

Humidity in the shop is about 25%.
Cleaned the entire shop, set up a gun with the compressor and a dryer/filter regulator on it. Same results. Sprayed a piece outside and had basically the same result. After doing testing I have found what almost looks like small bits of silica in the spray cup. Can’t ever remember seeing that before but ask probably never studied it that closely. Sw rep is doing testing with our materials today, so I’ll see what he says and then go from there I guess.

Their material will be perfect.

of course.

This is something I’ve heard more than I actually have experience with…. But if it’s a good chance your air is contaminated as in something in your tank or if it’s a rotary screw you are getting oil into your system. With a piston it’s not that much of a problem but could still be getting something in. I would get some good filters in your air line and try that.

So as of right now it looks like it was a product issue. I am spraying their next generation of kemvar today and it is spraying nicely with no specks or nibs. I do give sw and their rep credit for not just brushing me off on this and taking the time to actual look into it and get me set up with a product that is working well.

Simple ..... thin your material down and add little bit of retarder , what's happening is your gun has open fan all the way and breaking uour paint ,conversion varnish is different than 2k finishes it likes to be heavy so ehat i do is i spray first cote and let it sit fir 3 minutes then i hammer second cote on and sometimes i spray 3 ...... you will notice that the more you spray it wet on wet the more it flows and all these pinholes will disappear , also depends on your spray gun i hold it back about 8 inches away from surface