Hi all , popacom here to put my
in. I work for a Govt. contractor ,and
one of the many things I've been involved with at work is painting or to be politically
correct "coating "things with CARC coatings. We repainted over a 150 FLA HUMV's
for the FLRC Fort Drum and several for the 101st Abn. at Fort Campbell Ky. and we use it on all the castings we build and refurb. on the VIC-1 and VIC-2 intercoms we work
with as this is our specialty. We used to use the solvent based Zenthane CARC however the waterborne coatings are much less of a hassle and much safer.
You must first understand that coatings(paint) is a solid and the water or solvent is basically a transfer medium to get the color to what you are coating,solvents are the danger component as they tend to attack the nervous system ,whereas the waterborne system the main thing to be concerned with is the solids. I personally
believe you should wear a painters coverall suit(usually made of Tyvek )and relatively
inexpensive ,a good "FULL FACE" respirator and throwaway rubber gloves to minimize
skin contact. We use DeVelbis gravity fed HVLP millenium guns for production but
less expensive version would probably do OK for one or two big jobs before giving less than satisfactory results,problems from using a gun that does not have a hardened needle arose with us and we were told of the guns we now use have cured
the problem of the CARC coatings wearing away the needles(CARC is very abrasive)
I am speculating here but speaking from my own observations.
All this said use the same normal precautions as any other spray job and youshould have no problems with the waterborne CARC ,I will warn you however
follow the mixing ratio's to the tee ,get some mix cups at your supply house and
mix to the ratio given,a little dash of this and that and you will have a mess on your hands,as the amount of H2o used is very critical ,so if you are painting in hi-humidity take it in acct. as it WILL change flash time. hope I have helped here.
Thanks popacom / BILL KAGIN III now...