Spray tip recommendations

[Anonymous]

What tip sizes are good for latex paint? Is the same size good for alkyd?

[Girish C. Dubey, President STAR, INC.]

Hey Stripe Guy
Yes…I don’t change anything.
The only thing here…just make sure it’s a striping tip…not a painting tip. The difference is the design of the actual orifice. One is a rectangle…giving an even dispersement of paint all the way across…( picture the paint coming through a rectangle…)
The painting tip has an orifice the shape of a football. When the paint tries to come through “short side” of the orifice…or the “points”…picture a cats pupil…it can’t. SO…less volume is applied…that way…when you overlap…like you’re spraying a house…or wall…the paint isn’t necessarily (2) coats thick.
Anyhow…I never change the tip…you’re fine. And again…just make sure it’s a “Striping” tip.
I believe the Graco Tips are Yellow…just like a Centerline…and the Titan tips have a (4) digit designation…not a (3) digit designation.
( All that said…I’ll bet you knew that…)
See ya.
Dan
P.S. …crap…just in case I misunderstood your question…I use a 6″ wide tip. It sprays a 6″ wide pattern at an assumed height of 12″.
I then lower my gun closer to the ground. I don’t own a 4″ tip. Whenever you spray an actual 12″ off the ground…too much shimmy, too much wind…and…if the job is a Re-stripe…and the existing line is 4.5″ wide…then what…?…lift the gun higher…!? First…you can only go so high…it’s still produces a 4″ line…and then…you’ll run out of POST…!
I also use a .019″ orifice.
I find the .017 is too thin…BUT…I move pretty quickly. ( I also use .021. On a Temporary Striping job…I move even more quickly…! )
So…if you’re a beginner…on a Re-stripe…maybe try a .017 with a 6″ wide capability. They’re also good for “Over Seal” striping. BUT…take a .019 too. You might find that you like it better. ( that’s all on my video )
Let me know if that helped.
Dan

[Anonymous]

Ok so we knew it would eventually happen. Dan and I have a different opinion on something,.. kind of… I do agree that when striping use a “striping” tip. If you are stenciling use a standard tip if you care to change it out. The optical shaped spray blends the overlapping.

Waterborne paints and Oilborne paints have different size of “grind” or particle size. A waterborne paint generally has larger grind than that of oilborne. That larger particle size restricts waterborne paints from properly passing through tips with smaller orifices. Example is that oilborne paints can pass through 13,15 and 17 tips. But a good waterborne starts at 17. We recommend no tip smaller than a 17 but preferably a 19 to reduce tip clogging issues. Dan appears to use the larger size tips on everything so that is probably why he does not distinguish the difference.

A further tip on tips… change regularly. You will find yourself having to raise your gun over time to maintain line width as the orifice blows out. If this is the case understand that you are now using substantially (up to 85%) more material. See more tips on tips in our catalog.

[Girish C. Dubey, President STAR, INC.]

…the forum world we say…hmmm…but…
Sport…we’ve never met… I don’t know you. If you want to ride my coat tails…ride my coat tails.
If you have an opinion for every post…offer it. But if you want to stalk my name…

To the rest of you…if you want to buy another tip…try it. I sell them. But I don’t want to sell them. Just go to SW or PPG or Glidden and ask for a discount. You probably get one anyway. That’s the best way…quickest way…easiest way.
But…if you do…
1) Save your stencils for last. If you switch tips every time you pass a stencil…it’s time.
2) If you choose to go this route…make sure the tip that you remove gets tossed into water or the appropriate cleaning agent. You don’t want the paint…inside the tip to dry…when it’s in your pocket.
3) When I spray a 12″ NO PARKING…I spray in such a way that covers the “N” in one pass. Spray top to bottom. Spray at a height that allows the Left side of the “Paint Fan” to hit just to the Left side of the “N”…and the Right Side of the “Paint Fan” to hit just to the Right side of the “N”. There aren’t “overlapping marks”. With a “spray” tip though…I’d be more concerned that the outsides of the letter isn’t covered with enough paint. The “middle” might be. Then you may have to hit it again.
( AND…you don’t need to buy my video either…it’s all here. )
4) As far as spraying an Arrow…I’m not sure anyone changes a tip just for these. We hit them so many times…the customer is happy…they last…etc. The only time you have any “overlapping” is when you don’t put enough down in the first place. ( Like one, thin coat. ) And…nobody puts down “not enough”.
5) As far as STOP Bars go…yes…you’ll see the “Overlap”. But…I don’t switch tips. Spray (5) 5″ lines…OVERLAPPING to get the 24″ Stop Bar…blahblah. ( You won’t get the sharp edges here…that you need…with a “Spray Tip”. )
Then…if you want…take the gun out of the cradle and spray 90 degrees to the lines…a second coat…and mitigate the look.
5) As far as quantities go…I don’t get hung up here. Pretend the lots is yours. I sprayed a late night large job. I stopped several times to look closely at the “coverage”. I was giving plenty. BUT…I’m not broke either. In other words…I did not miscalculate volumes. Jobs are different. Some are over seal. You may get 400′ per. Some are over asphalt older than all of us. It’s rough. I’m not going to even think about trying to get 400′ per. What I’m going to do…is pretend the job belongs to my Dad…or a buddy…or you. I’ll make sure you have great coverage. Give coverage. That said…when the job is done…check how you did. I’m always close or even closer = right on.
Keep your money in your pocket. I use Striping Tips. I passed 1000 jobs…last century.
See ya.

[Anonymous]

Dan,

Please call me at your earliest convenience. It looks as if we “moderators” need to have a discussion.

Thanks,

Greg

[Anonymous]

Please help!!! I am new to the line striping business due to the fact I could not find anyone to paint lines for several properties I manage, so I thought it might be a good direction for me to follow. Anyway I just purchased a powrliner 1800M with Titan LX40 gun. I went to test everything out and realized that there was no tip included. I called around to locate a titan line tip and did not find any locally. So a rep at Sherwin Williams suggested I put a graco tip shield on and buy a graco lazor line tip being that they are more readly available in my area. So I did just that. I set the machine up, primed it and got ready to paint some practice lines on felt paper, since it has lines on it as well. I installed the shield and tip and started to spray. Everything seemed fine except the line was only about 2inches, so I raised the gun all the way to the top of rod and only got it too spray about 3 1/2″. I believe the tip is a 3517.. I do know that it is a .17 for line painting. I am practacing with an interior latex paint due to cost and sherwin williams gave me a 5 gallon pail very cheap(not sure if this is the problem). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also having a tough time knowing where to start line up the spray to get on my chaulk line. there is no mark or guide..

Thanks so much

[Girish C. Dubey, President STAR, INC.]

Hello Diamond
How are you?
I just got in from striping. I saw the post.
Let me say this…we should talk via phone.
That said…the SW rep did you right. The Graco Tip Guard will screw onto the Titan gun. Then you need to use a Graco tip. Graco tips are great. I use them everyday.
Next…just to be sure…
1) The tip should be Yellow…in color. That’s the designation for a “Striping” tip.
2) 3517 sounds wrong. It may say…317. If so…I’m surprised you’re having trouble getting a wider line. Here’s why…
The first digit = the line width…BUT…multiply it by two. SO…the “3” means it’ll spray a 6″ line. THAT”S ALL I EVER USE…!
The next 2 digits – the orifice inside…so it’s a .017″.
Next…if you’re using a 317…Yellow…striping tip…and still getting a 3.5″ line…I’m going to ask about the pressure.
Let me say this…crank it up…all the way…then back it off a quarter turn. THEN…spray a line. Did that help?
If it did in a slight way…I’ll now ask about the paint. If you’re spraying thin liquid…the machine won’t have to work as hard. BUT…if you’re spraying thick liquid…it has to work hard. So…I don’t use the SW Hotline. I love their TWO Set Fast Paints. One has 50% solids and the other has 57% solid materials. ( So…one is slightly thicker than the other…that’s it. ) The Hotline has 67%…and it gives me fits in my machine. Others love it…you decide.
SO…we’ere down to “upping” the pressure…( and the engine too…just like you were going to mow the grass…crank the engine up…! ) If you cannot get a nice 4.5″ line with the gun maybe 5″ to 6″ off the ground…let’s talk paint.
Next…again…the paint topic…if you mean that SW gave you house paint = interior…change it out. Thank them. Try a Traffic Paint. Here’s my recommendation…ask which Set Fast they carry. Then buy that. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s 50% solid or 57% solid…just buy it.
Last…I wrote an article and Brett posted it here titled…How To Stripe Straight and Stop and Start Where You Want…how’s that for a title?
It should be in the “Articles” section.
I’m going to hit Post…and go look for it.
Call me if you want…email…post…etc…
I hope that gets us started.
Dan
OK…I’m back…try this… go to the Home page. Scroll down to Asphalt Articles. Then go to the Line Striping Section and look for that title.
OR…if I did this right…here’s the link…
https://www.pavemanpro.com/article/how_to_stripe_straight_start_stop_exactly_where_you_want/

[Anonymous]

Hello Dan, thanks for getting back with me so quickly. Just wanted to get an update on how today went. I spent most of my day looking for a titan tip and had no sucess and bought another graco 527 tip and from my reading knew this was a tip that would be incorrect but they said its worth a shoot. So I came back to the shop and tried the machine again with the old tip which is a 417 and everything worked perfect. I even got to lower the adjustment down to about 6 inches, where yesterday it was maxed out. I must have been doing something wrong. I painted about 20 lines and seemed to turn out nice ( a little wavey). I have been using 15lb. roofing felt paper which I thought would be nice because it has several straight lines already imprinted on the paper. I tried to use the method of lining up the edge of the guard with the outside of the line and did not seem to work well for me, so I put some tape on the cross bar to help use as a reference guide. That seems to work better. I am sure I am not looking in right spot. Anyway I felt so much better that the lines where spraying a 4 inches and still have room to raise adjustment. One other thing is not sure where to put my pistion lube, the directions are horrible in my eyes and make it very unclear how to properly take care of the equipment.

Thanks again,
Diamond

[Girish C. Dubey, President STAR, INC.]

Hey Diamond…you’re right…the directions should be modified. You’re not the only person I’ve answered this question for…
1) Find where the piston is going up and down.
It’s behind a little “guard”…looks like a football helmet guard. It’s about 3″ left to right and 1” top to bottom.
The guard serves to protect against getting out fingers pinched while the piston is moving up and down.
2) Take one or both of the screws off the guard to expose the piston. That said…while the engine is off…!
3) Next…there’s this little flat, black, rubber disk that goes all the way around the pistom. Take a small screwdriver and simply pry it up. It will expose a small “cup like” area…THAT’S where the piston lube goes. SO…ad a little bit. THEN…slide the black, rubber disk shaped thing back down. It serves to keep the lube from flying all out. …kinda like the lid to a tupper ware bowl.
4) Then replace the guard.
Next…everytime I do this…I get some leaking and it ooozzzeeesss out and around…no biggee…at least it’s getting lubed.
I hope that helps.
Next…tips…again…try a Yellow Tip that has a designation of 317. If the other is working…cool. But…let me know.
Last…as far as getting to start ans stop…and go straight…that’ll come quickly. Keep practicing. AND…I always focus on right where the paint hits the chalk line. It doesn’t matter to me if you paint on whichever side…but try to focus right where the side of the paint fan…where it hits the chalk line.
Keep in touch.
Dan

[Anonymous]

Hey Dan, just wanted to get back with you. I picked up a 317 tip and hopefully gets some time tomorrow or sunday to play around with it..I will be needing some practice cause I will be doing my first lot on Monday. I really need to practice on hitting those chaulk lines, but I am really excited about it. Should be just fine, its a 106 stall parking lot with 6 handicap. I will also check on the piston lube this weekend. I should have bought a pallet of felt paper I have been having too much fun with the machine….lol

Well thanks for all the advice and I will keep ya posted and maybe post some pics of the big first job.

Diamond

[Girish C. Dubey, President STAR, INC.]

Diamond…excellent.
Keep in touch and let me know about the paint…when you have a chance.
…looking forward to some pics.
Dan

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