Painting Tail Feathers

[Paul]

I like Dan's idea for racking the horizontal stabs. Here's another option which I used for all tail feathers. They have just enough weight that they remain fairly still even with the air pressure of your gun. And you have a clear shot at all edges and surfaces.

All I did was attach a couple 2 x 4's at ceiling height to the uprights of my paint booth and that gave me plenty of room to hang these and other parts. Wife thought my paint booth looked like a meat locker.

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[Dan L]

I like it Paul. The goal is to be able to shoot all the surfaces in one session in the booth. Looks like you've got a good filter and ventilation system too. Nice all around.

[stede52]

thanks for all the great ideas

[jmorrical]

Purchased two 1/4-in dia x 3-ft long coarse steel threaded rods and a few 1/4" nuts to secure the tail feathers on the threaded rods if necessary. Each rod was cut to 8" lengths and bent 90*. They were spaced for the various fittings then screwed into 2X4s. These 2X4s were hung from the ceiling of the paint booth. There was a little swing under the paint gun pressure, but worked great.


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[Daveembry]

I’ll try to remember to snap some pictures next time in booth. But here is what I use. Very easy to set up and works on light or heavy items.

Get 6 eyebolts and screw them into the walls around 6' high.....3 on each side of the booth. Then at the hardware store you can get vinyl wrapped wire (mine is green vinyl) and it's quite bendable but strong.

Then run 3 pieces across the booth and just give it a wrap around the eyebolt on either side. You can use all 3, or just 1 or whatever you need. When you don't need them, I just unhook one end and then just wrap it around the other eyebolts on the opposite out of the way. You can take it down in maybe 15 seconds.

Then you can cut piece of the same vinyl wrapped wires and give them a wrap around the crosswires and slide them around where you want as well completely out of the way.

I use safety wire pieces to hang the really light stuff and the heavy wire for flaps, ailerons, struts and tail feathers. Just hand them down at whatever level you want. You can even slide them over to the side out of the way as you paint (before or after spraying other parts in there) to keep overspray, etc out of the way. Works great and cheap and easy.

When you hang some of the lighter pieces that will blow around when spraying, you can usually take another piece of safety wire in your hand and put it in another hole in the part and hold it steady while you spray. Line all of the little parts up on one side of the wire then slide them to the center as you paint to keep the overspray off the other parts and then slide it on over to the office inside when you’re done spraying it so it can dry and be out of the way of the next part you move over to the center in Sprague.

C56409BF-AA42-4546-A59E-A71D4E410991.jpg

[Daveembry]

Here you can see the wires and struts hanging on them. You can slide them all to one side and then slide 1 to the center, paint and then slide out of the way to the other side, then slide the next over and paint it, etc. I hang tail feathers, flaps, ailerons and all small items that you paint both sides of. All the 1 sided items I lay down on the wire racks.

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the wire panels work great for small parts that you only have to paint 1 side. The rack let’s the blowby paint pass through instead of bouncing back as it does if you put on a solid surface.

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I’ll try to remember to snap some pictures next time in booth. But here is what I use. Very easy to set up and works on light or heavy items.

Get 6 eyebolts and screw them into the walls around 6' high.....3 on each side of the booth. Then at the hardware store you can get vinyl wrapped wire (mine is green vinyl) and it's quite bendable but strong.

Then run 3 pieces across the booth and just give it a wrap around the eyebolt on either side. You can use all 3, or just 1 or whatever you need. When you don't need them, I just unhook one end and then just wrap it around the other eyebolts on the opposite out of the way. You can take it down in maybe 15 seconds.

Then you can cut piece of the same vinyl wrapped wires and give them a wrap around the crosswires and slide them around where you want as well completely out of the way.

I use .041 safety wire pieces to hand the really light stuff and the heavy wire for flaps, ailerons, struts and tail feathers. Just hand them down at whatever level you want. You can even slide them over to the side out of the way as you paint (before or after spraying other parts in there) to keep overspray, etc out of the way. Works great and cheap and easy.

C56409BF-AA42-4546-A59E-A71D4E410991.jpg

[MarcoAmara]

I’ll try to remember to snap some pictures next time in booth. But here is what I use. Very easy to set up and works on light or heavy items.

Get 6 eyebolts and screw them into the walls around 6' high.....3 on each side of the booth. Then at the hardware store you can get vinyl wrapped wire (mine is green vinyl) and it's quite bendable but strong.

Then run 3 pieces across the booth and just give it a wrap around the eyebolt on either side. You can use all 3, or just 1 or whatever you need. When you don't need them, I just unhook one end and then just wrap it around the other eyebolts on the opposite out of the way. You can take it down in maybe 15 seconds.

Then you can cut piece of the same vinyl wrapped wires and give them a wrap around the crosswires and slide them around where you want as well completely out of the way.

I use safety wire pieces to hang the really light stuff and the heavy wire for flaps, ailerons, struts and tail feathers. Just hand them down at whatever level you want. You can even slide them over to the side out of the way as you paint (before or after spraying other parts in there) to keep overspray, etc out of the way. Works great and cheap and easy.

When you hang some of the lighter pieces that will blow around when spraying, you can usually take another piece of safety wire in your hand and put it in another hole in the part and hold it steady while you spray. Line all of the little parts up on one side of the wire then slide them to the center as you paint to keep the overspray off the other parts and then slide it on over to the office inside when you’re done spraying it so it can dry and be out of the way of the next part you move over to the center in Sprague.

C56409BF-AA42-4546-A59E-A71D4E410991.jpg

So vinyl wrapped wire is a must?

[Daveembry]

So vinyl wrapped wire is a must?

Probably not a must. I think it’s thinner wire inside that bends easier with that vinyl wrapped wire though. In other words, that wire seems to be more malleable (easier to bend) than wire that was not vinyl wrapped?