New 50 KV gun: how does it compare to the old gun?

[Banditperformance]

Acctual visibe sparks? Or just a buzzing, ionization sound? If your getting sparks from the tip to the work, that you can see, like lightning, then the gun is putting out WAY to much voltage. A light rapid snapping is normal for my gun at high voltage. It's the voltage "leaking" into the air, so to speak. But, if you are getting physical sparks 12" long, send it back to caswell, cause it's not right. You can get hurt real bad.

If it's sparking between the Part and the Rack only, then you need a better ground contact between the part and the rack.

[NXGHOST]

I get the buzzing snapping sound but the sparks are only between the part and the rack. The ground clip is directly on the part and the rack is mostly powdercoated from previous jobs. Should I not worry about it and go closer anyway?

[chromeitout]

Originally Posted by NXGHOST

I get the buzzing snapping sound but the sparks are only between the part and the rack. The ground clip is directly on the part and the rack is mostly powdercoated from previous jobs. Should I not worry about it and go closer anyway?

Mine does the exact same thing.

[sdold]

I bet the problem is that the rack is isolated from ground. Can you try grounding it too?

The reason I think this is because if I forget to ground a part, it builds up a big charge during the coating process, and shocks me big time when I touch it after coating. It sounds like your rack could be picking up a charge the same way.

[NXGHOST]

Im going to try a second clip from the part to the rack. I will see what that does. I also get a bit of a zap when touching the rack.

[Banditperformance]

Ya, the part AND the metal racks need to be grounded. What's happening is basically you are creating a big capacitor. Slowly charging the rack. Then when it get's to a high enough voltage, it sparks to the part, which is grounded. I sometimes use metal racks too, but I attach the ground to the rack. Before the next time I powdercoat on it, I take a grinder with a emery flap disk and grind down the top part of the rack to bare metal. To ensure the part gets a good electrical contact to the rack. You can also use Aligator clip jumpers, commonly found at Radioshack. But I find the grinding method also helps to keep built up powder on the rack lower

[speeddemonrodsteration]

so is worth buying or not- mosly for second coats and getting in those tight corners? I've got it pretty figured out with the original hobbie gun but it still would be nice to have a little more versatility without having to take a peice into work and use the antique gun.

[NXGHOST]

Originally Posted by speeddemonrodsteration

so is worth buying or not- mosly for second coats and getting in those tight corners? I've got it pretty figured out with the original hobbie gun but it still would be nice to have a little more versatility without having to take a peice into work and use the antique gun.

Getting into tight corners? Hell no. The 50KV guns lowest setting is 35KV. The regular gun is 14KV. The lowest setting on the 50KV gun is simply too high. It orange peels more than the lower volatge gun also. If caswell made a switch on the gun that dropped the voltage to 10-15KV it would be killer.

[sdold]

Thanks for the testimonials on the new gun!