# Troubleshooting fisheyes with SW Urethane Trim Enamel



## SpruceMoose (5 mo ago)

I just tested out a pressure pot HVLP setup on some cabinet doors using semi-gloss SW emerald urethane trim enamel. The doors were prepped with 2 coats of the SW bin equivalent, white pigmented shellac primer. They were sanded smooth with 220 and tacked. I used to do automotive body work, so I'm pretty good with getting gravity feed hvlp guns to spray nicely. I'm only using the pressure pot to push the emerald urethane out the tip to how a normal gravity gun would naturally flow out when testing with no air. 

It sprayed on flawlessly, or so I thought. After about 10 minutes, small perfectly spherical, thick filmed bubbles started forming, which eventually turned into fish eyes after several hours. I'm trying to figure out what type of contamination, incompatibility, or some part of my process that is flawed, but nothing is coming to me. Being used to spraying automotive, my process is seemingly, very clean. 

Being that this so costly to troubleshoot with this product, especially with a pressure pot, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions?


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## SW_RepCanada (Dec 6, 2020)

SpruceMoose said:


> I just tested out a pressure pot HVLP setup on some cabinet doors using semi-gloss SW emerald urethane trim enamel. The doors were prepped with 2 coats of the SW bin equivalent, white pigmented shellac primer. They were sanded smooth with 220 and tacked. I used to do automotive body work, so I'm pretty good with getting gravity feed hvlp guns to spray nicely. I'm only using the pressure pot to push the emerald urethane out the tip to how a normal gravity gun would naturally flow out when testing with no air.
> 
> It sprayed on flawlessly, or so I thought. After about 10 minutes, small perfectly spherical, thick filmed bubbles started forming, which eventually turned into fish eyes after several hours. I'm trying to figure out what type of contamination, incompatibility, or some part of my process that is flawed, but nothing is coming to me. Being used to spraying automotive, my process is seemingly, very clean.
> 
> Being that this so costly to troubleshoot with this product, especially with a pressure pot, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions?


What is the product number on the cans? It’s been reformulated a bunch of times in the past two years. Should start with k38 then 4 numbers. Lmk which you got.


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## jennifertemple (Oct 30, 2011)

FISH EYES


"Almost all aerosol furniture polishes and some non-aerosols contain silicone. Also, some hand lotions, cosmetics and even deck stains contain silicone. I doubt there’s any problem in finishing more frustrating than fish eye. The problem usually appears as moon-like craters in the first coat of...




www.painttalk.com


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## stelzerpaintinginc. (May 9, 2012)

New doors or previously finished?
What type of tack cloth was used?
Have you tried to spray a scrap piece of new stock to see if the contamination might've been on the door itself vs. your setup or tools?


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## Mike2coat (Nov 12, 2013)

Do you usually run solvent based coating through this set up?


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## MissMary.561 (Nov 17, 2021)

I’m painting cabinets now and was having the same problem. I wiped them down with 50/50 denatured alcohol and dried them with a clean t-shirt rag before spraying. Solved the problem.


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