Not loving this cold weather!
- This topic has 35 replies, 17 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 10 months ago by .
- Posts
Boy I wish I was back in a booth instead of working outside in a tent!
With freezing temperatures overnight and not getting much above 40°F during the day it’s pretty hard work this SMART lark. As you can see, I don’t have a lot of protection from the elements (although the tent does have sides fitted now):
[IMG]http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn385/Duluxdude/Work/IMAG0080Medium.jpg[/IMG]
My paint (Autowave) stays in the van overnight which can’t be much good for it knowing how cold it gets in there. I’m regularly having to chip the ice off my wet flatting bucket and this morning I had some moisture freeze in one of the airline connectors blocking the flow completely. During the day I have to stand the containers of mixed paint in warm water to reduce their viscosity enough for it to go through my strainers 😆 My clear also has to be “pre-heated” or it sprays like syrup.
All in all I can’t say that I’m loving my current job and have still got the coldest months to come.
/Rant over 😛
Yea i bet working outside sucks. I hate it when my booth temp. falls below 25C. :blush:. keep pluging away im sure there are better days ahead. Hows the Autowave been working for you?
Hopefully you manage to make things work better or find something better suited.
What clear are you using?
I’m quite liking the Autowave. Of course its hard to tell what it’s like in the real world as I’m only spraying small areas most of the time but it certainly blends out very easily without any special tricks. Colour matching has been pretty good so far too, which I’m more than happy with considering I’m mixing such small amounts (0.05litres ~2oz most of the time) so percentage errors on the scales will be high.
Clear is a brand I’ve never heard of. No match for a quality clear but nearly every job needs buffing to within an inch of it’s life anyway to remove all the dust, dirt and small animals that get blown into it 😆
http://tradegroup.co.uk/products/paints/clear-coats/anti-scratch-clear-coat/
Ive often thought about going into mobile smart repair and I think I would do if we lived somewhere warm! The place I work in is a real old building with no heating or insulation, at times its colder inside than outside so I know how you feel. Keep it at Andy, Im sure you wont be long before your back in the warmth of the booth!
Dude get u one of those jet type kero heaters, to keep the tent warm. I know it sucks in the cold weather, u using speed clear?
[quote=”lild” post=28894]Dude get u one of those jet type kero heaters, to keep the tent warm. I know it sucks in the cold weather, u using speed clear?[/quote]
I’ve linked to the clear above 🙂
A jet heater would be a good idea. I have a huge diesel one at the shop where I do my “weekend” work.
To be honest I can manage the cold, but I’m more worried about the products really. I spilt a bit of the WB activator on my scales yesterday and this morning it was a frozen lump. I hate to think what this cold is doing to the base itself. When I used Lechler and DeBeer both warned that under no circumstances should the tinters be subjected to frost but I don’t know about autowave. It’s a pretty safe assumption that it should be kept above freezing, but I don’t know for certain.
I even had to defrost my base gun this morning as I must have left a drop or two of water in it overnight and it had frozen solid 😆
have ya thought of keeping a small space heater u could plug in in the back of ur van at night ta keep everything from freezing???
Yes, I did think about that thanks but don’t fancy the idea of leaving something switched on when the van is unattended.
I have to leave the van on site for insurance reasons rather than taking it home so it’s a good 15-20 minute drive away. I think I’d be worried about it catching fire or something 😆
What I’m going to do is knock together an insulated storage box for the temperature sensitive stuff. That should help most of the time, and if we do get any really cold nights like we did last year (-16°C, about 3°F) then I’ll bring them home with me or try and find somewhere within the site building to keep them.
im interested in just how these SMART franchises work other than very well for the company seling them lol basicly why dont people just set up indendantly and source thier own materials etc
i would check with Sikkens regarding storage temp issues as i cant se being frozen would do these any good whatsever ,homogenisation is a very real concern as waterbased paints are designed for a stir free use ,if they split after freezing and defrosting you may start getting some real problems other than viscosity issues ,have you asked the company running the show why they havent addressed this in any way ?
i know as a self employed person you cant just stop when the weather gets cold but there is also a practical limit where products will start to fail or maybe even be destroyed ,most paint systems will warn against exposure to frost and freezing temps and the golden rule when i was being taught the game was if you can see your breath its too cold to spray
personaly i would asking some questions as it is your phone that will be ringing over warrenty issues
Paul
Hi Paul, actually I’m neither self employed nor franchised 🙂
I work for Evans Halshaw, one of the largest dealer chains in the country. I got into this late but from what I gather they shut down most of their bodyshops as they were uneconomical. In their place they set on a bunch of guys to do the small repairs on site instead. Unfortunately I’m one of the very few that doesn’t have a place to work inside a building, since the site I am based at is rather short on space. Most of the lads work inside the old bodyshop facilities or a valet bay or similar so don’t have the same problems I do. Hence it not being something the company has really encountered before or had need to address.
I hear what you’re saying and I’ve been in the trade long enough to know the potential pitfalls which is why I’m trying to do something about it. I’ve no choice but to paint in unfavourable conditions however, so I need to make it work one way or another.
Let’s hope I’m out of this job sooner rather than later though! I’m still pursuing a very exciting job offer that I’ve had but it involves a move abroad and a complete lifestyle change so I’m taking it slowly.
Thought of a solution for ya. Get a block heater installed on your truck. Plug it in, it’ll run all nite & keep the cabin warm for ya.
I like it!
I thought I’d add a quick picture of a little job I did yesterday. Nothing special, just blow a bit of base in the centre of the door and clear the panel, but bear in mind the picture is taken exactly where I painted it and look at the white stuff in the background.
[IMG]http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn385/Duluxdude/Work/IMAG0093.jpg[/IMG]
It’s been pretty cold here for a while so last weeks snow hasn’t even melted yet, and I’m painting outside in this :woohoo: It did start snowing just after this picture was taken but luckily the panel had started to dry a bit so the flakes didn’t mark it too much.
Holy crap man!
We’ve got it all on trying to sort jobs indoors nevermind outside in the snow.
Was there damage or just scratch?
Bit cheeky but would you say how much you charged for this?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.