A quart of finish ruined by water in my compressor line

I was spraying a tabletop yesterday and got fisheyes everywhere because my compressor spat water into the finish. I drain it regularly, but a humid day must have overloaded the filter. Some folks say this is always user error for not having a good enough dryer setup, others think it's just bad luck with old gear. What's your take?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.linda1mo ago

Tell me about it, I once ruined a whole gallon of lacquer because my ancient compressor basically coughed up a lung of swamp water right into the gun. I felt like such a goof, even after draining the tank religiously. Honestly, I think it's a mix of both, like yeah maybe my setup wasn't perfect, but sometimes the old gear just decides to have a bad day. Now I run two of those cheap inline filters in a row and pray to the shop gods.

grace_bailey1mo ago

Watched my neighbor's old airbrush spit out what looked like pond scum onto a freshly painted guitar body. He just sighed and said some tools hold grudges.

brown.emery1mo ago

Hard disagree on the old gear having bad days. That's just giving a pass to poor maintenance. Compressors don't have feelings or hold grudges, they follow physics. If swamp water got through, the moisture trap failed or wasn't good enough. Blaming the tool is a cop out when the real fix is better equipment checks or spending on a proper filter system instead of hoping two cheap ones work.