Landry Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 For some reason my fluid beds I made are not working properly. The air seems to be going up the inside walls of the cup. I used photocopy paper as my filter/bottom of paint area - is there another type of more porous paper I could try? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasilofchrisn Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 There are tons of different materials to use as fluid bed membranes. Tyvek from the post office envelope works well for lots of paints. Just make sure you have the correct side up. Brown paper bag material of different thicknesses can work. Different weights of copy paper can work. Vacuum cleaner bag material can work. Again just make sure you have the correct side facing up. I find with a lot of my paints I have to stir them up first is sometimes they will settle and cake up a little bit. And some of them just never want to flow properly due to the heavy pigments in them. I actually built a vibratory fluid bed base for my problem paints and it does help quite a bit with some of them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Catignani Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 11 hours ago, Kasilofchrisn said: I actually built a vibratory fluid bed base for my problem paints and it does help quite a bit with some of them. The key word here is "vibratory". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azsouth Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 There are a lot of different reasons why fluid beds don't work. Here are a couple. 1. Moisture in the powder. 2. Powder is compacted, just use something to stir it and add air. 3. Lack of air flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowFISH Posted March 22, 2022 Report Share Posted March 22, 2022 On 3/17/2022 at 10:06 AM, azsouth said: There are a lot of different reasons why fluid beds don't work. Here are a couple. 1. Moisture in the powder. 2. Powder is compacted, just use something to stir it and add air. 3. Lack of air flow. azsouth just gave a bunch to watch... and are usually the main culprits. If you are using fresh, new powder and still having issues.... then yes you'd have to start messing with your fluidbed. I use coffee filters for my "membrane" - seems to work well and is cheap as can be - you can double up if necessary to get the right amount of penetration - or even perforate the second (outer) layer in areas you'd want to "focus" the air a little more. I recently had exact same issues... first was old powder - it was "fluffy" to my eye, but when I got a fresh bag of it I noticed that it what I had was more sugar grain like instead of talcum powder like... made a huge difference. I also added "vibration" to my little 1 cup setup. Bought some vibrating motors off amazon for an X-Box controller. connected (2 AA) batteries and mounted the motor. Seems to shake the powder just enough to help keep it flowing. I'd probably get a bigger motor if I did it again to really shake it good, but it definitely helps to vibrate. From what I can tell it doesn't allow the "tunnels/chimneys" of air to form - as once hey do the shake/vibration collapses it. J. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RM3 Posted October 9, 2022 Report Share Posted October 9, 2022 Go to TJ'S tackles website, get their phone number and call them, they sell precut discs of fluidizing membrane. You have to call because it's not on the website. It's actually designed for the job and is leaps and bounds superior to any home brew "solution". Try it and you'll thank me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadman Posted October 10, 2022 Report Share Posted October 10, 2022 Not to take anything away from TJ, but I bought the fluid discs from him and they did not work with my powder. With that said, all powder will not work in all media. I have seven dedicated powder cup colors. Out of the seven 3 of them have Tyvek media, 3 of them have vacuum cleaner bags and 1 has a brown bag. So this tells me and I have been doing this for along time, that all powder pigments are not created equal. I found this to be true with not only my powder but CSI (Pro-tec) powder as well. On another note, vibratory movement as mentioned above is the key to a lot of problems. Since you are using an air source, let your air pump touch your fluid bed, the vibrations may help. Also you can build a small stand on your fluid bed that can sit on top of your air pump which will vibrate as well. A little ingenuity will solve many of your problems. Good luck. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m.t.pockets Posted October 10, 2022 Report Share Posted October 10, 2022 On 3/16/2022 at 9:53 PM, Kasilofchrisn said: Tyvek from the post office envelope works well for lots of paints. Just make sure you have the correct side up. what is the correct side? Writing to the inside of cup or facing down to the work bench Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadman Posted October 10, 2022 Report Share Posted October 10, 2022 12 minutes ago, m.t.pockets said: what is the correct side? Writing to the inside of cup or facing down to the work bench Doesn't make a difference as far as I'm concerned. However do not cut the circle with the seam in it. Make sure your cutout circle is all one piece.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasilofchrisn Posted October 14, 2022 Report Share Posted October 14, 2022 On 10/10/2022 at 11:58 AM, m.t.pockets said: what is the correct side? Writing to the inside of cup or facing down to the work bench the red lettering from the envelope should be facing down. They are designed to let moisture out but not in so that would give you the best air flow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m.t.pockets Posted October 14, 2022 Report Share Posted October 14, 2022 tried both ways but red letter down works best. thanks for all the help 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadman Posted November 28, 2022 Report Share Posted November 28, 2022 On 10/13/2022 at 7:01 PM, Kasilofchrisn said: the red lettering from the envelope should be facing down. They are designed to let moisture out but not in so that would give you the best air flow. That's good to know. I didn't know there was a difference. Thanks for the info. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasilofchrisn Posted November 30, 2022 Report Share Posted November 30, 2022 On 11/28/2022 at 11:17 AM, cadman said: That's good to know. I didn't know there was a difference. Thanks for the info. No problem! That's why tyvek is often used as a vapor barrier in home construction. It is designed to allow moisture to escape but not come in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
