Air Compressor for Wood French Panes

I was installing LLumar N1065 on an entry door to a $500,000 home. The door had 16 panes approximately 15"x12" with wood dividers. I cleaned the windows, dried them, and then sprayed the film only with two of the four sides precut. I still kept getting alot of debris behind the glass. The homeowner brought me a hose from his garage air compressor with a fine tip and said try this.

You would not believe how much water blew out from behind the wood after shooting air into the wood trim. I used the air to blow out the debris and residual water. Then I sprayed just the film and had no debris. It was amazing how much better this worked. I'm considering buying a small portable unit for these type of jobs in the future.

Im glad it worked out for yah. Its nice when a customer wants to help out and not just looking over your shoulder wondering why your not doing a good job...haha My only concern would be 1) The mess and splatter this might cause to the interior of the home, especially if it was in a livingroom, and 2) The airborne particles coming back to bite you in the ass while doing the later windows. Sounds like it worked out okay for u though in this situation

I've used air before on old grouted windows with some success!

I spray the glass with little water and scrape it dry, and with every pass of the triumph I wipe the blade off on a rag or my shirt, which ever is more convenient. I scrap it untill it is dry and when i go into the frame of the glass I pull strait back so that anything that is on the blade stays on it. And then I have 2 factory sides and only get the film wet and stick and cut. They come out looking very nice with very little debris. You can also precut for the more debris laden windows.

that is why when working on wood frames, try to avoid using much water, especially at the top of the frame where obvviously water would drip or run down, causing contamination.

mist it my friend.

I have my own way of doing wooden frames successfully.

I dry scrape, then flush the tops and sides with a direct flushing of solution to get all the debris out that would have come out undrneath the film...I usually do this 2 times.

After final clean (and no contaminate left to float down with gravity is left on the top or sides) I spray the window lightly,the film plenty(but not around the sides of the window(leave it dry).
When I put the peice on,I always us a factory edge for the tops (this avoids the vacum affect that takes place for any hidden debris getting sucked out of the top of the window)

Hope this method helps someone ..not THE way..only A way.

used the air a couple of times last year. only when the paint is really excessive. i cut the edges out with an olfa and then dry scrape. next i'll brush the paint off going from top to bottom. the air comes in now, BEFORE the window gets wet. i won't wet the glass for cleaning until i'm sure the paint chips are gone.
and no, dust is not gonna come raining down on your film, never has happened to me from using air.

How about buying some of that air in a can stuff used to dust computer keyboards and ect.. Cheaper and less noisy. Only prob is those cans get mighty cold with extended continuous use. Just a thought if u are going to use air occasionally. It also fits nicely in ur tool box making less to carry.

I used air commpressors back in the day before micro dots and painted borders, when you had rubber seals on 70% of the vehicles. It helps to start with a clean dry window.

As far as painted wood frames ... Pain in da as$

I have concidered it. But for now I just clean the window really good, flush the sides. After I make my cut, I imediatly squeegee the edge and wipe it with a paper towel to seal the edge so it does not lift and suck in contaminates. This works fine until you get to the bottom of the window. When I cut the sides I stop 3/4 of the way down, lift the film, place a towel on the window sill, and flush the bottom of the window, drop the film down , cut and squeege and wipe the edges as quickly as possible.

I have concidered the compressed air in the can.

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Wow. Just came across this post. You guys really dont use compressors????
I use a small "pancake" style compressor from Home Depot.
I leave the compressor outside and run a 50 ft. hose inside.
I dry scrape my windows and frames. Next while brushing edges w/ stiff paintbrush I blow out all debrise. I can do varnished wood frames w/ little to no contamination at all. I assumed everyone did wood this way. Try it I think you will like it.