Looking for a Spray Gun. Suggestions? - created 09-19-2009

McCormack, Chad - 09/19/2009.13:28:59

Looking to buy my first spray gun, and would like to hear your suggestions for a good gun and setup. Here are my particulars:

Compressor: 10 gallon tank. 4+ SCFM at 90 PSI.

Finishes: Waterborne lacquers and Latex paints, as I do NOT have an adequate/safe workspace for nitro/oils and I have two young kids in the house.

Uses: Guitars (of course!) as well as Cabinetry/Furniture/etc. projects.

Spending no more than $100 for a gun and filter(s), etc. would be ideal. As always, many thanks for your input.

Chad

When I worked "at the factory" I sprayed at least three days a week for 6 years. I used three different Binks/Devilbis guns while I was there, I've used HVLP guns, I have an ancient Sharpe gun that I bought close to 30 years ago to paint my car and I've used it for instruments ever since. I recently needed an extra gun and I bought a thirty-something dollar gun from Harbor Freight, and it sprays wonderfully. Fact is, there's very little difference in the quality of finish I can apply with any gun I've used, other than a couple of real cheapies, and they were just more work and harder to use, the finish still turned out fine.

You'll probably get some excellent advise about various guns here, and some of them will probably be tools I could really appreciate, but I'm here to tell you that a Harbor Freight gun works fine for me. Of coarse, I have been referred to as the kind of guy who could "get a good finish with a Windex bottle".

A few years ago I attended a workshop on KTM-9 water borne finish done by John Greven and Mike Doolin. They both said they used a $19.00 Harbor Freight jam gun. That's what I've done sense I started learning to spray. My first attempts were fair at best, but came out all right. They just took some extra sanding. My finishes have gotten better as I got more practice. The one thing that I would recommend is a small throw away filter next to the gun.

I bought an Asturo WB gun (#878WB KIT I believe) and it works o.k. but either a) I haven't figured out how to use it properly yet or b) you simply can't get a great off the gun finish with a sub $300 HVLP gun. Probably it's some of both.

By an "off the gun" finish, I mean that there's more orange peel on my finishes (target USL) than what I've seen from others - haven't seen a direct comparison of the same finish though. It's easy enough to level sand out though. You can see some pictures of before and after shots on my blog HERE.

The cheapie $19 jamb guns do a great job but most of your finish ends up in the air. That's a problem for me because it clogs all of my air filters and leaves a fine dust over everything that's just annoying to clean up.

I'm using an Asturo ECO/SX (1.3mm tip) and Target EM6000. I upgraded from a Grizzly $30 HVLP gun a couple of years ago. The Grizzly gun worked without much overspray but I could never get a good finish and took a long time leveling when I was done. Once I dialed in the Asturo, I'll never go back to a cheap gun. The Asturo uses more pressure than I would expect--40 to 45 pounds at the regulator. I had to dial in each of the controls a the gun to get a good pattern and good atomization. It sprays a nice level wet coat. I level and polish a guitar by hand in 30 to 45 minutes. For me, it was worth the money. When it is atomizing well, there is more overspray that I would like but much less than with the Grizzly gun.

Andy, if *most* of your finish is ending up in the air there's something really strange going on.

HVLP guns, at least the good ones, put a little less finish into the air, but the quality of the "off the gun" surface is dependent on the quality and condition of the tip and nozzle, and mostly on the operator.

>if *most* of your finish is ending up in the air there's something really strange going on.

I wasn't clear in my previous post. What I meant was that with a cheapie $19 *High Pressure* jamb gun most of the finish ends up in the air however, I was getting a pretty smooth finish. (Do they sell $19 HVLP guns?)

When I switched to HVLP, I'm getting *most* of my finish on the wood and very little in the air. I may also be being to picky on the off the gun finish but I have little to compare to. It just seems it should be better but it does sand out quickly.

One more thing, I tried spraying a burst with the gun (on scrap first) and ended up going back to the HP gun for the color coats because the atomization isn't near good enough. I know that some folk are able to get great bursts with HVLP but most are also using Sata or similar guns for >$300. I'm going to pick up an airbrush to help with that (probably an Iwata Eclipse).

because the atomization isn't near good enough.

That can come from having your color mix too strong and/or having your finish too thick. It's better to have the color thin both in consistency and light on the tint. Your color builds up slowly and it's easier to keep it even.

> That can come from having your color mix too strong and/or having your finish too thick

Same mix gave great results in the HP gun, crappy results in the HVLP. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are HVLP guns that can do it, but probably not the one I have. All the great HVLP bursts I've seen e.g. Joe White, were done with high dollar guns. IIRC, you use an HP gun no? Remember the A/B shots I posted with the HP vs. HVLP gun?

I think getting an airbrush for fine color work and an HVLP gun is a good compromise and still cheaper than getting a high dollar HVLP gun and the airbrush will always give you more options than just a $400 Sata.

Yes, I use a HP gun...a cheapie too but it does what I want it to!