$50 spray Gun

[Willyou]

Have any of you used this or similar spray gun? How well does it work? Is it worth the price? Is it good for finish work or is it strictly utilitarian.
Thanks

[jteneyck]

I can't say how well that gun works, but for $10 you can buy an HVLP gun at Harbor Freight (on sale right now) that sprays shellac and low viscosity finishes really well. It will run on any compressor that can put out around 6 CFM at 40 psi, which is a pretty modest compressor. With an HVLP gun you can control fluid flow, air flow, and fan width.

John

[Snipe Hunter]

Wholie cow, what the heck is that? Looks like they made that out of an old mason jar and a bug sprayer. I've never seen seen a spray gun with "Horse Power" in the specs before.


There's a zillion great guns you can buy under 50 bucks... 2 for 1

[Willyou]

I have an airbrush with the largest tip available for it. It works great for real small projects. I also have an automotive touch-up gun with, what I assume, is a standard size flow needle (.8 I think). No smaller size available for it. The touch-up gun is too large for most of my purposes, even with the pressure turned down to minimum. My compressor is capable of 6cfm @ 90psi. I don't use a spray gun often. But when I do, I would like to have something a little larger than the air brush, but not as big as the touch-up. Any suggestions.

[Snipe Hunter]

90 psi is way too high. What is scfm at 40-50 psi?

.8 mm is extremely small for a spray gun but it should be fine for small projects and thinner finishes. Usually the smallest size is somewhere near 1.1mm for wood finishes. Most water-based products won't pass through a .8mm tip They require 1.1 or 1.3mm minimum. I'm thinking you might do better just spending more time learning to use the gun you have or buying a cheap one from Grizzly or Harbor Freight with a slightly larger tip. Maybe your gun isn't adjusted correctly or the tip and needle are too small?

The contraption you linked is a take off of a typical "old school" bug sprayer. You can't adjust the fan for proper painting.

90 psi is way too high. What is cfm do you have at 40-50 psi?

[Willyou]

The compressor is a Ridgid 0F45150 and the only cfm rating I have for it is at 90 psi. The spray gun tip size of .8 is a typo. I should have said 1.8. Sorry. It is a siphon feed gun, if that matters.

I have tried turning the pressure down to the gun's minimum settings (+- 30 psi) and adjusting the fluid feed accordingly. It is still just too much with over spray filling the small shop. I'm wondering if something like this would work better. I would like to have something with capacity just a step or two above an airbrush for thin products like lacquer and shellac.

[Snipe Hunter]

Ok, 1.8 is big enough to drive a truck through. Grizzly has a two gun kit (the one with plastic cups) for about $50. It's really pretty decent and comes with a .8 and a 1.4mm tip. Link . Keep your current gun for shooting thicker products like primers, etc. That should get you on the right track.

[Willyou]

I notice that some of the small guns, like the one I last linked, has an off-set cup that apparently swivels to keep it more or less level depending on if you are spraying something flat or vertical. Is that worth having?

[Snipe Hunter]

I had one of those. It worked but it really never got used much. Just something else to leak and clean. There really hasn't been any significant advancement in air guns in 50+ years. They added regulators to make them EPA compliant and came up with turbine guns but the technology hasn't really changed. But, you can buy a nice Chinese knock off of a 300 dollar gun for 20 bucks now.

Don't overthink this. Buy a gun that pushes the limit of the CFM of your compressor and practice with it. There's plenty in the $50 range and below that shoot fine. I'd buy a can of Deft Brushing lacquer, thin it 10% with lacquer thinner and start shooting. Fool around till you get the setting right. Shoot in the shade and not when it's too hot. You won't really deviate much from those settings.

[jteneyck]

The HF gun I linked to has a 1.4 mm orifice and will spray shellac and other low viscosity products very well. For $10 you can't go wrong and your compressor will work fine with it.

John