Replies

1. 
   goldhiller | May 09, 2003 06:14am | #1

   Depends.

   How large of a compressor do you have.........motor, head and tank?

   Will you have a separate finishing booth/room which can be well/force ventilated?

   How much spraying do you anticipate doing?

   Will codes where you are located allow high pressure (conventional) spraying?

   How much are you willingly to spend?

   Will you be spraying buildings or the like with this rig?

   Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
1. 
   user-256310 | May 09, 2003 03:05pm | #2

   My compressor is a 2 hp with a 5 gal tank on wheels

   I don't intend on spraying more than a few times a year

   right now I want to spray some osb on the inside of a storage building i'm finishing. I occasionally do some woodworking and would it to do the finishing on those projects.

1. 
   goldhiller | May 09, 2003 06:44pm | #3

   lancho,

   I guess I'd rather see you with a bit more tank capacity and a little less HP. The reason for less HP is that it would likely give you more portability/compatibility when you move outside your shop or want to use the rig on location somewhere. I'm imaging yours requires 220. All that being said, you can probably do what you need to do with what you've got, but your compressor will do more starting and stopping than my rig will. (I hope it's an oil lubricated compressor as they last longer and when you spray, it's gonna run a lot.)

   The unit I use for this is one that I bought back about 1980. It's a DeVilbiss single stage head with 1 HP motor and 12 gallon tank. It'll run on any 120VAC 20amp circuit so it takes me wherever I need to go. It produces 7 CFM at 40PSI and that's all I need to spray most any material and the head will keep up with the gun even if you don't release the trigger all day. This is, however, the minimum size outfit that I'd recommend to anyone who wants a good combo of performance and portability for high pressure spraying of common materials. And now I have to admit that I'm usually running a spray gun that's a Bink's knockoff. Works great and only cost about $50 at the time. If I was spraying automotive finishes, I'd pop for the real deal. Although I can't tell ya exactly how many houses and outbuildings I've sprayed with this rig, it would be somewhere around fifty, as well as all the work it's done spraying finishes for furniture and cabinets over that 23 year span. (I also have an airless rig for spraying building exteriors, but truth is I prefer the other rig as I just don't have as much control of fluid feed rate and pattern size with the airless. Airless, by the way, isn't for shooting furniture finishes.)

   And no, I can't recommend a gun for you. It's been a long time since I've purchased a new one. Not all the "knockoffs" will be of equal quality tho, and if the orifices aren't accurate on the air cap, it can dramatically alter the shape of the pattern and the quality of the job. Look at that air cap with a very critical eye is about all I can offer you if you look for an inexpensive knockoff.

   On to the other issues………. Most any decent high-pressure spray gun with a siphon cup will be able to spray the lighter bodies materials like stain and lacquer to your satisfaction once you learn how to run the gun. There is a learning curve, but if you've got a buddy who's practiced at this, he can get you over the biggest humps in short order. (Buy and use a viscosity cup to adjust all materials.) You should be able to spray the stains at say, 25 psi and lacquer-like materials at no more than 40psi with a siphon feed cup, but when you enter the arena of latex paint, you'll have problems getting it to siphon to the head even when it's at proper viscosity.

   I'd really recommend that if you intend to spray latex, that you either buy a gun with a cup that's convertible from siphon to pressure feed with a little valve there on the cup/head or that you buy a pressure tank and some hoses to feed the gun for these heavier bodied materials. (Things will go much, much better if you're forcing the latex up into the gun head rather than trying to coax it up there via siphon feed as this can require pressures around 60-65 psi) These are available in all kinds of sizes from a quart to 3 gallon or larger. You simply pull the cup from the gun, hook up the hoses, pressurize the material canister a bit and away ya go. I run a 3 gallon job that I got from Sears many years ago. You don't have to dump your paint in it if you're only going to spray a gallon or so, just set the can in the bottom of the tank and lower the pick up tube into it. If nothing else, your arm is going to get mighty fatigued in short order if you're spraying buildings/large areas from a cup and you're going to get sick and tired of reloading that cup every quart of material. You do, however, have to make sure you clean the tank and hoses well every time.

   Buy and use a good respirator rated for this purpose. You might find you want to grab one of those cloth sprayer's hoods too, to keep it out of your hair.

   I think what I've suggested will give you the greatest latitude for a wide array of materials and situations for the least amount of coin. The time may come when you'll want to use HVLP to reduce drift and increase material transfer rates. That'll require a much larger compressor to run a conversion gun or that you purchase a turbine outfit. I can vouch for the Wagner 2600 as good performance for the money (it's really a CapSpray unit). If and when that time comes, you'll find that there's another big learning curve for HVLP.

   Edit: Make sure you have an oil and water filter in your line/on your compressor for spraying any material.

   Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.

   Edited 5/9/2003 11:49:54 AM ET by GOLDHILLER

2. 
   Sancho | May 10, 2003 03:13am | #4

   I recommend contacting Jeff jewitt @ http://www.homesteadfinishing.com  or call the folks at http://www.compliantspraysystems.com. either one of them shoulod be able to hook you up with a system that will meet your needs.

    

   Darkworks:  Its all 'bout da squilla