spray guns

[cowboy682]

Hi all
what is the best spray gun around? what l am wanting is some thing that l can leave in a jar till next time l need it, and also use for varnish and if possible electric but not too bothered about that

many thanks Graham

 

[Eric The Viking]

Hi all
what is the best spray gun around? what l am wanting is some thing that l can leave in a jar till next time l need it, and also use for varnish and if possible electric but not too bothered about that

You're asking the impossible, probably.

If you want to keep a gun, you need to clean it well, as soon as you can after use. Although you can switch chemistries with some tools, unless you totally clean from one (and dry), the old chemistry will contaminate the new and spoil the results.

I have a Wagner airless design, used for house painting rather than woodwork finishing. It is brilliant, but prep and cleaning take ages and waste huge amounts of paint, although with care you can mitigate this a bit. You _can_ just keep the spray "tip" in cleaner (they have a cleaning container especially for this), but you don't escape the need to do the whole thing (and lubricate it too), before storage.

I also have an Earlex HVLP gun (for the blow side of a vacuum cleaner). That wastes a lot less paint but has other issues, for example it's gravity fed so you can't use it at just any old angle. And who knows what is being blown through to clog it at a crucial moment.

Peter Millard has some excellent videos* on both his Graco (battery powered & airless), and a much cheaper conventional gun he has - he gets stellar results with both. You will probably be shocked at the cost of the Graco, although it would probably be my choice if I made stuff commercially, as it's versatile and economical with paint. Even in that case you'll pay extra for a pump that is solvent-proof (for water and solvent chemistries). It's probably a lot easier to buy two cheaper guns and just use them separately.

Have to say that I think Airless is the spraying equivalent of MIG welding: very easy to learn and gives surprisingly good results with very little practice. The drawback is the wastage and the time spent in cleanup. OTOH, if I was repeating the same colour and workpieces in a small production environment, I'd probably choose it, but I wouldn't try to swap chemistries.

E.

*I thought he had a spraying play list - he made a very helpful series. You'll have to search through his channel for them (the link is to just one).

 

[cowboy682]

Hi what about the critter there are only 3 points to clean, the tip, the tube into the jar and keep the air ways clear seems like it is some thing l would be looking at, but could you use varnish ? that is the only thing that worries me because l use a lot, thanks for the response

 

[petermillard]

[
Peter Millard has some excellent videos* on both his Graco (battery powered & airless), and a much cheaper conventional gun he has - he gets stellar results with both. You will probably be shocked at the cost of the Graco, although it would probably be my choice if I made stuff commercially, as it's versatile and economical with paint...

*I thought he had a spraying play list - he made a very helpful series. You'll have to search through his channel for them (the link is to just one).

Thanks Eric; playlist with all spraying adventures here

 

[ED65]

what is the best spray gun around?

Line up 50 painters you can virtually guarantee you'll get at least 25 different opinions on this.

But in terms of bang for the buck, this video about spraying Farrow & Ball on YouTube channel "Lowes joinery and spray painting specialist" may be of some interest. Listen especially for what he says at 4:29.

 

[AES]

I can't say I'm an expert on spraying, but have had quite a bit of experience with it myself, and have worked closely with professionals (painting aircraft).

From all I've learnt, what you're looking for just doesn't exist, sorry.

IME, ANY spraying job with any sort of gun consists of (approx.) 45% of total job time spent on prep (the job, the paint, and the gun,) followed by 10% total time actually spraying, followed by 45% total time cleaning afterwards (inc. the gun & container/s plus the job and surroundings). My experience also proves to me that there aren't many short cuts in the above, whatever materials you're spraying (not even water-based varnish).

Yup, as Peter Millard's excellent video series on spraying shows, (+1 to the above comment about his vids, good info on spraying) there ARE "tricks of the trade" you can use to reduce the above prep and clean up times, but sorry, you're still going to have do both prep & clean up tasks - dirty, boring, and (in relation to the actual spraying time) time-consuming.

Which is why I do not now spray unless it's a big job. All my small size jobs are attacked with rattle cans - which are relatively MUCH more expensive, and also require both job and can prep, but also result in a MUCH faster job overall, and with practically identical (good) results.

Please note, I'm not referring in the above to house-painting sized jobs, I'm talking jobs of up to, say, a couple or 3 Sq Metres.

Just MO and ME. HTH