Spraying advice - total newby

[Matted]

Hi All,

I was hoping I could get some advice - my wife has a little Etsy shop that sells hand made, and painted items - most of these items are letters and logos at around the A4-A3 kinda size and so far she has been hand painting or spraying with cans (mostly sprayed), made from MDF and/or Ply.

The cost/quality and wasteful nature of the cans is really something we want to look into and are looking into purchasing spray gun/compressor or full-electric model - but I'm clueless. All I know is most of what we spray here seems to be water-based paint (thankfully). I can't be sure how many cans we have used in the last few months, but I suspect it's around the 20-30 mark

Im assuming once you've bought the hardware the cost of paint works out better than individual cans - Ill be honest spray undercoat is a money pit!

The long and the short of it is we are looking for a better option, one that's less wasteful and better value - can anyone offer some advice?

 

[RobinBHM]

A bit more info would be helpful.....

Is it lots of different colours, so do you need rapid change over?
It sounds like you are spraying a waterborne primer with opaque coloured top coats?

It sounds like you need a mini touch up gun, but may want the option of 3m PPS which is system allowing spray gun paint liners for rapid changeover.

https://www.spraygunsdirect.co.uk/index.php/sprayguns-parts/mini-midi-sprayguns.html

Vital things are: measuring cups and something to do sprayouts on -a roll of lining paper hung up works.

A mini gun doesn't use much air.....I would be tempted to search for a second hand bambi on eBay....they are silent compressors. There are also budget quiet compressors around.

 

[Matted]

Hey Robin, thanks for the reply!

so yeah, other than undercoat which every item gets a coat of we to use around 7 other colours - mostly gold/Silver and a bunch of more standard colours.

In an ideal world (and correct me if Im wrong) it would be handy to have all these paints, in pots that can be attached to the gun and used.

I appreciate that between change over the gun would have to be cleaned - Back in my airbrush days this would be done with warm soapy water, I'm hoping its a similar process here? And even back in my airbrush days I used a small under desk air compressor. Looking at that Bambi you mentioned it seems to be a similar thing

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

I've heard said that the cheap guns create a finish that is perfectly acceptable for wood (more expensive guns required for cars and exotic paints), which obviously gives you the opportunity to have multiple guns on the go. Time is money.

Cleaning for me is warm soapy water. I find the gun has to be dismantled each time (which I am not disciplined at) or eventually it will start to clog up.

 

[julianf]

I spray metal for work. Ive got a few guns. I think one of them retails at close on £300 now - but i also have a couple that are out of cheap £25 toolstation air tool kits.

The cheap gun would be absolutely fine for what you want.

Have a look out for a second hand air compressor, and buy one of those toolstation / screwfix / ebay etc kits (evreywhere sells them). You will find the compressor comes in useful for so many other things once you have it.

I would say £100 would get you something. £25 for the kit of tools, and maybe £40 for some resonable airline.

Try and look out for a belt driven compressor. The little direct drive ones are way more noisy, and a lot of them are built way too cheaply (ie break quickly) but belt drive ones are never on such a tight budget (ie will cost more, but will be better value)

 

[Sideways]

You need my setup. Admittedly expensive but all high spec sprayguns are and for me it was one of those game changing tools:
Iwata LPH80 mini spray guy with 3M PPS disposable liners.

It draws just 2cfm, one of the lowest airflows on the market and spays a really good pattern from tiny upto 5" wide.
I power mine from a very high capacity airbrush compressor that is really quiet. Luxury ! But a bambi would probably do.

The PPS liners allow you to swap colours with just a few mils of thinners between to clean out the gun and can be plugged to keep your paint good for a few days between sessions.

If you look after it dilligently, you will probably get back 60-80% of the price of a gun like this when you come to sell it.