Spray gun recommendations

[N2ae86]

I am a novice painter and have painted a few parts of my car with what I would consider acceptable results, but being picky they could be better and I was thinking that a better gun would probably make a big difference. I currently have a Clarke HVLP gun - £30 jobby but I suspect that compared to more professional equipment the difference would be might and day.

Anyone got any recommendations on what is a good make of professional spray gun? Devilbiss / Sata etc? And do you know of any good suppliers that sell this kit new at reasonable prices, as some of the big name stuff is pretty spendy for a hobby painter.

Cheers

James

 

[Pulsarbebb]

I used to have an old suction feed gun which was rubbish so I bought an Amtech gravity spray gun and its en excellant it has an air flow adjuster on it and you can change the spread of fan on it, that only cost me £30 from charlies stores, but for more professional guns I would have no idea

 

[Wayne.]

if you can afford to go to a pro gun then these are the best Sata and Devilbiss Gti's they are all i use now but with premium guns comes a premium price,you can get them sometimes on ebay at handy money

 

[mike os]

as above,

 

[pedrobedro]

But when you've bought your pro gun and the results are still not what you expect what happens then ? I'd experiment with paint viscosity and air pressures a bit and filter your paint well before I spent a load of cash on more gear.

 

[Wayne.]

lol i am not a pro sprayer i taught myself and from my point of view good tools/equipment make the learning curve alot less painful.but its your money i just dont see the piont in buying cheap stuff then having to replace it

 

[mike os]

agreed, a good gun will enable a good painter to get a good fininsh quickly & easily.... if you still need to learn the basics an expensive gun will not miraculously make you a wonder painter

My personal choice is the devilbis finishline stuff, about £60-80, & imo they have 85% of the performance of the GTI/SRI's ive tried.....I would need a dedicated paint shop to justify the extra £200/gun & would still need a lot of practice to improve the finish I get now.

 

[pedrobedro]

I used to spray white panels and boiler components in a boiler factory and we used to use Binks Bullows and Devilbiss equipment with the paint in pressure pots. I get a reasonable finish from a £20 non hvlp gravity gun and an old suction gun I've had for 30 years made by a firm called Defynik but I'm not that fussy. If it's all one colour

 

[Wayne.]

agreed, a good gun will enable a good painter to get a good fininsh quickly & easily.... if you still need to learn the basics an expensive gun will not miraculously make you a wonder painter

My personal choice is the devilbis finishline stuff, about £60-80, & imo they have 85% of the performance of the GTI/SRI's ive tried.....I would need a dedicated paint shop to justify the extra £200/gun & would still need a lot of practice to improve the finish I get now.

i wasnt implying that a top gun would make you a top painter but it helps to use good gear imho to each there own and all that just have fun learning a new skill and if you can make a few quid along the way so much the better..

 

[N2ae86]

Thanks for the responses peeps.

I am nowhere near a pro sprayer but I have managed to get what I consider to be some good results considering it was my first time. I did feel though that the gun I was using wasnt helping me any though and I was having to work around the issues.

Played with the settings and found a setting that worked, but it didnt matter what I did the fan was very limited, even when I pumped the pressure up higher - were talking 10 inch max which dosnt seem enough to me?

Think I will see if I can find someone with a pro gun that I can borrow and just shoot some paint to see the difference.

 

[pedrobedro]

A 10" fan, what are you painting, buses. Are you in a hurry to get the job done ? I don't use any more than I would expect to put on with a brush, 5" or 6" at most or the wet edge is too thin and it stripes.

 

[danelectro]

I have a Devilbiss JGA 557, have used it for 25 years, and I love it, totally predictable and a damn good gun.

And it's made me loads of money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[N2ae86]

Ooops ... I meant 10 cm! So it seems that possibly it is performing as it should? Maybe I need to get some more practice and see how it goes. How much effect does the needle size have on the final paint finish - if the needle is to big does it tend to lead to more orange peel?

 

[pedrobedro]

It would be more likely to lead to runs. Orange peel is more likely to be holding the gun too close with too much air pressure. Get some cardboard to fasten to the back of the garage door and practise on it, or on the back of the garage door in my case. It's Flame red from a Corsa in places at the moment.

 

[Dune]

I have rebuilt so many bikes Ive lost count. Since I moved over to gravity feed guns I had two. One I bought from fleabay for £25 (bergen f75) and one from my paint supplier recently for £15. The fleabay one has a 0.5l hopper and the new one 0.25l hopper. They both do the job that I want and I do all my work in a typical house garage.

I usually find if I have problems with spraying its my fault. I havnt cleaned the gun and a hole is blocked or Ive rushed and not set the gun up properly and or paint mix.

As pedrobedro says try on a board first. I have a sheet of plastic I spray onto. It emulates most bike plastics. If I do a door or panel for a car I have a sheet of metal to try the spray gun.