Want to get into spraying finish on the cheap

[byegge]

Hi all, I've been woodworking for about a year now and have a few projects under my belt and like most people I loath the finishing aspect of it. I've been using wipe on finishes but am thinking about getting into spraying. I tend to pick extremely expensive hobbies and am not a man of means. So budget friendly is paramount. I already own a 30 gallon compressor, not sure of the cfm specs. What would be a decent for the price gun to start out with. Would probably want to spray Lacour or shellac mostly. 75 bucks is about the most I'm willing to spend at the moment. Looking for some info from some of you that might have or currently use a lower end setup. Not trying to expose the pooro's. Thanks. 

[AceHoleInOne]

Problem solved. Spend all of the 75.00 clams on one gun.

 

Same thing goes for spray guns. You get what you pay for. If you want cheap and throwaway. Go to Horror Freight and buy the purple 13.99 spray gun, even better yet, buy 2. Because it's gonna take the parts from 2 spray guns to make one work. 

That's my story and sticking to it!

 

-Ace-

[Andy Wright]

i have a gravity feed HVLP gun i bought for under $100 that was made by Porter Cable (no longer made based on the google search I just did) I have used my moderately inexpensive sprayer with latex paint and lacquer on furniture it with a smaller 25 gallon compressor and it works fine for spraying wood furniture.

My father owns an auto body shop and I have painted cars with him using $500+ HVLP guns from SATA, and there is a noticeable difference in quality between that gun and a $100 gun, but personally I think that most of the difference goes out the window as soon as you load "low quality" finishes that are intended for woodworking into the gun

A couple of tips:

1) strain the material through a filter, then strain it again through a new filter. Your biggest enemy is "crap" in the material

2) paint something you don't care about before you paint your project. Just go get something from your neighbors garbage (old funiture, a plastic bin, etc) and use $20 worth of paint to learn how to use the gun. After its painted you can put it back in the trash

2) You will probably find that you can spray for 5 minutes then need to stop for a few minutes until your compressor catches back up and then spray for another 5 minutes. If you find that your compressor isn't keeping up with the gun, then you can add a 10 gallon portable air tank in series with your compressor to increase the air volume (this will increase the amount of time you can spray before you have to stop and let the compressor catch up)

 

[byegge]

57 minutes ago, Andy Wright said:

i have a gravity feed HVLP gun i bought for under $100 that was made by Porter Cable (no longer made based on the google search I just did) I have used my moderately inexpensive sprayer with latex paint and lacquer on furniture it with a smaller 25 gallon compressor and it works fine for spraying wood furniture.

My father owns an auto body shop and I have painted cars with him using $500+ HVLP guns from SATA, and there is a noticeable difference in quality between that gun and a $100 gun, but personally I think that most of the difference goes out the window as soon as you load "low quality" finishes that are intended for woodworking into the gun

A couple of tips:

1) strain the material through a filter, then strain it again through a new filter. Your biggest enemy is "crap" in the material

2) paint something you don't care about before you paint your project. Just go get something from your neighbors garbage (old funiture, a plastic bin, etc) and use $20 worth of paint to learn how to use the gun. After its painted you can put it back in the trash

2) You will probably find that you can spray for 5 minutes then need to stop for a few minutes until your compressor catches back up and then spray for another 5 minutes. If you find that your compressor isn't keeping up with the gun, then you can add a 10 gallon portable air tank in series with your compressor to increase the air volume (this will increase the amount of time you can spray before you have to stop and let the compressor catch up)

 

Thanks, I've read a little about some smaller compressors not keeping up. I might look for a gun that requires less cfm to work. As for the straining, I won't be using this for paint, is it necessary to strain wood finish. If so should I be doing this when applying with a brush or rag. 

[Andy Wright]

Straining is always a good idea, but when you are brushing its not as important to strain the finish. If there are a few lumps you can either break them up with the brush or clean them off with an exacto knife and then brush out the spot

With a gun, small lumps will screw you because they clog up the orifices in the gun

As far as compressor cfm, it just means you can't spray constantly. For small stuff its not a huge problem, but if your painting a house it will drive you nuts

[AceHoleInOne]

Your 30 gal should do you fine. I got thinking about this. That gravity feed Kolbalt gun from Lowes, always looked quality to me, I think 50.00 sticks in my mind. I'm not sure if you can change the needle and nozzle. Be careful, some of those guns they make it impossible to change tips. They are basically knock off of good guns and they do crap like that. 

 

-Ace-

[bob493]

30 gallons is PLENTY.

 

Stay away from the kobalt guns, mine fell apart after 2 paint jobs. Very leaky... very pissed off watching expensive paint drip through the gun. I use teflon for everything, gun set up perfectly. Expensive paperweights, and you are probably better off modding a harbor frieght gun, given their cost.

wound up getting a used devilbiss spray gun for 50$ off craigslist. Deals are out there. I've found hvlp to be the most useful of guns.

 

edit: Oh yeah, you REALLY want a stand.

 

 

Friend turned me on to these.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Astro-HVLP503-Gravity-Nozzle-Aluminum/dp/B00B4NXWSE/ref=sr_1_4?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1461294645&sr=1-4&keywords=astro+hvlp

 

1.3 to 1.5mm orifices are good for most types of finishes.

[Andy Wright]

23 minutes ago, bob493 said:

30 gallons is PLENTY.

 

Stay away from the kobalt guns, mine fell apart after 2 paint jobs. Very leaky... very pissed off watching expensive paint drip through the gun. I use teflon for everything, gun set up perfectly. Expensive paperweights, and you are probably better off modding a harbor frieght gun, given their cost.

wound up getting a used devilbiss spray gun for 50$ off craigslist. Deals are out there. I've found hvlp to be the most useful of guns.

 

edit: Oh yeah, you REALLY want a stand.

 

 

Friend turned me on to these.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Astro-HVLP503-Gravity-Nozzle-Aluminum/dp/B00B4NXWSE/ref=sr_1_4?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1461294645&sr=1-4&keywords=astro+hvlp

 

1.3 to 1.5mm orifices are good for most types of finishes.

I agree with wanting a stand. I have a cheap stand from Harbor Freight that i mounted to a piece of plywood and it is fine for occasional use

http://m.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=Spray+gun+stand

[AceHoleInOne]

Hey Bob, your Kobalt have a runny nose or leaked from the cup threads? Were you able to remove the nozzle on that model?

I had looked at those and the seemed to be a nice gun for the money unlike the Barney gun from HF.

-Ace-

[Andy Wright]

I subscribe to Jay Bates' Youtube channel and he just posted this video. Probably good to watch since it is very relevant to the topic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jason Hotze]

I use a Campbell Hausfield gun that was rated one of the best for woodworking. I have the small pancake compressor from porter cable and it works fine. I have to mess with the pressure adjuster a bit but once you get going it stays at about 35 psi which is where you want it. I have sprayed latex paint, kilz primer that was pretty heavily thinned, stain and thinned wipe on poly. All worked great.

Ditto on the practice though. Def takes practice. And pay attention what you thin with. I thinned kilz with water like the van said and it raised the grain very badly but I just sanded it down and did another coat. Lots of excess spray with the guns though so cover anything within 30 feet of your spraying area you don't want covered.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Only picture I had of the gun. Yes I know it's a weird selfie but the boss lady was out of town and asked what I was going so this was my reply haha

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[bob493]

21 hours ago, AceHoleInOne said:

 

Hey Bob, your Kobalt have a runny nose or leaked from the cup threads? Were you able to remove the nozzle on that model?

 

I had looked at those and the seemed to be a nice gun for the money unlike the Barney gun from HF.

 

-Ace-

I bought two guns. One was gravity, one was siphon.

The gravity feed leaked into the trigger assembly. Absolutely nothing i could do about that.

The siphon feed leaked out through the nozzle. No amount of teflon tape fixed it. 

 

I use PPG Deltron clear coat. You can imagine the sheer "joy" watching most of it wind up on the floor... -.-

 

Both models could be torn down completely. I can take you some pics if you want, they are still floating around (before I throw them in the trash).

[AceHoleInOne]

3 hours ago, bob493 said:

I bought two guns. One was gravity, one was siphon.

The gravity feed leaked into the trigger assembly. Absolutely nothing i could do about that.

The siphon feed leaked out through the nozzle. No amount of teflon tape fixed it. 

 

I use PPG Deltron clear coat. You can imagine the sheer "joy" watching most of it wind up on the floor... -.-

 

Both models could be torn down completely. I can take you some pics if you want, they are still floating around (before I throw them in the trash).

Thank for the response!

 

-Ace-

[Merlau]

harbor freight has a detail gun for round 30 bucks that works well for the price,, not good for real large projects but worth it for small jobs and tight places. i also use a psh1 porter cable gravity feed gun that i think another mentioned above that maybe out of stock now.. the cambell hausfeild gun with the twist type canister is a plus over screw type..