Looking for HVLP And Finishing advice

[freedhardwoods]

I have read several threads on this and other forums on HVLP as well as hundreds of reviews on dozens of sites. I talked to a Fuji rep for about 20 minutes and he says the setup I am thinking of getting will work fine. I still wanted to ask opinions here about it.

I am 99% convinced to buy a Fuji 5 stage and run a 10 quart pressure pot to feed material instead of the supplied cup on a T70 gun. My son and I will be spraying lacquer based clear coat and paint on cabinet parts and doors. (We finish the cab parts before assembly.) We will have a dedicated paint room with good exhaust system to handle fumes. To a point, I am more concerned with a good finish than speed.

Also in my research, I have seen mentioned a few times that the heat from the turbines can affect (dry out?) the material being sprayed as well as shorten turbine life. I have never read anything like this, but i thought of using an air conditioner to directly feed cool air to the turbine in summer, and use filtered, outside air in winter.

Any thoughts on my ideas?

 

 

[pkinneb]

I have a MM4 and yes they run warm but it really comes down to how much spraying you are doing. Spraying lacquer is pretty quick even if you're doing a whole kitchen cabinet set. I get that my use is much different than a production shop but still, for a two person shop how much spraying can/will you do in a day? My solution was that I have my unit in another room in my shop with a on/ off switch  in my small spray room. I mounted a piece of 11/2" conduit in the wall and ran the hose through that and use a rag to seal it, works great. My spray room is only 10x14 the room the MM4 is in is 14 x 16.

[Chestnut]

The unit linked in the other thread is not something that I'd use if i were you it's a disposable home DIY type thing.

Heat control is critical in all things. If you have means to get the turbine unit away from the spray action it will got a long way in extending it's life. I'm trying to think about how long in 1 span I've ran my MM4 and I can't recall maybe an hour strait. It got warm but never to the point where I felt it was effecting the finish. It takes a really large project to run for an hour strait though. When i spray, it's usually in 15 min increments shutting the turbine off while moving parts. It doesn't seem to get warm working like this. I do check the air temperature coming out the hose and it feels warm but not hot, so ~100F.

Making sure to shut it off when you aren't spraying will go a long way in prolonging the life of the machine. A switched outlet with the switch in your spray area would be easy to rig up.

[freedhardwoods]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will keep the unit as far away as I can. Which model gun do you both use?

[pkinneb]

Mine is an older unit and has the XT gun

[Chestnut]

I honestly don't remember it's the gravity feed.

[freedhardwoods]

Thanks for the info.

 

[freedhardwoods]

My son ordered the MiniMite 5 and it arrived a few days ago. We haven't had a chance to try spraying with it, but we did turn it on to see how noisy it was. It didn't seem near as loud as our shop vac. I was expecting a lot worse.