HF HVLP spray guns - which one?

[footprintsinconc]

Hello!

i will be spraying oil (polyeurthane) and water based finishes (latex paint)

after reading all the tread online here and visiting HF, i have come up with the following list of guns that i liked:

43430: http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...displayItem.do
94572: http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...displayItem.do

i know alot of you like the 44677: http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...displayItem.do

i would consider this but i wanted to use my 60gal compressor, so the top two guns is what i have come up with at HF.

i am looking for input from all of you on how you rate these gun. i would love to hear from anyone who has either of these. any problems with them? what type of paints have you used? what you wont use with these guns? etc. also what type of maintanance i will have to do. how often the tips need to be changed.....etc. any cleaning tips, etc

Thanks for your help in advance.

[gordons]

I recently purchased the HVLP gun # 43430 from HF. It was on special for $39.99. It is a well made, solid piece of equipment.

As for its spraying ability, I have mixed feelings. I used it to spray Zinsser Cover Stain oil based primer. Now to be fair, Zinsser insist that this product must not be thinned and I suspect it may have been a little thick for this gun in the conditions in which I was working (80 degrees, moderate humidity, outdoors). I did not use a viscosity stick or similar device to check it first.

At any rate, I found that unless I had the air pressure cranked up to near the 50lb mark, I could not get an acceptible size fan and struggled with the air/paint mix. Mostly, I found the paint coming out a little too dry and with some spitting.

If HF were to offer different size needles, then I think you might be able to overcome some of these problems. This gun supposedly has a stainless steel needle so you shouldn't have any problems with spraying latex paint that you may have to thin down too much to get a decent flow.

My advice would be for you to experiment with your own setup and see how it works out for you. If not, return it to HF.

By the way, I trust that you have a fairly large air tank and compressor as at 50lb, it does like to use air. Also make sure that you have adequate filtration and lubrication.

Hope this helps.

[dabeeler]

HLVP Sprayer

I bought the below conversion gun to use with my compressor from Gleem Paint. The gun is great and the service and advice on using the gun from Gleem was outstanding http://www.gleempaint.com/hvcongunnew.html

You can also use a pressure pot system with this gun if you need such a set up, see this link http://www.gleempaint.com/waghvcongunw.html

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Definitely check out Gleem.

I think you need a gun that has changeable needles. For latex paint you need a 2 - 2.5mm needle. I just sprayed a bunch of latex using 1.5mm needle and I had to thin it quite a bit. This was using a Turbinaire HVLP with variable controls. It took full pressure and thinning the latex. Luckily it was outdoor application where I did not have to have a perfect finish. Also it was matte finish which was much more forgiving than gloss. I think a 2.5mm needle would have made all the difference in the world.