Airless Spraygun Or Compressor And Spraygun

[Carby]

Hi, here a question that might interest others as well ....
My situation is as follows, I have a quite nice selection of electric tools (lots of Festool) and have been making a lot of small things like shelves, workbenches, outside tables etc. but nothing fancy. Now because I have more time on my hands, I want get away from paintbrush finish to sprayed finish. I am renting here in Caloundra and only have standard 240 V / 10 amp. power available.
Is there a possibility to use an air compressor with spray gun (HVLP / LVLP ?????) or should I go for something like a Wagner 670 or similar. What sort of finish could I expect ?
I would be so grateful for some advice as the sales staff in most tool shops talks nonxxxxe and I want to buy something soon.
Thanks for your replies.
Carby

[China]

Personally I would choose a compressor more versatile you can use a large variety of tools with a compressor the turbine will only spray paint and the 670 is a low end unit

[rob streeper]

If you're going to stick with smaller projects and you're going to use water-borne and oil-borne paints I suggest an air compressor driven pressurized cup HVLP. Sata and Iwata make pressurized cup systems.

If you anticipate larger projects and you're going to stick with high solids water-borne coatings get an airless.

In my limited experience the turbine type HVLP's are fiddly requiring set up for each and every type of coating. They're also noisy and produce hot airflow which will limit the coatings and environmental conditions under which you can work. Once set up properly they work well.

[Carby]

Thank you so much for your helpful comments so far, I am still undecided but will let you know about my final decision, happy cutting, drilling, routing, sanding .........

[Alkahestic]

I was in a similar situation to you a few months back. I ended up getting a compressor and gun(s). Until you start spending $600+ you're not going to get a decent airless sprayer, and those will only be for small jobs (eg Graco Ultra). If you want a dedicated HVLP system, the Fuji spray turbine and guns have plenty of positive reviews, but again the cheapest system is about $700. I ended up getting a 50L, 247L/min belt drive compressor and a 'touch up' gun (ANI F150) and a Trade Tools 2.0mm LVLP gun. I can spray the one face of a 850x400mm panel before the compressor kicks in again, the tank will still be around 60PSI so I could keep spraying, but I haven't done anything larger than this yet. The real plus to an air compressor is that you can run other tools as well. I ended up getting a brad nailer and stapler at the same time, makes sheet good cabinet assembly so much easier. The 2.0mm gun can spray fairly thick water based paint and the ANI F150 does great with water based poly. I haven't shot any oil base or shellac yet.

The problem with cheaper airless sprayers like the Wagner 670 is that they don't atomize the finish sufficiently. So heavier finishes like acrylic paints and potentially polyurethanes will need to thinned a lot to spray properly, which is a massive issue because modern finishes are not meant to be thinned down a lot, if at all. End story is you end up with blotchy, uneven, orange peel finish or paint.

I went with a 50L because the 90L+ tanks are pretty massive - I didn't want to give up the space in my garage and transporting it and unloading it would just have been such a bother. But get as big a tank as you can and as high a free air delivery as you can. If you're limited to 10A, you'll pretty much be looking at the 2.5kW units as your top end, which will be around the 200 L/min free air delivery mark. Which, if you aren't regularly doing large pieces should be fine. Well, at least I've found it to be. If you don't mind the additional noise (and possibly shorter lifespan - probably not an issue for a home user), direct drive units with similar specs can be a bit cheaper than their belt drive counterparts.

[Pete57]

I was in a similar situation to you a few months back. I ended up getting a compressor and gun(s). Until you start spending $600+ you're not going to get a decent airless sprayer, and those will only be for small jobs (eg Graco Ultra). If you want a dedicated HVLP system, the Fuji spray turbine and guns have plenty of positive reviews, but again the cheapest system is about $700. I ended up getting a 50L, 247L/min belt drive compressor and a 'touch up' gun (ANI F150) and a Trade Tools 2.0mm LVLP gun. I can spray the one face of a 850x400mm panel before the compressor kicks in again, the tank will still be around 60PSI so I could keep spraying, but I haven't done anything larger than this yet. The real plus to an air compressor is that you can run other tools as well. I ended up getting a brad nailer and stapler at the same time, makes sheet good cabinet assembly so much easier. The 2.0mm gun can spray fairly thick water based paint and the ANI F150 does great with water based poly. I haven't shot any oil base or shellac yet.

The problem with cheaper airless sprayers like the Wagner 670 is that they don't atomize the finish sufficiently. So heavier finishes like acrylic paints and potentially polyurethanes will need to thinned a lot to spray properly, which is a massive issue because modern finishes are not meant to be thinned down a lot, if at all. End story is you end up with blotchy, uneven, orange peel finish or paint.

I went with a 50L because the 90L+ tanks are pretty massive - I didn't want to give up the space in my garage and transporting it and unloading it would just have been such a bother. But get as big a tank as you can and as high a free air delivery as you can. If you're limited to 10A, you'll pretty much be looking at the 2.5kW units as your top end, which will be around the 200 L/min free air delivery mark. Which, if you aren't regularly doing large pieces should be fine. Well, at least I've found it to be. If you don't mind the additional noise (and possibly shorter lifespan - probably not an issue for a home user), direct drive units with similar specs can be a bit cheaper than their belt drive counterparts.

Is your Trade Tool spray gun the one for about $45? Do you have a regulator at the gun or just use the compressor regulator?

Thanks
Peter

[PaintMan]

I have been using a 70L belt drive Italian made compressor for the last 10 years for both nail guns and several HVLP gavity feed spray guns with both 1.5 and 2.0 mm tips. Most of my spray finish in the last few years has been with N/C sanding sealers followed by precatalised satin and gloss topcoats. I have found some of these precat systems can be more difficult to spray due to poor atomisation but generally even with a cheaper $45 HVLP spray gun the finish is excellent and the very large reduction in overspray with HVLP makes them my preferred choice. I do not find it necessary to add any extra air controllers at the gun even as I usually run 15M hoses as the guns have very good adjustments for both air supply and paint volume. It does take a bit of experience in setup in maximising the best results especially in regard to fast drying lacquers but the overall results are much more professional and of course so much faster than by brush application. The hard very durable finishes I use are only suitable for spray application and are in many cases equal to the factory applied industrial systems used in industry today.
Cheers,
Paintman

[Stewie D]

Good advice Paintman.

Stewie

[Alkahestic]

Is your Trade Tool spray gun the one for about $45? Do you have a regulator at the gun or just use the compressor regulator?

Thanks
Peter

Sorry for the late reply. Yes it is the $45 one and I do have a regulator at the gun. I have a water and particulate filter as well since it was pretty cheap but I don't know if I need one with my small 10m hose.

[Carby]

Hi Alkahestic
Well 2 weeks ago I finally bought myself a compressor. I bought one from Total Tools in Noosa - 2.5 HP / 217 ltr. free air delivery with a 90 ltr. tank for $ 799,-- It's a heavy unit ( 113 KG ) and had quite a job to get it off my ute. I nearly bought a Star 106 spray gun but it had a 2.00 mm nozzle and I thought that would be too big. So I am still looking for a spray gun. While I was there i bought myself a DeWalt brad nailer and some Kreg stuff. Could not stop myself ! So now I hope this rain will finally ping off and I can settle my spray gun purchase.
Happy woodworking everyone
Carby

[Alkahestic]

I know the unit you're talking about - it should be a good one. I cheaped out and got the Iron Air brad nailer and crown stapler, so far they've been great but they've barely done any work.