Wagner Spray Guns

[TOMARTOM]

I would like to purchase a low pressude spray gun like the Wagner series. As I live in the bush I do not have a lot of choice here, other than travelling to town(ADL).

Can someone point me in the right direction as to the practibility and advice of a wagner style as opposed to air compressor type equipment.

I use cabots water based polyurethane and also Wattle estapol and estopol/varnish in one... I can not get the hang of this varnish/stain in one always ruin a good workpiece....

regards Tony

[Shane Watson]

Wagner spray guns eh....You talking about them lil beaver thingys or whatever they are called? Or a proper HVLP spray gun system? Cause HVLP still requires an air compressor. I could go into detail on the HVLP vs HP spraygun deal, but I won't.

If your investing in spray equiptment, its time to upgrade your finishing materials as well. Forget about varnish's etc, graduate to lacquers.

The only way to achieve a good even finish when using a laquer (your case varnish) & stain combo (technically called toning in my lingo) is to spray very very light coats. Applying it by brush or rag etc takes a lot of practice to achieve even colour distribution....

HTH

Cheers..!

[ubeaut]

Water based polyurethane..... (shudder)

I have had no experience with the Wagner low pressure systems however the Wagner airless electric spray guns are excellent and a wonderful alternative to compressed air. For timber work steer clear of the cheaper guns and go for anything above 1800psi. Krebs is also a good brand. Again go for the more expensive ones. I have used both the Krebs and Wagner since the mid 70's, for everything from high pressure engine degreasing to spraying almost anything you can think of including contact adheasive, butimen, water based finishes, nitro finishes and all sorts of other stuff including pesticides.

They have a variety of nozzles including round patern in a variety of sizes, fan jets fixed or ajustable anso in a variety of sizes. Long extension that can be bent to spray horrizontal sutfaces whilst the gun is kept vertical and a whole lot more.

Feed can be from the pot on the gun a backpack or directly from the container. I have run a line directly from a 25 litre drum of nitro on many occasions.

A great choice for someone who doesn't have a compressor yet still wants to get a top notch sprayed finish. In my oppinion the airless gives a much better finish to the Low Pressuer units I have used and is a lot more versatile. (Although as I said before I have not use a Wagner LP unit)

Again the most important thing I can say is don't buy the bottom of the line gun. I currently use one of these. (When I can steal it back from my son, who has taken a great liking to it in recent years)

Hope this helps a little.

Cheers - Neil

Oh yeah, Wagner also have a great range of electrostatic spray equipment which I have used many years ago. Bloody great mate. Also very expensive.

[Rod Smith]

G'day Tony
I have been using a wagner finecoat hvlp setup for roughly 8-10 years, spraying lacquer(nearly always) or varnish. This unit is same style as the cig little beaver, with the turbine (vacuum style compressor) hose and gun. Not to be confused with the ailess electrics wagners (I have one of those as well). It cost me about $350 when I bought it, not sure if its worth the extra over the cig, it looks like it, but never been able to compare. I find it easy to use and gives a great finish.
Cheers
Rod

[John G]

Sorry to re-open this old topic, but I have recently been asking myself similar questions.
Specifically, I want a spray gun that will be suitable for spraying laquer/varnish etc onto furniture pieces (in other words, it's not for painting a house). So I was just looking at the small, hand-held units.
I don't want to spend too much (is that my first mistake?), and so it seems to me to come down to 2 choices:
- the airless spray types (e.g. Wagner type)
- the low pressure air types (e.g. CIGweld type)
Both are about $200, so I was wondering which was better? Because this is for finishes, I assume being able to do very fine coats is important. Therefore, is one type better suited than the other? Do both types allow the spray "strength" to be adjusted, or if I am not careful, could I buy one with a fixed nozzle, and then I'm stuffed.
Hope you can help as this is all very new to me, and the Bunnings guy didn't know anything. I have heaps more questions about finishes (which you will soon see), but I'll read through the old posts first before I bombard the BB!
John.

[Iain]

I have a Little Beaver, which is the fore runner to the CIG unit, red insread if blue.
I felt guilty about it until I found others were using the same thing.
Only thing you need to do is make sure there are no lumps in whatever is being sprayed (pantyhose are great for this, but take them off first ) and you may need to thin a bit.
I have sprayed paint, the dreaded estapol and even bug spray on the fruit trees without any dramas.
I was loath to admit this with everyone talking about compressors etc until Neil assured me that these are OK.
Cannot comment on the Wagner as I have never used one.

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