Suggestions for an effective affordable entry level spray setup?

[JupiterCreek]

Hiya

I'm almost convinced that I should spend some money on a spray setup for applying nitro, and maybe solid and clear acrylics down the track.

Is an initial budget of $300 absolute maximum reasonable, allowing that these items may be upgraded at some later date? If so, is anyone prepared to make some suggestions of brands and models of compressor, gun, water trap, etc. along with sources in South Australia. I'm guessing everything would be available from Bunnings and Supercheap Auto, but it'd be great to just be able to buy the recommended stuff and be reasonably confident of success.

Thanks!

[Phil Mailloux]

Hi,

I finished my first bass with what is the equivalent of those Bunnings $99 sale compressor. It's a chinese made thing rated at 1100 watts. My first spraygun cost me about $35, again, one of those cheap sprayguns you'll get at supercheapauto or bunnings.

I've since upgraded for a taiwanese $150 spraygun made to copy a famous one (no idea which one) for the simple reason that I wanted to do touch-up work to my car and the paint guy told me that those funky two-pack paints used in the car industry would never apply properly with a crappy spraygun.

Nitro on the other hand applies real easy and is very easy to fix up if you get problems. Here's a picture of my first bass made with the $35 spraygun. You can read the whole finishing part of this story on my website. The point of the pic is of course to show that cheap gear is also good for making a super high-gloss finish. It's all in the wet sanding and buffing anyway. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/philmailloux/manta1.jpg

[oz tradie]

Like most things, it's all relative to what you're using it for , how much use and how much dough you have to outlay.
I used to buy DeVilbiss spray guns when doing 2 pack resto work.
Sometimes up to 500-600 dollars for top of the line spray gun. (gun only)

The 100- 150 dollar gravity fed sprayguns do the job in most scenarios.:)
They're as Phil mentioned. Just Rip-offs of the more expensive guns.

cheers , Stu

[durwood]

If you are only going to spray something small like a guitar then any gun or pressure pack can will work OK.

Just don't try to spray anything large that requires a good finish the end result probably won't be worth a damn.

Every type of paint requires its own correct spray gun, you will find gun manufacturers supply a list of the correct model for each use.

Depending on the size of your compressor the paint you use and the size of the job will depend on which gun "set up" (the air cap, fluid tip and fluid needle) you choose. If you are going to buy a gun make sure its the one you want for the paint you intend using. You can buy a general purpose gun but it will be not good enough on some jobs and over the top on others.

The more air your compressor puts out the larger the capacity of the gun you can use, the bigger the fan area is, the quicker the job gets done. If you buy a small compressor you will be limited to a small gun which will only spray a small fan of about 75mm.

On a guitar you will spray it in about a minute, paint a roof of a car and it may take 5 minutes. The problem being by the time you get back to the other end of the car the paint has dried and you are spraying a wet coat onto a dry coat so you get sandy lines all over the area.

If you had a large production gun and a small compressor you would run out of air part way through a panel.

Spray painters usually have several guns each for a specific use. Use the wrong gun and you could be in real trouble.

For instance if you use a lacquer gun for enamel you will end up with massive runs, with the correct gun its neally impossibe to get a run unless you deliberately set out to do so.

Use an enamel gun with lacquer in it and it will come out like sand.

While preparation is the most important aspect to getting a top finish , you can stuff up all that work in 2 seconds if you then spray a coat of paint on that ends up in a run, orange peel or a dry sandy finish.

The idea of spraying is to lay a flat glossy coat of paint that doesn't require any rubbing, done properly thats the end of the job, further work rubbing or polishing cuts into the profit. Thats why 2 pack paint is now the prefered finish on repaired cars, its takes half the labour to produce a superior finish to lacquers. Sometimes spray painters have to deliberately spray the paint badly as they can make the paint so glossy it makes the normal finish look bad.

[Ironwood]

I spray a lot of my projects with n/c lacquer, I use a 2mm Star (brand) gun $120 from Glenfords, and ussually have good results. I use a second hand 17 CFM compressor that I picked up for $100. There are a lot of threads on this forum regarding pressures and techniques if you have a search

[old_picker]

Yeah you can spend $$xhundreds if you want. Do what I did.
Went to bunnies and get the cheap 30 litre $100 or the 40 litre $200 and the $35 $50 tradair spray gun. You'll also need a moisture trap, some fittings and hose, another $50.00. Your under your budget or close. Go home and start spraying. It takes a little practise getting it right but it ain't rocket science. Prolly good to start spraying a wall practising getting an even non running coat. After you have sprayed a few bodies you can decide if you want the $400 spraygun. Remeber you will be spraying a piece that you will coat in less than a minute so you dont need a $800 compressor. I can get a couple of bodies out of 1 charge in the gmc 40 liter compressor. I just fire it up and when the tank is full turn it off. I will have enough air for 2 bodies and enough to clean the gun.
my 2c worth

[kiwigeo]

NC spraying covered pretty well in the GAL Big red Book series. Also checkout Jim Williams book on guitar building...he makes reccomendations on guns etc for guitar work.

[GourmetSaint]

Has anyone tried spraying the ubeaut hard shellac with a cheap airless gun?

[daftandhungry]

I work in the marine industry spraypainting superyacht hulls and other interior parts.

There is nothing wrong with using a cheaper gun for small parts such as guitar bodies, however by cheaper I would recommend not going for the cheapest you can find, find a medium priced gun. I have just purchased a gun made by Iwata for just over $200 that is suitable for basically anything. The main concern is the size of the fluid tip, if you are only going to be applying clear coats or other top coats ie. solid colours or metallics (not sure about viscosity of NC I have never used it) a smaller fluid tip size will be sufficient around 1.2mm is fine, but if you want to put primer filler on the bodies first you may need a larger fluid tip, mine is currently 1.8mm and we are using an automotive primer filler on the boats.

The only other recommendation I have is to buy a gravity fed gun, suction fed will hold more paint, but on smaller jobs like guitar bodies it isn't really an issue, but suction fed guns tend to spit and carry on when not held upright if the doesn't have enough paint in it, where a gravity fed gun can be maneuvered a lot more.

Any gun you get will last a lot longer and give better results if you remain vigilant about cleaning it thoroughly afterwards, even the most expensive gun will spray little better than a spray can from crazy clarks if not cleaned properly.

Sorry just have to rant on that, had to use a not very well cleaned gun today to paint top coat on a boat.:~

[riph]

I'm in the same boat -- looking at upgrading to a spraying system in the next month or so. I'm very glad this is one part of the process where you can get away with going cheap (with the compressor - looking at getting a midrange gun). I'll be lucky to be spraying a guitar once every 2-3 weeks so I'm sure anything more than 30 or 40L will be an overkill.

[old_picker]

The 40 litre bunnies special is more than up to the task of shooting a guitar body.
I use a gun i bought of them for $53.00 also works very well
Prolly the 30 litre job would do the job just as good

[zenobia]

I have been using a decent copy gravity feed gun (about $200 while the original cost $600) with a cheap compressor from Bunnings and two filters to spray hard shellac with good results. The next the thing I need to work out is a dedicated spray booth/room. Not sure about spraying nitro until I can get proper ventilation. Will follow this thread with interest.
Dom