Looking into buying a set of Devilbliss Finishline guns to replace my Jet siphon feed that I've had for a few years. Tip sizes are 1.3, 1.5, & 1.8, and that's all I think I'll need for a while....any input?? Do you guys prefer a gravity feed HVLP over the siphon? Got four cars between three guys that all need to be shot this year, and I wanna make sure I'm getting something that I'll be happy with. Thanks in advance for the feedback.
dude once you use a HVLP gun you will be like "damn what was i ever thinking using one of those siphone feeds." lol seriously... they work REAL nice. good investment for sure.
HVLP Gravity is the way to go, you waste to much material with a siphon feed gun in my opinion. If you've never shot with a HVLP, do some test shooting and and get it adjusted right and you will never go back.
im the opposite.. I just cant get a HVPLP gravity to work for me.. I have a finishline hanging on tha wall .. you want a deal.. ??? Make me an offer.. Its not the latest model but its got the aluminum cup and 2 sizes of tips........... Im an old schooler and i may be wrong but i still like my old suction feed. Ok everyone beat me up if you want but im standing firm.. The hvlp was designed to use lower pressure with less overspray and be enviormentaly(spelling) friendly.. The best gun i ever used was a hvlp harbor frieght suction feed gun and i wish i had 4 of them.. That*****er threw some paint and did it well.. It was my brothers gun and i never found another like it.. Dave ps: if your still wanting a finish line ... Pm me
i'm getting ready to buy the dura block 007 system... one handle, three heads (1.3, 1.4, 1.7)...500 bucks side by side it runs as well as a sata but not as good as an iwata. the hvlp saves a pretty good bit of material and the gravity feed allows you to use small amounts of paint in the cup on vertical surfaces. the iwata side feeders have a cut that rotates 360 so you can spray upside down if you like.
It takes some getting used to, switching to gravity HVLP , and maybe playing with air pressure, but its worth the hassle. Beside you save material, and its the better method. Simple Green
I prefer remote, pressurized pot for complete paint jobs.....I can mix all paint for the job at once, in the pot. Gravity for smaller jobs.
I have a Sharpe Cobalt HVLP with a gravity feed cup. It's in about the same price range as the DeVilbiss Finishline, but I think it's maybe a little better quality gun. I really like it. The white nylon cup isn't as strong as an aluminum cup, but it's easy to clean. If you had a bad experience with an HVLP gun, it's probably because the air supply wasn't up to snuff. HVLP guns use a lot of air. You need a minimum 3/8" ID hose and you should use hi-flow quick disconnect fittings. You measure the incoming air pressure at the gun with the trigger pulled. Depending on what kind of air lines you have, you might have to have 65 psi at the wall, to wind up with 45-50 psi at the inlet of the gun when the trigger is pulled. I only kept my old DeVilbiss suction feed gun as a wall decoration, because I'll never go back to that type of gun again. HVLP sure saves a lot of paint. You can get by with a smaller paint cup because more of the paint actually goes on the car instead of into a big cloud. With the cost of paint now, I think a decent HVLP gun pays back for itself in one or two paint jobs just by how much paint it saves. I like the balance of a gravity feed gun. Your arm and wrist get less tired I think using a gravity feed gun because it's better balanced. I think a gravity feed gun is easier to clean up too.
Check out Mac tools Gravity gun. Cheap on the pocket book ($100.00) Sprays like mad. Not an HVLP but for the guy that don't do it for a living!/? If you want a real pro done job, let a Pro shoot it. Sata also makes a 100 buck gun both good for the money. Buy car parts not something you will only use 5-6 times in your life. But on the other hand, if you buy that expensive gun and feel you need to get your moneys worth out of it by refinishing your buddies cars on the week end for real cheap, let me know, I can be your friend, hell I'll even drive your car while you are working on mine.
Not to be a smart****, But, HVLP stands for High Volume Low Pressure. Most HVLP guns are designed to be used with between 25 and 32 psi MAX. If you are putting 45-50 psi in the gun you are not using the gun the way it is designed. Most gun manufacturers have their guns designed to spray with 10 psi at the air cap. There are alot of guys out there that got really confused by that in the early 90's thinking that it was supposed to be 10 at the inlet and that's one of the reasons so many people had trouble and didn't like the way they sprayed. The DeVilbess Finishline and the Sharp Cobalt are decent at best. If you guys are going to just paint a car once in your lifetime then OK save the money. But if you are going to be spraying multiple cars like the guy that started the thread then you really need to upgrade to a better more efficiant gun. The DeVilbess GTI Millenium can be found for a little over $300. But you can't go wrong for the money. Spray guns are like everything else in life. It's only as good as what you spend. I have several Sata and a couple Iawata as well as a couple GTI's. For the money I would say go with the GTI. Sata's are better, but for a hobbiest they are really pricey. I hope RustyBolts that you don't take offence at my remarks.
No offense taken. But the Sharpe does use about 45 psi at the inlet of the gun. It cuts that down internally to be down in the 10psi HVLP range at the air cap. I know the more expensive guns need less pressure at the inlet of the gun. I bought my gun on the recommendation of a guy at the paint shop who used to do custom paint jobs on motorcycles for a living. He thought it was the best made of the cheapo guns. I think having a lot of stainless steel parts was one of the good features of it. I've been pretty happy with mine. I'm sure no expert, but I've painted two cars with this gun with no problems. Actually I did have a slight crack in the base of the cup when I first used it, and they gave me a new cup under warranty. I have a 1.4mm tip and on my last paint-job, I was able to use the same gun for epoxy primer, sanding primer, base-coats, 5 coats of candy, and clear-coat. I had to thin down the sanding primer slightly to get it to spray well, but otherwise the gun worked fine. I think the gun is about 6 or 8 years old now and still works fine. If you're going to use large flake or thick primer surfacer, you'll probably want another gun with a bigger orifice.
I have a Sharpe Finex FX300 (autobodystore.com has it for $88) and it sprays really nice. I used a Harbor Freight gravity HVLP gun before and liked it, but this one is really nice. Uses a lot less material even that the HF model. Bill
finishlines are junk at best, if you're serious about spraying a few cars than step up and buy a half decent gun. spend 2 or 3 hundred bucks more on a decent gun divide that buy the four or five jobs you're going to paint this year and it costs you 50 or 60 bucks a car to have a decent chance at a getting a good paintjob. Satajets are the best guns i've used and incidently i will buy nothing else. If thats too much money buy an iwata. I've used Iwata's before and when they're new they have a really nice spray pattern, I tried one once but wore it out within 6 months (300-400 paintjobs) so i won't buy another one. If you're not using the gun that much and only spraying one car every couple of months it will last you a long long time. I think they're about half the money of a sata so they are very affordable. The trick to changing to hvlp from siphon feed, is the distance your nozzle is from the car, hlvps require you to hold the nozzle 3-7 inches from the car you're spraying, also you should run tighter overlaps than you did with your siphonfeed (people who can't comprehend this hate hvlp's and still spray with dinosaurs). If gun distance is a problem for you than buy a devilbiss, the gti's seem to work better further from the car than the sata's and iwatas do, hvlp's require a LOT of air volume, if this is an issue for you buy an iwata, they use the least amount of air, the satas use the most, and the gti's are in between. hope this helps, good luck.
I'm a Sata fan. Have been using them for about 14 years now. You can usually get an HVLP version for about 400, if you look around. The way I justify the cost is, if a good paint is 3-400 a gallon, clear is 200+, even primer is 150 or so. You save about 40% on materials using HVLP over conventional. So instead of 7-800 for materials, you spend 400-500. If you paint 2 cars, the gun pays for itself. And a good gun will last a LONG time! Cheap knock-offs don't.
I don't think all the gravity feed guns out there, especially the cheap Hrabor Freight types, are true HVLP guns. Gravity feed lowers the required pressure, but they still need more pressure than a true HVLP. The lower pressures do make the cheap gravity feeds more efficient than a traditional siphon gun though, just not as efficient as the true HVLP designs. Most people****ume gravity feeds are all HVLP, and some manufacturers support that misnomer by calling their gravity feeds HVLP because they do use more air volume and lower pressures than traditional siphon guns. LOWER doesn't necessarily mean they are true HVLP though. Well, I just checked the HF site -- they list some correctly as "gravity feed" and others as "gravity feed HVLP". I've seen some HVLP kits that come with their own compressor. Those usually have a much larger diameter hose than a traditional air compressor. The compressor use either a vane or turbine type blower that will only produce 10-20 psi, but pumps out a very large volume. Like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44677. Anyone ever used something like it? Sounds like it was made more for painting a house, but any reason it wouldn't spray single stage acrylic enamel good? If it will spray varnish, stain, or latex, it must have an adjustable or different tips...
I agree the SATA quality is hard to beat.We paint aircraft and have used the same SATA pressure gun for over 15 years with just cleaning no maintence. Thats thousands of gallons of paint. Spend the money you will like the quality.
I've been using Sata guns since 1993. My business entails painting cars out doors(I do small area repairs for used car dealers). At any rate I agree that there is no substitution for quality tools. Hell guys you buy Craftsman and snap-on and the arerage onlooker never sees them......The quality of your paint job is the first thing that they see. You will not go wrong with a good quality HVLP gun. I prefer Sata but Iwata and other high quailty guns will get the occasional user done. Don't buy the throw aways, 'cause that's just what you'll do. Maybe check to see if someone you know or a local Hambr has one(a good HVLP) you can borrow. Check it out then you decide!!!
I'm going with LVLP. I've got a knockoff for primer and will have an Iwata for final. I chose this because LVLP uses less product and has better control. (don't have to work it so quickly).
You guys should look into the Iwata HVLP gun. I used it at a friends shop and bought one the next day. I like it better than my SATA, and will definately stay loyal to the Iwata brand. Check out the rotating cup for perfect upsidedown spraying. http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/sprayguns/index.jsp Sam
I know this is an old post but thought I would chip in a thought or two. Typically gravity is a little more****bersome to hold but will typically allow a bit of a finer finish as you can control air flow independent of the fluid delivery. Suction will allow you to paint upside down ect without any problem but will not allow the fine control that a gravity provides. If you want greater depth here is an article on suction vs gravity feed.
I have an Iwata LPH400 that I love for most work. I also have a couple of old school 30+ year old siphon feed guns that I still use for certain things. Cant beat siphon for painting under stuff, Painted the floor pan of a car (on the frame) Was able to lay under the car and blast paint 4 feet away from me into the nooks and crannies. Also siphon works best for me to lay flake. Whatever you get, you'll find it has ups and downs. For most work, a gravity HVLP will be the ticket
I realize this is an old thread. No expert here, right now trying to transition to HVLP from my old Binks 62. Right now I'm using an Eastwood Concours Pro, finding that at least for epoxy primer it seems to like 15 PSI at the gun even though Eastwood calls for 25-30. Less orange peel with the lower psi and plenty of paint still. I am looking at a couple higher level guns but that's not the reason for commenting. My reason for commenting though was the mentions above of spraying at angles or underneath. I bought the Devilbiss DeKups system for my gun, man is that a nice addition. Other companies like 3M sell a similar deal. For those who haven't seen it there's a rigid frame and a collapsable liner. Once you purge the air by holding the gun upside down and pulling the trigger you can spray at any angle you want. Works great. I still like my little Devilbiss jamb gun for hard to reach areas though.
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