After doing a search and reading about using the HF paint gun, I have some questions I hope someone can help me with. First let me say that this will be the first attempt to do any painting other than with a rattle can. I'm not looking for a show quality finished product but I would like to learn how to paint to add to the skills I'm leaning while working on my project. The articles talk about different sizes of tips. Where can I get different size tips for the HF gun? I checked at my local HF but they did not have any. One of the searched posts suggests a water filter and showed one installed close to the gun that the guy wore on his belt. I have a Craftsman 33 gal compressor..what filters do I need and where should they be installed? I know from reading the many posts on painting that the prep is the most important part of painting. I'm working on stripping off the old paint. I'm using aircraft stripper followed by pressure washing and then using a randowm orbital sander. Is there quicker and better ways of doing this short of getting it media blasted? I've read some posts on using paint stripping pads on a sander or disk grinder but have not been able to locate any of these...if someone has where I can get these please let me know. Is there any pad that will strip paint and can be cleaned and reused? Thanks for the help...Bill
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As far as tips, good luck. The HF gun in my catalog says it comes w/ a 1.5 tip. Others may differ, but I think thats in between what you need. I spray a 1.3 for base and topcoats, and a 1.7 for primers and such. As far as finding other tips, I can't help ya. Filters. I have a water seperator and drier right on my compressor. Then I have an inline filter on the inlet of my guns. That shit on your belt sucks, always gets in your way. Plus, I don't wear a belt when I spray. Afro discs strip paint and stuff rather quickly. But really aren't reusable. Strippers are OK but make sure you clean clean clean the surface before your prime. I usually use a DA and some nive heavy 40 grit to strip the old surface unless theres like 18 coats, then I break out the aircraft stripper.
First off, you put way too much time into formatting that post. Haha. Second, they are junk, but are a great way to learn and get comfortable with spraying. I still have one of those junk $40 guns. I use it for spraying flakes and big heavy shit. More than anything its the painter, not the gun. But a great gun does help.
I know all the real painters will second the "junk" reply. But-if you are wanting to learn, they will do just fine for a starter gun. I have a friend who paints a lot of cars - he uses them once and then throws it away. They will not hold up to a lot of use, wear out after about 10 cars or so. The better guns are made from much better material and have more features-like interchangeable tips and maybe more adjustability, but they all work on the same scientific principles. Remember-preparation is 90% of the paint job, and runs and orange peel can and will happen, no matter how much you spent on the gun. Buy one, use it, then decide if you need a high dollar gun.
The tip that comes with the gun will spray base, clear, and primer just fine. Yeah they are a cheap throw away, but I painted my first car with one and it turned out pretty good. Get one of the small moisture traps that screw onto the gun and change it after you prime, paint, and clear. You will have more problems with your compressor ( I have the same one) keeping up with your painting. That compressor will put a lot of moisture into the lines, so drain it often. After you use that gun spend $100 and step up to a Sharpe Finex gun ( a "cheap" good gun) and see how much better you can paint. Hope this helps. Bill
I definately am using this as a learning experience, and I'm trying to keep it simple and for as little cash as possible. I know many will downgrade the HF gun but I read some earlier posts that made me feel I could get by using this one and it's the right price. Plus I figure with my garage/driveway where I will end up doing my painting this gun fits right in with my overall system. I'm not trying to be a master painter. I'm taking it slow, learning as I go, making mistakes and learning how to correct them. I try to learn all I can from people here and on other boards as I figure all of you must have been at my stage at one time purchasing tools that you now call "junk" but it was good enough for you when you started and now that you know what you are doing you have the better stuff. Think back to when you were my level...what would you wish you had read or been told to make your learning more productive? I appreciate all the comments and the information to make my project enjoyable and workable. Bill
don't worry about tip size so much the gun will spray just fine. I have a 50 dollar primer gun that I use every day and I spray base coat clear and primer out of it. Even a good painter will use a crappy gun here and there. I have sata jets and lots of other spray guns but unless I am looking for show shine I don't use em. wouldn't want to get paint on my 300.00$ sata. cheap guns are great for letting primer harden up in them. usually the small fluid tips are used for thin paints like base coat. a mid size tip is used for paints that are thicker like sealers, clear coat and singal stage. and large size tips are used for filler primers and epoxy primers. The gun you have you can adjust the fluid tip in tighter when spraying base coat. Open it up a little more when spraying clear and a little more with primer should work fine for you. make sure you have a water trap in line and a oil seperater cause oil creates fisheyes. whipe down all your panels with wax and greese remover to get rid of all contamiation.
I bought one on sale for $16.00 bucks, call it junk if you want, but compared to 4 to 6 hundred for a real deal Sata or Binks it is the deal of the day, I have used it to paint most of the epoxy primer on my car and if I throw it away tomorrow it would have paid for itself already. I think it is a great deal for the home user, keep it clean and it will work just fine.
I think I caught the same gun on sale in Houston for 12.99. I painted a bicycle with it and it looked like shit. I am also a shitty painter, so it's hard to tell what part the gun played in it. It's also hard to paint tubing without someone spotting for you. I say use it. I don't think a good gun would help me.
You guys are going to say I'm NUTS but for a first time painter, he should go to Lowes and buy a Wagner FineCoat HVLP. We use them to spray metal house doors because my customers LOVE the "automotive grade finish" that we can do. This isn't the old Buzzbox sprayer,,it has a fan above the cup and uses suction rather than pumping the paint. I have a DeVilbiss gravity feed gun that doesn't do as good of a job and it's lots faster. Buy a galon of Rust-O-Leum Gloss Black ($25) and some thinner and practice (vs) hundreds for auto paint. You can put on a lot more paint in less time.
Heres a tip for your water trap. Have about 20ft of hose from the compressor to the water trap, and then when spraying ,coil the hose into a bucket of cold water.Poormans water condenser!
I also use this system occasionally. worked great for the interior metal and door jambs on my 62. You guys using rattle cans should really think about this. For about half again the same price, the job is 10 times better.
Just fyi... I doubt your 33gal compressor has the cfm to actually run the gun for more than a pass at a time.
Right on the money! The small compressor will retain more of the heat in the air volume keeping the humidity/moisture in the compressed air. Also the craftsman 33 gal. compressor will run out of air (volume) pretty quickly into a big spray job (complete car). As you use up the volume in the small tank, the pressure at the gun will drop and change your spray pattern and atomization, making it really tough for a beginner to get good results. The cheap gun and small compressor will work fine for small jobs, maybe priming the front clip, or painting 1 or 2 panels. Start with smaller areas to paint and get some reliable coaching to help set the spray gun and learn technique. Then read thru this Tech post and don't be afraid to ask questions. There is an unbelievable amount of knowledge and experience on the HAMB. I tap into the info here every day. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14597 overspray
HF gun is good primer gun...or starter...A dual action and some elbow grease has been succesful for years....you can take it for an acid bath of cours .....
I use them and have found the one gun they put on sale for $14.99 is pretty good. Its no binks but its about the same gun that Sears sells for $80. I have found the Harbor freight guns start clogging up even with extensive cleaning. Its the plastic washers and foam washers in the gun. I shoot laquer thinner through them and rinse and clean about 4-5 times after each use and clean the tip and under side of the gun with a brush and thinner. They are agreat gun to learn with and for primer. After shooting clear coat with them you better clean them double what I said before. Some reason after about 20 uses they just clog and spray half pressure, no amount of adjusting and cleaning after that helps. If your going to paint cheap buy a couple and keep the one for your paint new in the box until your ready to go. You will get a decent finish with a cheap ass gun atleast. An old timer friend of mine tried one out and said you can paint a car with that its not bad. Now you cant compare apple sto oranges but they do work. They just dont last. Even a cheap compressor that you have to let run will be better than a rattle can.
All these cars I shot with the harbor Fright "Junk" gun..not guns..GUN! I paid $12.99 for a gravity feed gun at one of there sidewalk sales, not only did I paint all these with a harbor fright gun but I used the SAME gun on all of them..and thats shooting the primer, base, and clear with the SAME GUN...one mans junk is another mans treasure... PS. The yellow flamed 34 in the background with the 59 I also shot with the same gun.
If you aren't bullshitting, you have serious skills. Was a lot of wet sanding necessary? P.S. Harbor Freight is STILL the work of the devil.
Granted MOST of Harbor Freight tools and equipment are pure junk, i'm merely trying to point out that if your like me and cant afford a $600 SATA and are willing to so some serious sanding than there guns arent bad, the gravity feed gun i used on the above paint jobs is a 1.4 tip, yes its small for primer, but it will shoot it. And the Model A has a ton of metallic in it that layed down no problem. This is one I just recently shot a couple weeks ago, its a numbers matchin '70 Chevelle, SS 396. I included the base/stripes/clear to show they can shoot decent paint. And as you can tell i shoot in the same conditions most of you shoot in..a dirty-ass garage!
I use them all the time. I bought 5 on sale the other day. I paint about 3 cars with one and then turn it into a garage sale item. Usually get 10 each. People buy them thinking they are getting a bargain. They are not the greatest but you can do a good job with a new gun. I have a high dollar gun also that is seldom used. I like to use the throw away guns.
NO BULLSHIT, and YES its a major amount of wet sanding, I believe that if you use a good paint like Dupont or PPG or H.O.K and you spend most of your time on prep, then the gun is just a small percentage of how it will turn out. I've seen so-call professional jobs with high dollar guns and down-draft booths that dont look that much better, just cost a hell of a lot more. My Model A, the Copper Colored one was a special mix of PPG and the base color alone was over $500 a gallon so you can use a crappy gun to get good results if you prep it right. I wet sand and guide coat my primer usually twice before shooting any color. Then of course you gotta wet sand the crap out of the clear because of the dirt you will get from shooting in a non-booth environment, there by no means perfect but they look good enough for me.
I've got one, it shoots fine for a "backyard paint job". i bought a cheap HF one to learn on....and i'm already sold on using real paint guns, not rattle can. it's good to play with and fine for painting a driver, but i wouldn't use it if i were planning a "PAINT JOB".
Long ago before I could afford a real compressor, early 70's, I bought one of those $100 cheapo Sears spray kits that included their chepest spray gun and a small basket ball sized compressor that vibrated around on the driveway. It wouldn't keep up with the small gun long enough to do a fender, so I bought a few $5.00 LP bottles from a scrapyard, the 4 or 5 ft tall bottles you see next to rural houses, and hooked them to the compressor for reserve capacity. I know people will warn you about exploding the gasses inside, but if you fill the bottle with water then pour it out, you have nothing but air inside it. It is safe from then on. At the 45- 50 lbs capacity of the toy compressor, even a very rusty bottle is in no danger of bursting in any dangerous manner. After I let the tiny compressor run for about 20 minutes to charge up the bottles, I had enough air to spray most of a car in one go. The paint jobs always came out nice and factory looking as long as I stayed away from metallics. Years later when it finally split the cylinder wall from overuse, I bought a real compressor. Adding on extra air bottles from a scrapyard is a great way of making a little compressor do the job of a big one for just a few dollars. as long as you don't need high pressure for power tools.... and I think it's a whole lot easier than that Rust-Oleum, roller, sand sand sand, roller, sand sand sand method.
I don't know if you can still do this but on my first HF Binks Model 7 clone, I bought a Binks needle and fluid cap and they turned the so-so gun into a real jewel. I still use it.
I'm all for good bargains, but Binks went to a lot of cost developing that gun, just for China to rip off their design. Makes it hard for the originator to stay in business and continuing to come up with other quality products. Pretty soon there is nobody for them to steal designs from.
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