Ever wanted a spray gun?

So for a while now I've looking at spray guns for painting trim, staining, and clear coating. I looked at the standard HVLP guns and the HP guns and was having a hard time deciphering what I needed.

Thought I would share my thoughts and experiences.

After having tried several of the HVLP and HP guns with unsatisfactory results (mainly sputtering of latex paint,even heavily thinned) i came across this one...
Have a look at the reviews as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Critter-Spray-Products-22032-Siphon/dp/B00006FRPJ/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_img_b

I should point out that it does not look as cool as some of the other guns, don't be fooled by anodized aluminum and pro looking contours,it is incredible.

Here's why;

- It uses lower cfm (2-3 cfm @ 40-90 psi) than most of the HVLP and HP guns which require 4-6 cfm which is something out of the reach of most home sized compressors. I use my small pancake compressor with ease.
- The path that the fluid takes is short and simple, it only goes through the vertical tube and out the tip.
- It uses only one nozzle, no need to match up nozzle size to fluid viscosity, just adjust the pressure at the compressor and the tip that comes from the reservoir.
- It uses standard 500mL mason jars as a reservoir. This, is simply genius. Makes thinning, cleaning, and storage a breeze. Just remove the jar and put a lid on the leftovers.
- Really easy to clean. fill a jar with water or thinner (fluid dependent) and spray through the gun. Wipe the tube and tip and you're done.

I am really, really pleased with the results it's yielded so far. I sprayed a bunch of trim with latex primer and only thinned it by about 10 percent. No sputters, nothing but a fine mist.

I highly recommend this product for anyone looking for an inexpensive spray solution.

Cheers

Nice review.

Does the unit have an adjustable spary pattern?
Is the spray pattern a cone, or a fan?
Do you have to screw your own lid onto the unit?

Caine

the spray pattern is conical, and it's spread is adjusted by moving the reservoir tip either up or down into the airstream. the unit itself comes with a jar and and a screw ring, and the screw ring is just a standard mason jar one and it simply slips over the handle. There's a steel plate attached to that handle of the gun, that gets sandwiched in between the screw ring and the jar. I picked up a case of 12 jars including lids and screw rings for a whopping $6.

Very cool.  I spray-paint a lot of pvc tubes for my marimbas.  The spraypaint doesn't stick worth a s&^t on pvc.  Maybe with this, I could use a better type of paint...

That's very true, but your best course of action is a light sanding to roughen the surface.

The only type of paint that can be applied onto PVC directly is polyvinyl paint. It is a very thick (literally like dough) material which obviously you thin down. You have to pay great attention to the correct viscosity. If it is too thin it will run, if it is too thick it it will mottle (splattery effect).

In order to spray normal paint directly onto PVC there is a special primar that you have to apply first. The primer is in water like colour and highly acidic. It melts the PVC on the surface. Therefore aproximatley 15 minutes after you spray the primer you spray the actual paint over it. So that both bonds at the same time.

Now before I discovered all these I figured out ways of doing things but I do not recommend to anybody. God knows how much toxic I have become. It is probably why I have never tried drugs in my life because I was high all the time anyhow, and got paid for it. Now, you can add tetrahydrafureane into your paint and that will stick onto PVC or dichloromethane that will stick onto acrylic or abs. A little disclaimer. Any paintwork should be carried out in a sufficiently ventilated area and wearing all the necessary protective clothing, such as overalls, masks and gloves.

The air compressor is very important. The larger the tank the better it is. Becasue as soon the pressure drops the paint will start spluttering.

I used Devilbiss guns like this link. http://www.spraygunsdirect.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=47_76&products_id=5853 Recently I sold all of my spraying equipment including my guns that I used for over 20 years.

Below two examples are all made of a mixture of PVC and styrene and sprayed with the methods I described above. They are all working prototypes which I also did all the designwork. The electronics were all integration though with off-the-shelf modules. Of course the final products that were made in China looked nothing like my prototypes, that is another story.

http://www.robotica.co.uk/ozturk/engineering/football_cd.htm

http://www.robotica.co.uk/ozturk/engineering/crown_cap.htm