Thread: Spray gun recommendation

Spray guns are a very fickle tool, cheaper guns do work and can get good results in experienced hands but will be a big disadvantage to inexperienced hands.
Until you've used a good quality gun you wont realise how bad a cheap gun can be, better quality guns will use less air and less paint because they atomise the paint way better and keep the paint in a tight even pattern.

I started with cheap guns and had nothing but trouble(cars and furniture)with dry spots and massive orange peel(sign of to much air pressure...), an old fella at the paint shop called me stupid and handed me a Sampson S90 it was night and day compared to the cheaper guns.
Admittedly the S90 wasn't the highest end gun they were a copy/rerelease of the old CIG Arnold but were a good old design suction gun, when applying enamel or polyurethanes/2pacs you could get the air down to under 25psi and still have very good atomisation this would allow you to get a nice thick coat that flows out superbly... pretty shine no buff needed.
I made the mistake of using water based acrylic with it and didnt clean it well enough and killed it

Ive had a succession of cheaper guns since none have been even close to the old S90, the best so far is Warick 2pc kit I have now(just a rebranded generic from china)Ive had the Star brand(terrible)and some house brands from the auto stores they've all been utter poo! Had a play with a nice GTI pro Devilbiss of a mates, lusting for one of those currently

Originally Posted by Com_VC

The Iwata is a lot of $$$ for something that will see occasional use.

Something like this might be worth looking into, they have always been pretty popular.

https://sydneytools.com.au/product/w...ips-14-18-25mm

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Was talking to a mate the other day who has one of the Workquip guns and is quite happy with it.
He's repainted a couple of old Landrovers and they came out OK. He has also used the large nozzle to spray the odd bit of the Raptor 2K ute bed lining on parts and found that worked well.

I picked one up today, but other than open the box and look inside I haven't done anything else with it.
Will hopefully be spraying the underside of the trailer next weekend.

Steve

I put a couple of litres of hammertone epoxy enamel through the Workquip gun today, and so far I'm very happy with it.
It was on the underside of the trailer I'm building, so not a good test of finish etc.
Been over 15yrs since I've used a spray gun so there was a fair bit of operator re-learning involved, but considering the nature of the structure I got a reasonable coat on it with only a couple of places where it was a bit heavy and ran. Definitely an operator issue there, as the gun was nice and consistent with its output.
Obligatory photo of painted thing:




I did fit a couple of accessories to it that I think are very worthwhile.

The first is a small inline regulator with a gauge on the gun itself. Gives instant and convenient pressure control without having to go back to a bigger regulator where the hose is plugged in.




The second accessory is a speed cup system. Absolutely brilliant, and I think will be a reason for me to pick up the spray gun more often rather than a paint brush.
I'd never heard of them until a couple of months ago when I was talking to a friend who is a semi-retired spray painter. He referred to a "bag system" with disposable liners that were about $1 each, and the gun could be used at any angle etc. I really only half understood what he was saying and we were out at dinner so he couldn't show me. Sounded cool, but I imagined something that needed a special gun to start with (and lots of $$$).
Turns out that's not the case, and they are cheap, and fit to any gravity style gun (just have to get the appropriate thread inlet adapter to suit the gun).

They have various names - PPS (Paint Preparation System) Spray Cup System, Speed Cup System, lid and liner cup etc.
The parts aren't interchangeable between brands, but the principle is the same.

I got an in-house branded kit from my local automotive paint place - Darby's.




There's an adapter that goes on the gun in place of the original paint cup. For the Workquip its an "Iwata style" adapter:




The disposable parts are the lid with built in filter, and the flexible plastic liner.








The parts that you re-use are a hard outer cup, and a screw on ring. This photo shows the whole cup assembled with the liner inside, lid on and all clamped up in the outer cup. It also has a plastic blanking cap that you can fit if you need to store the paint temporarily. I've got paint in there that I'll use for the second coat on the trailer tomorrow.





The system is really easy to use.
You take a flexible liner, sit it in the hard outer cup, fill it with paint, put the lid on and secure it with the screw collar.
Take the spray gun, turn it upside down and push the cup into the adapter - then turn to lock.
Now this is the absolutely brilliant part.
While the gun is still upside down with the paint cup below, pull the gun trigger fully as though you want to spray (ie not just the initial air part). The suction from the gun will suck the bag up inside the outer cup and remove any air. Once you get paint come out you know all the air is gone. At that point you have a fully sealed flexible bag of paint attached to the gun, and the differential pressure between the suction in the gun and atmospheric pressure will ensure the paint gets fed into the gun regardless of the gun attitude.
Turn the gun upside down - it still sprays!!!
No more drips out the air breather hole, or intermittent paint feeding when the paint qty gets low and you turn the gun on its side etc.

And when it comes to cleanup - just bin the liner and lid, and run some thinners through the adapter on the gun and spray etc. No more wiping paint out of the inside of the cup, rinsing it with lots of thinners, then another wipe/rinse/repeat etc.
I've already mentioned being able to store paint in the cup without risking it going hard in the gun.
And you can lay the gun on its side with no spillage.

TBH - I'm quite blown away with it (in case it wasn't already obvious).

Steve

Thanks for the writeup on the SCS Steve. Like you, I'd heard about them, but wasn't convinced. Now I am!

The gun-mounted pressure reg is a must.

Glad you found it useful.

Just realised I forgot to say what the actual SCS cost was.

Gun adapter was $40, and the kit with the reusable parts and the 50 lids/liners was $65

They had 3 cup sizes available - think they were about 400ml, the 650ml I got and a larger one around 900ml.
They all fit the same gun adapter, but I’m not sure of the actual cup differences ie whether they are just longer/shorter cups, or completely different diameters etc

Steve

Did a second coat tonight, and have the gun dialed in a bit better.
1.8 nozzle, the hammertone thinned 10% with turps and pressure at 20psi with a reasonably narrow fan.
Sprayed what I'd call a medium wet coat, but since the paint is pretty thick and dries relatively slowly you can't go too heavy.

Yesterday I had a small dribble issue every time I took the gun off the cup to refill it - due to the small amount of paint sitting trapped in the gun adapter.
You can see where the paint has run down onto the lid in this photo.




Not a major issue, but considering the rest of the system is so good it didn't seem quite right.
Turns out it was just operator error.
To remove the cup spillage free, remove the airline from the gun, turn the gun upside down so the pot is at the bottom, then pull the gun trigger to open the fluid nozzle.
That lets air come in through the nozzle, and allows the paint from the adapter to drain down into the cup.
Release the trigger and proceed to remove the cup - with no dribbles

Also, just to follow up on leaving paint in the cup overnight.
Before I put the little bung in it last night I pushed the liner up from the bottom until I could see paint starting to rise into the cap neck. Just to remove as much air as possible.
I checked before I pulled the plug out tonight to use it - it was definitely still sealed as the liner was still held up inside the cup. If air had got in through the plug the liner would have been sitting in the bottom of the cup. When I did pull the plug out you could hear the air suck in and the liner relax down in the cup.
I removed the lid, gave it a stir, topped up with more paint and started spraying.
I'm picking that for normal solvent based paints (ie not 2K or activated stuff), leaving the paint sealed like that in the cup would be no problem for a week or more, and likely last long term better than putting it back in a half empty can.

Steve

I’ve done more coats on different parts of the trailer over the last 3 days - same lid and liner for the whole time - just capping it and washing the gun out at the end of each session.

Definitely wasn’t just a one day stand - this cup system is a long term relationship

Steve

Thanks for the endorsement Steve.

I could not find the particular kit that you bought. I did find all sorts of systems, some seem to work without plastic bag but dispose the whole cup? The 3M PPS system costs more than others. The alternative options I found where all individual components, hard to gauge what is compatible with with.

What brand & type of paint did you use on your trailer?

Cheers
Frank

The bag is the key part of the system IMO as it solves all the usual feed issues with using the gun at different angles.
If you get stuck finding something locally let me know as it may be practical for me to get something here and send it up to you.

Trailer paint was just white knight epoxy enamel hammertone (charcoal) from Bunnings.
I thinned it 10% with turps to spray.

Steve

Hi Steve,

That's a very kind offer, thanks. Is there a Devilbiss adapter available?

Cheers
Frank

I’d be surprised if there wasn’t an adapter for Devilbiss.

This is the mob I got the cups and adapter from. Give them a call and check. They may even be happy to ship directly to you, but I’m happy to pick up and post if need be.

https://darbyspaints.com.au

Steve