Replies

1. 
   bilyo | Mar 04, 2021 06:22pm | #1

   When you do a web search for LVLP spray guns, you will mostly come up with the Sprayit brand. You will also come up with a lot of HVLP guns as most sites don't distinguish between them. So, pay attention to the cfm specs. I have two of the Sprayit SP-352 models and I like them because the reservoir swivels 360 deg so that you can spray straight up or down without spilling finish or without a pressure system. These guns also operate at about 4 cfm which means that they will work with a lot of low volume compressors. Sprayit also sells some models with the top tank that are a bit more expensive. The SP-352 is sold by Home Depot for under $20. They also sell a kit with the top feed model including 3 nozzle sizes for around $85. I'm no expert on spray guns or spraying. I sprayed some projects last summer with my SP-352 using shellac and water based polyurethane and I am very pleased with the results. The SP-352 appears to be an Iwata W71 knock off. You can buy parts for it on Ebay, but they will be rather expensive. You can search Ebay for W71 and you will find lots of guns that are identical (as nearly as I can tell) to the SP-352 mostly shipped from china. I bought one of these with a 2.0 mm nozzle for under $25 and did a test spray using latex (thinned and w/floetrol) and it looked pretty good on the cardboard test panel. Can't say more as I haven't sprayed latex on a project yet.

2. 
   esch5995 | Mar 04, 2021 06:57pm | #2

   You don't mention a budget, but if you want a pro quality gun. I highly recommend the Apollo A7700 it is HVLP but it can handle anything you can throw at it. One gun be gravity or siphon feed turbine or compressed air. With an extensive set of needles and air caps it can spray anything from water based dyes to latex paints. The adjustments are great and precise. For large volume work there are 2 pressure pots systems available. I've used Binks, DeVillbiss and others in the past and this is my favorite.

1. 
   ch00ch00man | May 10, 2021 07:19pm | #23

   couldn't agree more! i invested in apollo system 5 turbine too and am blown away by it's quality and ease of use. i also bought the large pressure pot and cart for easy transport.

   my first use was my new shop doors (had to buy a separate 1.8 needle and c cap for that). picture of the finished project attached.

   since then i've been using it mainly to spray lacquer.

   
3. 
   hoovermd | Mar 04, 2021 09:44pm | #3

   I've sprayed a ton of stuff using my Earlex Spray Station 5500 and have been really happy with it.
   I have one gun set up for shellac and another for Poly.

4. 
   eddo234 | Mar 04, 2021 10:33pm | #4

   Thanks for the comments so far. For any future commenters, please notice I said I’m not interested in a turbine system. My budget for a gun is whatever it takes, but I’m expecting to pay around $500-550 for a quality gun. I’ll look into the Apollo further, but the specs I just saw look like the cfm requirement is way about the cfm I mentioned my compressor has.

1. 
   esch5995 | Mar 05, 2021 02:00am | #6

   You don't mention the size of your tank which play a big part of being able to successfully spray but the Apollo will spray with as little as 4 psi.

   
1. 
   eddo234 | Mar 05, 2021 10:36am | #8

   30 gallon

5. 
   asymptote | Mar 04, 2021 10:45pm | #5

   +1 for the Earlex. I haven’t found anything that doesn’t spray well with good results. Just keep in mind (for whatever you end up buying) you will need to experiment with the tip (size), flow and thinning depending on what you are spraying. The 1.5mm tip works well for thicker products like paint and primer. I use a 1mm tip for poly and lacquer. Multiple, thinner coats will generally produce better results than trying to “finish” in one but your mileage may vary.

   Something helpful for me to reproduce consistent results is to keep notes on the tip size and flow settings for different products. I mark the flow control knob so I can reproduce flow settings. For example, 2 turns for latex paint and primer with a 1.5mm tip and 1.5 turns for poly with a 1mm tip.

   My only (minor) issue is that my air hose will occasionally pop out of the gun if I don’t take care to make sure it’s fitted securely. This can result in a glop of product on the piece if I’m spraying above it. This wouldn’t prevent me from buying it again though.

6. 
   user-3395150 | Mar 05, 2021 10:12am | #7

   I have the Sprayit gun and I've been pretty happy with it. For what you plan to use it for it should be fine. If you spray paint you may get some clogging and you will need to change the filter often. Shellac sprays well and, I imagine, water based finishes will also.

7. 
   bilyo | Mar 06, 2021 10:50am | #9

   You might check out the Qualspray brand. I don't have any first hand experience with them, but I see they have models that work at lower cfm.
   https://homesteadfinishingproducts.com/products-we-offer/hvlp-spray-equipment/qualspray-hvlp-guns/

8. 
   eddo234 | Mar 07, 2021 10:52am | #10

   Thanks all, I’ll look into the Qualspray some more.

9. 
   doctorstu | Mar 12, 2021 06:52pm | #11

   My first question is-what are you shooting? and then How big a tank does your compressor have? If you don't have to spray a bunch of cabinets at once or a gigundus conference table you can get good results with a lot of options.

10. 
    eddo234 | Mar 12, 2021 11:40pm | #12

    I already answered both questions.

11. 
    user-7543396 | Mar 13, 2021 09:23am | #13

    Fwiw if your looking for an exceptionally well priced “ production” set up its kind hard to beat the air assisted airless pump produced by a company called C.A. Industries. The pump is 14:1 comes with a gun of your choice and runs on bout 6 cfm of air, is pretty portable ( I run mine from a 20gallon standup compressor in the field ) but is probably a little on the “pricier” side for a hobbiest at round 2400 for the whole setup. However it will spray any and anything you can throw at it. Solvent based or water, conversion varnish what have you. Color changes are simple and the setup allows you to spray in any and every position you could imagine. This may not be in your budget but for myself ( a one man cabinet shop) it has paid for itself in volumes. Hope that helps

12. 
    user-7543396 | Mar 13, 2021 09:30am | #14

    C.a. Technologies I apologize I’ve attached a chart with specifications of its transfer efficiency as opposed to other systems as well

    
1. 
   eddo234 | Mar 13, 2021 11:25am | #15

   Thanks. I’ve seen CA’s guns listed, and they look interesting. As you say, though, they’re very pricey for the amount of spraying I do (one-off furniture, 4-5 kitchens a year, and, depending on what the gun is capable of, around the house painting) I’m hoping to keep under $500, or near there.

13. 
    doctorstu | Mar 17, 2021 08:01pm | #16

    Couple more comments. I wouldn't use my shop gun to shoot "around the house latex." No much more aggravating than having a missed clot of latex go shooting out into your clear finis. Just my feeling. I have and really like an AOM gravity feed HVLP. I paid less than $500 for a kit with multiple set ups and a whole bunch of spare parts.I'm using about the same amount of air that you have and I get very good atomization. I shoot water based M.L. Campbell for any kitchen cabinet work and most small one offs. I shoot nitrocellulose on guitars. I've been doing this for 45 years or so and am very happy with the transfer rate. It beats the doors off of what we used to get with a Binks N07, which did lay down a beautiful finish. I have a turbine gun which mostly sits in the corner. I shot nitro and early water based finishes with it , but the HVLP has a lot better lay out and you don't have to thin the finish as much so the job takes fewer coats.

1. 
   eddo234 | Mar 17, 2021 08:21pm | #17

   Thanks. I wasn’t really thinking of household latex shooting, although the do-everything-gun would be nice. I’ll look into the AOM. I loved my BinksNo7 back in the day.

1. 
   ch00ch00man | May 10, 2021 07:25pm | #24

   keep in mind that it's discouraged to shoot latex and thinner stuff (lacquer, shellac...) from the same gun.

1. 
   eddo234 | May 10, 2021 08:12pm | #25

   Did you read my post? “ I’m spraying as much water based finishes as possible, but also some solvent based conversion varnish and urethane. In an ideal world I’d have one gun that could shoot those pigmented and clear finishes, and occasionally latex. But for this gun I won’t try latex.”

14. 
    Lyptus | Apr 03, 2021 07:59am | #18

    I own the Qualspray LVLP gun and a 7cfm compressor. I purchased the gun from Jeff Jewitt. He advised me to get a Fuji turbine but I was set on needing a compressor for other purposes. I used the gun to spray three coats of water-based poly on kitchen cabinets. It worked but proper atomization was a challenge. In retrospect, I should have spent more on a CA LVLP gun or purchased a turbine.

15. 
    eddo234 | Apr 04, 2021 11:36am | #19

    What issues did you have with proper atomization, and which model LVLP? Did you try all available nozzle sizes and combinations of air settings? If so, did you finally dial it in correctly, or never get it right? What was the result, orange peel, dry spray, something else? And finally, no offense intended, just wondering about your skill level. If you're very inexperienced with spraying do you think that had anything to do with the challenge of getting a good finish? Conversely, if you're very experienced what do you think the culprit was, the overall quality of the gun, not enough cfm in your compressor (meaning the gun needs more than the company states)? Thanks!

16. 
    eddo234 | May 06, 2021 11:30pm | #20

    My follow-up on my original question. I bought a QualSpray AM2012RP with the PPS kit. It's a reduced pressure (not as low as LVLP, but about the same transfer efficiency and better atomization). I emailed Jeff Hewitt with a number of questions and he emailed me back quickly (and didn't try to talk me into a turbine system, as someone else posted in this thread). Thanks again for all the suggestions.

17. 
    hoovermd | May 09, 2021 11:17pm | #21

    So, are we talking about airbrush style of setups here?
    I have an Iwata Eclipse G6 that I use on small projects.
    With a 3# cut shellac the finish is flawless!
    Not sure where it falls in the whole technical LFLP spectrum here as it is a 35 psi 1.1 cfm gun

18. 
    eddo234 | May 10, 2021 09:10am | #22

    Not me, I was asking about general woodworking spraying, cabinets, furniture, etc.

19. 
    hoovermd | May 10, 2021 11:01pm | #26

    So, I'm interested in being educated...
    I am familiar with HVLP. Have done my share of work with the turbine setup. I'm also familiar with the typical old school automotive paint guns that run at 50ish PSI and 10ish CFM that pushed 40ish CFM and my Iwata that runs 1 ish CFM at 30PSI.
    The Qualspray is a reduced pressure system with which I am not familiar.

    What are the benefits of a Reduced Pressure system? It seems to use a 30is PSI compressor but with only a 6CFM requirement. This interests me for my medium sized projects...

    I can pretty much shoot anything from shellac to lacquer to water based poly or oil based enamel on my HVLP and I've limited my Iwata to shellac abt am definitely interested in learning about what an RP system could do for me...

1. 
   eddo234 | May 11, 2021 09:33am | #27

   It’s not just Qualspray that has RP guns, I believe most of the big players have them now. They have much lower air requirements than HVLP, but don’t technically meet some states’ maximum air nozzle input or output rules that mean having to use HVLP guns. They also apparently have better atomization than LVLP while having the same material transfer efficiency as HVLP. Someone on another site explains it this way: “ Actually the only acronym that is locked into a "standard" is HVLP (high volume low pressure) because it's parameters are defined by law. HVLP guns must have 65% transfer efficiency and 10 PSI or less at the air cap.

   LVLP is just an acronym made up by spray gun manufacturers to describe their products however it does serve a valuable, descriptive purposes. LVLP (low volume low pressure) is basically an HVLP gun that (in most cases) uses less than 10 CFM but there is no legal standard that the manufacturer needs to comply with so, in reality, they can vary from one gun to another. Because LVLP guns usually have less air coming from the tip they may generate less overspray and may tend to work a little more slowly.

   RP (Reduced Pressure) is a conventional gun that is usually also a "compliant" gun which means it is a conventional (non-HVLP) that will still transfer over 65% of the paint material to the surface being sprayed but the air cap pressure exceeds the HVLP limit of 10 PSI. This increased pressure at the cap takes it out of HVLP but it still complies with laws that demand a transfer efficiency above 65% hence the name compliant.”

20. 
    hoovermd | May 11, 2021 11:06pm | #28

    Wow! Sounds like DOCG requirements in wine!
    I like a good Chianti or Barolo but the whole HVLP/LVLP/RP thing seems sooo confusing.
    Good thing I'm not drinking my finishes.... other than the traditional Eau de Vie with the shellac ;)

21. 
    31vicky | May 12, 2021 12:20am | #29

    I'm surprised not to see anyone with personal experiences with Fuji HVLP systems. Perhaps not available in America? It's Canadian made as far as I know and I've had great success spraying cabinets and furniture with waterborne top coats ( general is my favourite) but minwax performed just as well. Fuji has a number of turbine driven hvlp systems from hobby to professional. Gotta admit I don't like the noise of the turbine but that's what the ISOTunes are for.
    If I'm just spraying a waterborn paint on an outdoor project I often turn to the $60 gun I got on sale at Canadian tire - great little gun when your not doing furniture polish finishing and the compressor is in the other room.

1. 
   eddo234 | May 12, 2021 12:28am | #30

   It might be because I specifically said in my original question that I wasn't interested in turbine systems. :-) It didn't stop a couple of people from voting for their favorite turbine systems though.