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I recently purchased a compressor and want to add spray gun(s) to my arsenal. My question is what do you do when the spray guns have a required “CFM per PSI” that does not match the capacity of your compressor? In my local home center, there are 2 guns (2.0 cfm @ 40 PSI and 4.3 @ 40). My compressor yields 3.8 cfm @ 40 PSI.
Any suggestions? Will the higher rated gun sputter / not work at all? Will the smaller gun have too much passing through?
New at this & would appreciate any advice.
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JJ, It depends alot how fast you spray. If the compressor has a large enough tank and you are able to spray within the recharge capacity of the compressor you should be ok. I spray with a commerical 3 hp. 30 gal tank and have plenty of air, sometimes the pump is on constant run but most times it does pretty good. Consider: most spray jobs are not continuous start to finish, sometimes you have to spray from a different direction,or turn the piece, this gives the unit a few seconds to catch up.
Some guns are made to run on less air than others, the cheaper the gun the more air it will need(general rule). If I might add, don't buy a oil less compressor, they are very noisy and have a short life span compared to the oil type.
The lower cfm guns may not work as well with heavier coatings, what are you going to spray? Water base finishes require more air than say laquer. Hope this helps.
*Armin offers some good advice. The first question is what material do you want to be able to spray, and how good a result do you wish. A cheap gun will leave you with much more sanding of the finish. I got blasted once before for suggesting this, but Jeff Jewitt is a finishing expert and the perfect source of information for you. His web site is http://www.homesteadfinishing.com.(My compressor is barely able to supply my HVLP spray gun, so I added a storage tank from Grainger. Still runs a lot, but don't have to worry about running out of air in the middle of a large surface.) Good luck.
*To answer your question, your compressor will work with the first gun (2.0 CFM) but not with the second (4.3 CFM). Now you can deal with the second issue. Will the materials you plan to spray be sprayable at 2.0 CFM? 2-3 CFM is a very small CFM and you will be limited to materials with a viscosity of water. You would not be able to spray varnishes or most paints, for example. Thinning them to the extent where you could spray them may not be good for the finish.
*Howard,Thanks for the information. From what your saying, even if I find a gun rated for 3.8 or so, would it push enough through for spray varnishes or paints? Or would I be better off with another alternative (i.e. separate compressor or some type of device that amplifies, if there is such a thing).Basically, I don't really have the room for 2 compressors, so I was trying to find an option that allowed me to use the one I have.I appreciate your time.
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