Replies

1. 
   RW | Apr 23, 2003 04:00am | #1

   Lotsa options. Pretty broad question. I suspect for ten or fifteen bucks the book Spray Finishing, by Andy Charron, would answer more about spraying than you'd glean from thirty posts here.

   First thing to ask yourself is what you're going to be spraying. Then what you have space for, then what you have budget for. A good suction gun can run a couple hundred on up. Same for gravity feed, and add the cost of a good compressor with a decent CFM rating, hoses, in line filters and dryers, masks, you're at a grand pretty easy.

   If you want prepackaged setups, paint stores would be a good bet for eyeballing. Airless, pressure pots, air assisted airless, HVLP, conversion setups . . . literature and pricing and info and specs all just for the asking.

   HVLPs tend to get a lot of popular press here. Good for efficiency, a little harder to clean, but not a great deal. (just don't use the same gun for lacquer and paint unless you want khaki brown in your next lacquer job) Keeps you from having to buy a compressor, but then you buy the turbine instead. Suspect a lot of us would lead you towards personal favs, or what we learned with, got comfortable with, and stuck with. I've got suction cups and touchups that I use pretty regular, and a Binks pot for larger quantities. I rarely spray latex (I remodel as well) so stay away from airless, despite repeated nudgings to the contrary. I've seen too many examples of carried away, which is easy when you're pumping a half gallon a minute out the end at 3600psi.

   The kicker in my experiences was the day I wanted to mimic multi spec, or splatter texture paints. None of my guns would spit like that. I bought a $20 throwaway at Jimbos Closeout supersomething, worked like a champ, meaning I could make it sputter beautifully. So I tried it with lacquer, fully expecting $20 results. I'll be durned if it didn't run fine. Longevity? Who knows. Point being, maybe at least try it on the cheap, before you dunk a few grand into the experience, to make sure you like the idea and can justify the expense.

   "The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb "      lyrics by Roger Waters

1. 
   migraine | Apr 25, 2003 07:14am | #2

   To get "splatter" decrease you fluid tip setting to almost not open and increase your pot pressure.  Vary your nozzle pressure to get the platter pattern you want.  Have you tried "Texture-Lac"?  I believe that is the correct spelling