Recommend a sprayer?

Looking down the road... say I want to buy a larger spray gun (the porter-cable for example).... its SCFM requirement is 8.4. If I hook that up to my compressor that will output 7.1 SCFM, what will happen?

it`ll spray fine you just won`t be able to spray continuously.
this unit would cost a bit more but will outlive any oilless and will hold it's value should you want to upgrade and sell it, the portercable unit you linked to would be worth maybe 1/3 of it's new cost.

Dan:

Avoid the oilless compressors. They are very noisy, and when they quit, they're throwaways. You can't rebuild 'em.

For not a whole lot more, look for at least a 60 gallon, 3 or 5 HP oil lubricated compressor. You might not think you need it now, but in the future, when you discover all the things a compressor can do, you'll have a decent air supply.

Don't forget a moisture filter, especially if you spray anything oil based, and drain the tank regularly.

kreuzie
________
extreme vaporizer

I won't get into the arguments of a large compressor vs. small (I have a 13 gallon 120 volt unit that claims to be 4-5 hp, ignoring the fact that a 4-5 hp compressor cannot run on a 120 volt household circuit.)

I have regular sprayer (3 different guns that I never use), PC conversion HVLP sprayer (gravity) and turbine HVLP system with a pressure gun.

The PC conversion requires twice the CFM that my compressor puts out, but it is extremely rare that I can keep the trigger pulled over 50% of the time, so the 13 gallon tank saves me. Yes it is a high load on the compressor, but it works fine. Same gun is available from Snap On tools, and Harbor Junk under different names. I just used a $39 Harbor Junk version that a friend bought to prove it worked as well as my PC. It did.

The pressure gun is more sensitive to tipping than the gravity feed gun... if I need odd positions, I grab the PC over the turbine.

None of my spray systems will do a good job at the bottom of a David Marks wine rack with the back on. Brush on or rag on, no spray. Spraying is the way to go, but not for this project.

Most cabinets I make are sprayed with the back off, often on their back on saw horses. The back is sprayed separately then attached. I also encourage adjustable shelves so they can be removed to make more room for finishing.

Dan the one thing that I have not seen mentioned in this thread is the fact that with a compressor you will be able to use a finish nailer and a brad nailer. That will help when you look at putting backs on some projects. Just a additional thought in favor of a compressor.

Thanks for the comments, Charlie & Rob...

I ended up getting a 25 gallon compressor and a gravity detail gun. Charlie, you were right about the sprayer not quite working on the wine racks. Well, the sprayer mostly worked. I ended up doing a combination of spraying and brushing to do the finish and once I figured out the areas that the sprayer wouldn't reach, I was able to apply a nice even finish. (I'll post some pics in the showcase soon).

The next big challenge is mounting these suckers on the wall. I built 2 to stack one over the other with a few inches of spacing between where we're going to put some decorative plates. Anyway, it turns out they each weigh 72 pounds and that doesn't include any wine bottles!

I mounted the first one about 6 inches up the wall using 2.5" deck screws and it feels pretty solid (it spans across 4 studs). But I'm wondering if I should be concerned about adding the other on top, using the same studs. I'm just waiting to hear the bottles crashing down from the wine grotto, having never hung 150+ lbs of stuff to wall studs before....

Here is a pic of me making sure the finished wine racks don't fall....

Alex Reid said:

I have this one - Fuji Mini Mite
It has a 4 stage turbine ...

Click to expand...

Yeah, I know I'm late to this discussion, and I see you've already purchased...

But I'm curious that out of 2 pages of discussion I only see one person, Alex, suggesting a self-contained turbine system. Everyone else was caught up in talking about big compressor-driven systems.

Today, I started pondering an Earlex HV 5000 myself. As I am a hobbyist, this seems like a good system, reasonably priced, compact, and well regarded.

best,
...art

Okay, I have a bunch of spray options that I own and have used, so here is my evaluation, loaded with personal bias.

The low cost solution (under $100) that works well (if you have a compressor), that I often recommend, is the Porter Cable gravity feed HVLP conversion gun, or equivalent. It runs off my cheap compressor that produces about 4 cfm (half the volume required by the gun) but has a 13 gallon tank that provides the stored air capacity so I can intermittently use the gun with more air than the compressor produces. Overall the tank allows me to keep the spray trigger pulled an average of half the time. This is not a problem. A larger tank would allow me to keep the trigger pulled longer before I had to stop to allow the compressor to catch up... average over a longer period.

I also have a Turbinaire 4 stage turbine, pressure cup HVLP gun, variable speed, chosen because somebody owed me money and offered this (I didn't do a detailed product selection). This system originally cost about $700

I have used a single stage turbine system, but sold it. If your material is perfect, the atomization (making of a mist of paint) is fine, but it isn't very forgiving. I kept the PC gun, and the Turbinaire and sold this one. If I were buying another turbine system, I would be sure to get at least a 3 or 4 stage turbine (I don't care whether it has one big turbine or many, but this is the way the turbine people spec the capacity of their systems), and would try to pick a turbine-driven gun with a gravity cup.

I have and no longer use a conventional gun with a large paint pot, a conventional gun with suction cup, and a conventional touch up gun.

Most of the time I use the turbine gun, either because I am spraying a larger item and don't want to wear out my cheap compressor, or because I can turn the volume down for detail work. When I am doing larger items, it is easy to keep the paint cup at least half full, so there is little concern about tipping the gun, but when the amount of paint in the cup gets low, the gun gets really cranky about what position it is held in. It also has a long material path (the tube that goes to the bottom of the cup) so it is hard to use the last of the material.

Most of the time I prefer a gravity cup, such as on my PC conversion gun. The shape of the bottom of the gravity cup allows me to tip the gun into almost any position, and with the short material path, I can use the last tiny bit of material (important if you have some tinted finish you want to use up without mixing extra just to "prime the gun"). The short path also makes cleanup slightly easier - not an issue with most water-base finishes, but makes me choose the conversion gun if I have a solvent-based cleanup.

Why don't I use the non-HVLP guns? WAAAAY too much lost material. I estimate that I use twice as much material to spray an item with a conventional gun as it takes to spray the same item with an HVLP gun. The variable speed on my turbine gun can hit as small an area as the conventional touch-up gun, so I don't even use that one.

One other factor nobody discusses. Many guns (including the PC) have about 10 tiny holes for air to come out around the primary nozzle. I spray outdoors, so a gust of wind can blow material back into the gun and plug those holes. They are a pain to clean (the holes are too small for most cleaning weapons). So any new gun gets extra points if it does a good job without those tiny holes.

Nothing to add on the spraying stuff, but I will say this, Nice Racks!

Also, an average case of wine is about 35 to 40 pounds, depending on the bottles, looks like each rack will hold 12 cases of wine?

That is 12 x 35 to 40 = 420 to 480 pounds..... yeah, you might want to think about that and add some legs or something

That is a fair bit of weight to just add to a wall as hung dead weight, is it a load bearing wall? Just a stud wall to fill a hole?

Not to mention the potential damage to your house, think of the wine!

Cheers!

Each case can hold 99 bottles but we'll probably fill some of the cubbyholes with (lighter) decorative things...

The wall is in our wine grotto, a few steps below the foundation line and I don't believe it is weight bearing. I became less worried after I got them screwed in because it feels *really solid and I realized that our kitchen cabinets probably weigh a similar amount when filled up...

Take care!
-dan

Stuart Ablett said:

Nothing to add on the spraying stuff, but I will say this, Nice Racks!

Also, an average case of wine is about 35 to 40 pounds, depending on the bottles, looks like each rack will hold 12 cases of wine?

That is 12 x 35 to 40 = 420 to 480 pounds..... yeah, you might want to think about that and add some legs or something

That is a fair bit of weight to just add to a wall as hung dead weight, is it a load bearing wall? Just a stud wall to fill a hole?

Not to mention the potential damage to your house, think of the wine!

Cheers!

Click to expand...