Time to learn something new...

Art Mulder

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Location
London, Ontario
This followed me home yesterday. ;)
earlex1.jpg

It seems to get good reviews, and the price is not bad for a hobbiest like myself. I won't call it a gloat, since I paid for it after all, but I am looking forward to adding "spraying" to my skillset.
 
I've read good comments about that system. Looking forward to seeing your opinions on it after some use.

Here's a "before use" comment or two:

Well the manual is simple, short, and clear. ... And also British -- if you don't know what the "mains" are you're going to be confused. It refers to the mains several times in the manual. (Mains refers to being plugged in. ie: electricity.)

It's lightweight, and the sprayer part disassembles quite easily. There really aren't that many parts.

Marc Spagnuolo, over on his woodwhisperer review, warned about finger clearance on the trigger and he's right. It is a bit tight between the trigger and the pot. We'll see how that is in use. As delivered, the small air pressure line that goes into the pot is kind of in the way of my 3rd/4th fingers, I'm going to see if I can just turn the pot sideways a bit to get that a little out of the way when I use it, but then there is the lock mechanism also, so I know I can't just turn it 180 degrees. We'll see.

I have fairly average/large hands, but not very thick fingers, so I think I'll be okay.

I do like how the sprayer just fits into the center/top of the turbine. It is an elegantly simple design, and seems like it'll be very easy to carry and move around.

I have a project that I need to start this week that will not require spraying, but after that I have a small project where I'll want to spray some latex paint. So I should be able to report something back in about 3-4 weeks.

...art
 
okay... for a variety of reasons, the summer kind of got away from me. I mean in terms of woodworking, that is.

However, tonight I finally got to try out this thing.

Bear in mind, I've never ever done any spraying, or had any instruction. I have just seen a few people waving these things around, and I watched Marc Spagnuolo's review of this unit also a couple times.

So tonight I shot a small test piece for my fishtank stand. It was so easy, I grabbed all my drawer boxes and flipped them upside down to spray, and I also set out the top, and then sprayed them also. There's no point in taking a photo, as no photo I could take would show much after one coat of finish.

Some random thoughts, then:

This thing is really uncomplicated. You fill the cup with finish (I was spraying flecto varathane WB) and clip it on. You turn the front spray selector to choose either veritcal, horizontal, or round. You adjust the knob on the back of the handle to adjust volume. That's really about it.

I set up a piece of cardboard to help estimate how much to spray, which I think is a good idea. So I sprayed the cardboard, adjusted the volume knob, sprayed the cardboard some more, and so on.

The finish on the drawer bottoms came out just fine for a first coat on bare baltic birch. I'd say there is some definite grain raising, but not tons.

The finish on the top (which already had 3 thin coats of rattle-can shellac) came out pretty nice also. The texture is not glass smooth, but I didn't really expect that. I'll probably lightly sand with 320 or 220 grit before the next coat.

I think I should try a slightly thicker coat next time, this was pretty thin. on both items.

Cleaning was no worse than rinsing a brush: dump the leftover finish back into your can, rinse out the cup and wipe it out. Fill it with water and run it through the gun for a bit. Then I took off the front part of the sprayer (air cap, air cap ring, air distributor plate/spring) and made sure they were clean also, and then left it to dry.

There is one rather surprising oddity. Go back to the first post and see the photo... see that handle that you use to carry around the earlex unit? It's not attached! Seriously! It's just friction fit into the top of the unit. I happened to give it a light jerk and it just popped right out. It stays in tight if you just carry it around, but that seems a bit flimsy. Though I admit it makes it a bit easier to fit the unit into a cupboard for storage.

I'll report back some more when I get further on finishing the fishtank stand.
 
Well Good ! Look forward to seeing so neet stuff.

BTW if anyone would care to learn some finishing I am open to teaching. Just need to come out and spend a week or two at the shop. Hands on.
 
I have the model below that one as I didn't have enough to buy that one at the time.

Works well with latex if you can thin it or use flotrol. I've only sprayed a couple of things so far though so I'm not an expert.
 
Hey Art I somehow either missed this post when it first went up or my memory is packing in. Lately I think its the latter.

However i have almost followed in your footsteps. That is up to the point of nearly purchasing the unit. I am delighted you have bought one and are doing the review of it for us. I watch with great anticipation cause i dont really have room for a large compressor in my shop and unlike others here who i recently visited :rolleyes: some of us dont have fancy finishing shops.

I am expecting exactly what you are as Marc made it look like the solution for the hobbyist.

Cant wait to see how it all works out. Had one of these in my hands at Woodcraft the other day but held off on pulling the trigger at least until i finish a project first.:)

Best of luck and thanks ever so much for the review.

As to the British part (Mains), I would call it English but then between the US and Canada i guess my English would be outgunned and outnumbered so i will go with you. We used to use the word mains in South Africa as well just as Gasoline is called Petrol derived from Petrolium since gas is a vapor and we dont put vapors in our tank as they are a liquid. Ahhhhh:D:huh:
 
i have almost followed in your footsteps. That is up to the point of nearly purchasing the unit. I am delighted you have bought one and are doing the review of it for us. I watch with great anticipation cause i dont really have room for a large compressor in my shop
...
Had one of these in my hands at Woodcraft the other day but held off on pulling the trigger at least until i finish a project first.:)

Rob, I thought about it back in March at the Toronto Woodshow. There I got to see one demonstrated by the vendor. I also had a look at the difference between the 5000 and the lower model (3000).

I knew I wanted one then, but was not sure I could justify the higher price for the 5000, even though I wanted it. So I waited and pondered some more, which of course helped me save some more so I could get the unit I really wanted. I liked the better construction of the gun in the 5000, which is why I went for that one. :thumb:

Did you know that Busy Bee carry's these units? Right now their price is $389, so $50 more than Woodcraft, but in CDN funds. Hmmm, the woodcraft unit works out to about $360 CDN, however it comes with two needles, and the Busy Bee only comes with the one. Dunno if that matters yet. So far, the stock needles works fine with Waterbased varathane, which is mostly what I expect to use it for. I do know I'll be using it for latex paint next spring when I paint my garage door. But from what I've read I could just thin the paint and it'll probably be enough. I plan to ask at the woodshow today, if they're there. And maybe pick up a 1-1.5mm needle also.


The other neat thing about this unit is the overspray -- which there really isn't much of. I did wear a mask, of course, but I also just sprayed in my basement shop (with a small 1x1' window open with a fan going) which was just fine. It was a bit crowded down there, but worked okay.

...art
 
Congrats. Do better than me; I've got a sprayer I have put nothing but one can of distilled water through (to practice) . . . . its been 2 years.
 
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