[35olds]

I've been doing a lot of reading on what paint gun to buy.Looks like the consensus is that you need a very good air compressor to use a HVLP gun. I'm wishing I'd have bought a Sharpes Platinum years ago ,now they are discontinued.My compressor is a 5HP ,9.1 @40 lbs., not real good recovery.Sharpe says to buy their Titanium 4014 gun, 1.4 tip,13.5 @30lbs. I do not think my compressor would work. ??My search took me to E-Bay,finding a LVLP PQ-finish L400-GB gun..A place called the Tuul Shed sell them.. The message is that it is advertised as to spray all kinds of paint including clearcoats.Has anyone used one of these guns?OP. Pressure 10-45 PSI,,air consumption 3-3.9CFM. think this would work sprayiny a whole car? Thanks, 35 OLDS

[x711]

Keep away from knock off guns.

2 guns will work with your compressor.

Iwata LPH-400 LVP with lv4 cap 1.4mm tip
Devilbiss SRI "small spot gun" 1.0mm Tip

Both are top of the line and excellent for all automotive paint.
Both have low air requirements.

The devilbiss will last longer before your compressor cuts on !

To be honest your compressor is a little on the small side but you
may get by just spraying a panel at a time.

><

[302 Z28]

You do not need to spend a fortune on a brand name gun for hobby work. Check out my gallery for what a Harbor Freight 43430 will do. It is without a doubt the best $39 you will ever spend.

Vince

[5dogsisenuff]

I second that I think the hf gun is a great gun, but uses a lot of air , I do also have that lvlp gun from tuul shed, and it really cant be beat for the weekend painter, Im back to my 15 gallon compressor, (thank you LOWES), and I havent had any problems with it keeping up...

[x711]

Those guns cant atomize urethane based paint worth a darn.

For enamel they are ok, base not too bad.

High solids urethane SS and clear they suck ! plain and simple.

They are a Old sata knock off.

Your money your choice.

><

[shine]

i broke down and bought a purple gun for primer. first coat i was ready to throw the thing thru the booth door. really got po'd. now i have been spoiled by the iwata but really expected more from this gun. Vince has had real good luck with his. what i have found is this is a cheap gun , no quality control , just a 40 dollar gun. the machining process on them is really bad. after several hours of finish work on it i got it to shoot primer ok. but it is an air hog. these guns are a crap shoot. you get a good one or a pos. mine was a pos until i finished it. it's worth the 40 dollar investment. most of the other " gun kits" or knock offs are pure junk. i've heard the iwata clone is ok but it may not be around long. anest iwata is a little touchy about their stuff.

[oldred]

Shine, When I first got my "purple gun" I was ready to just toss the thing before using it for the first time, the wrench that came with it broke while trying to disassemble it for the first time and there was a clip missing on the trigger assembly. My thoughts were "how could these guys like this piece of junk so well?" but after getting these little annoyances out of the way I did my first job with it and it came out really good, with a bit of practice I found this thing sprayed really good and I came to like it a lot. I now have the IWATA and my purple guns are mostly used for epoxy and such but they were a great learning tool and after using mine I will not hesitate to recommend them for the weekend painter, someone who will be doing only one or two jobs or anyone needing a good cheap gun. A full time shop doing repair work or pros doing custom work will probably have little use for these things but they are great for the "weekend warrior" Also HF will replace anything you are not satisfied with or give your money back so there is no risk involved

[302 Z28]

Originally Posted by x711

Those guns cant atomize urethane based paint worth a darn.
For enamel they are ok, base not too bad.
High solids urethane SS and clear they suck ! plain and simple.
They are a Old sata knock off.
Your money your choice.
><

Not true of the HF 43430, yes I was having a problem with orange peel shooting clear with the gun, until Barry K told me to up the air pressure to 45psi. Boy what a difference that made. The pictures on my progress thread speak for themselves, all shot with the cheap purple gun.

Vince

[x711]

Vince glad that gun worked out for you, Honestly though while you
might have been able to tweak it to spray the way you need it to
its still a POS in my opinion.

In a gun you get what you pay for. The knock of guns were copies of
the Sata NR-95s that gun was good for enamel but for high solid
urethanes it was a poor choice.

Since the HF guns were copies of older technology, well thats exactly
what they are older technology.

I hate to see posts of people pushing that HF crap. Someone new and
un-informed will think they are heading in the right direction by purchasing
such guns, the reality is they aint. If those guns were so good every body
shop in the country would be using them. Tech Schools would train new
students with them etc.

The best lower cost guns made that do a good job are the Finex series by Sharpe and also the FL3 series by Devilbiss.

They dont cost a whole lot more than the $50.00 HF Junk.

Folks really need to educate themselves on what gun to go after and
know how to weed out the BS thats posted on many Bulletin boards including
this one.

><

[oldred]

That's what is so good about this gun, the fact that it does atomize so well. After a little practice I could shoot clear as slick as anything I have seen and after a lot of cleanings these two that I have are still in good shape. No doubt about it they are cheap but as I said they are good learning tools and served me well until I decided which "pro" gun to buy.

[shine]

the one i got needed some machine finishing but i think it's going to shoot primer ok. i'll probly get an iwata primer gun before it's over but we'll see. i'm about to start the 57 vette with barry's epoxy. i bought this gun to shoot it. i'm a hoser so i'm running it pretty much wide open. not bad for 40 bucks. i still think a better gun would help newer painters .

[oldred]

Shine, no doubt about it there is no real comparison of the 43430 to a high quality gun and I love my new IWATA, just now getting a feel for it. I think the point being missed here is that a lot of the guys simply don't have the need for a gun for more than just a couple of projects and to be realistic $400 plus is a lot of money for anything and can make the difference between owning a gun and not owning one. An expensive gun that does not spray well is a POS, the HR gun is simply a relatively crudely built gun that DOES spray well, is really inexpensive and provides far more value than it's more than modest cost. In spite of what some may think it is as I said a good learning tool for someone to use until they know enough about what to look for to make an informed choice when laying down the big $ for a "pro"set-up. The bottom line here is that this gun will do a really good job at a very low cost which can be the deciding factor for many. It may not be a replacement for a "pro" gun but it is worth the $40 bucks it cost and then some.

[kenseth17]

I have a tuul shed gun, not that particular one. I only sprayed two smaller jobs and only the clearcoat with the gun. Was it worth the money I paid, sure. Is it going to be as good as a $400 gun, 10 times what I paid for mine, I doubt it. It did seem to do a fine job of atomizing the clear both times to me. And seemed to have less overspray then the sharpe 775 (conventional gun) that I have been using forever. I have a complete I will be spraying in the next week or two. I let you know how it performs on an entire car. My accuspray hvlp spray gun I haven't had any luck with spraying clear the few times I tried, but does a great job with base. I paid over $200 for the accuspray many years ago, and it uses a lot more air, it is really good on paint useage though (good thing with base which can get pretty expensive) I really don't think you need a $400 gun to get good results. But if you are using it everyday and need one that will perform well, have readily available replacement parts, and have tighter tolerances and better build quality to last and perform continuely, it may make sense to buy the high dollar gun. If you paint occasionally or are just learning, I personally would say buy a less expensive gun while you learn and if you start painting a real lot step up to a better gun. One thing about the tuul shed guns is they often advertise them is hvlp or lvlp guns, but with a 3.5 cfm air requirement I doubt it really is. I posted pics of the hood as sprayed in this thread. The Iwata LH 1.4 400 Copy pics and review
I believe it was ac steve that said recently he was happy with how it sprayed too.
I am not disagreeing with anyone that you should buy the best gun you can afford and your compressor can handle. Just giving another opinion, and state that I've been happy with how some affordable guns have sprayed for me over the years. I am not trying to sell tuul shed guns either, just letting people know so far I am happy with it. I wasn't expecting it to do the painting for me. If I spent $400 on a gun, I'd almost want it to.

[shine]

i think this one will be ok. they just did'nt finish the machining. i had to work on the holes in the cap. hey if it will shoot primer anywhere close to vince's clear i'll be happy.

[adtkart]

First, a High Priced Name Brand paint gun will not make a Professional Painter. They may make it easier to learn, but that is likely going to require someone helping, thak knows what they are doing. The expectations placed on a High Dollar gun can really break a newby trying to learn. Someone that spends alot of money on a gun, and then tries to learn on their own, and has problems, can loose confidence in their possible abilities.

As I have said before, I purchased one of the purple guns, after they were spoken of so highly. I tried the thing, and had problems with it. I gave it to a friend (professional painter) for him to try it. He told me that it was a POS. I sent that one back and got a replacement. The replacement has worked great for me, now that I have it figured out. There is a chance that you will get one that will have problems, but look at the money you can save, specially if you only will use it one or two times.

Every gun that I have has had a learning curve, so that is not a big deal to me. I am not saying that I wouldn't like to have an Iwata, in fact I will be buying one as soon as I can afford it. For someone that wants to save some money for a limited use, I can feel confident that the purple gun will do it for them. To simply say that they can't work because they are not a name brand, and cost an arm and a leg, makes no sense to me.

Take a little time. Check with some local body shops and get some paint to practice with, and a practice panel or 2. Try the gun and see what it can do. If you are not happy with it, either get it replaced, or get your money back. With that, you gain practice operating a gun, test out a gun to see what you can do with it, and take the chance of actually saving alot of money. If it don't work out, you can then spend the other money, and see if you can do better with it.

Aaron