Powered spray guns - worth it?

[mjg]

I'm still sanding my kit, but looking at how I'm going to finish it. I was going to do rattle cans, but noticed Bunnings has powered spray guns for not too much dollars.

Anyone got any experience, good or bad, with for instance:

Ozito 400w Power Paint spray gun for $40

Wagner W550 FineSpray paint sprayer for $99.

I'm wondering if they will be complete overkill for doing a guitar (that said, the inside of the house also needs a paint, so maybe I could use it for that too?)

Any spray painting experts have opinions?

[wokkaboy]

Hey MJG, I never knew this type of spray gun existed ! I have never heard any feedback what they are like. Maybe google the model with review and there maybe some forums/blogs discussing them. Cheaper option than getting a compressor and spray gun equipment. I'm now interested to hear any reviews what they like. The Wagner one looks like a better quality unit.

[ILRGuitars]

Overkill for a guitar? Never heard of it. If you plan on building more kits then it will pay for itself. Don't know about spraying inside the house though. Paint overspray can go everywhere, then the missus will make you pay for it. I'm no expert in painting but I know what my missus would do.

[Simon Barden]

Never used one, though I do have a spray gun and compressor. There are a few potential drawbacks (based on the W550 Wagner Finesprayer) that I can see.

1. The airflow rate isn't very adjustable, so you get what you get.
2. It's supplying air at a very low pressure at 4-6psi. With a spray gun, you'd be looking at around 25psi(1.8 bar) at the inlet to the gun. This lower pressure limits the ability of the gun to atomise the paint/lacquer into fine droplets. I don't know how good it would be at producing really fine spray particles.
3. The video on the Wagner website shows a fairly well defined spray area, but there seems to be a fair amount of spray going outside the pattern as well. So OK for solid colours and clear coats where everything else is masked off, but not really suitable for sunbursts.
4. The spray gun compressor is working in the spray area and so there will be a lot of over-spray particles being sucked back in. This will clog up the air filter fairly rapidly, so that will need frequent changing.
5. Compressing air creates a lot of moisture condensate. On a gun+compressor arrangement, you'd fit a moisture and dirt trap in the air line. There is no-where to fit one on this type of unit, so the moisture goes into the paint.
6. The video indicates that its for use with water and oil-based paints, plus some acrylics. So really meant for domestic paints. I wouldn't want to spray nitro with it.
7. Anther reason for not spraying nitro is that the gun needs a lot of cleaning - the paint suction hose dipping into the container will take a lot of cleaning and will need a big solvent bath to do so. You don't want to do that with a bucket of nitrocellulose thinners! OK with white spirit or water for normal gloss and emulsion paints.
You'd need to budget for several extra paint containers. You'd certainly want to keep a separate one for clear coats to stop any paint residue from colouring the clear coat. I've got two spray guns, with one just kept for clear coats just to be sure.
8. It weighs 1.3kg, plus the weight of the paint in the container (which with a nearly full container would make it around 2kg in all). That's quite a lot of weight to hold in your hand for a long period. Your wrist will get tired quickly, which then makes controlling the gun harder. The versions with a separate compressor would be preferable here, as you only have the paint and a light plastic gun to hold. OK, you aren't going to be spraying for ages on a guitar, but if you also want it for the house and larger objects, then you might want to think about it.

So you should be able to spray stains, polyurethane and acrylic finishes with it, but not nitro. You'd have to thin the paint out to a viscosity that the gun can handle (I keep my thinned nitro in clean jam jars I bought from eBay).

As a general point, you'd need to budget for several extra paint containers. You'd certainly want to keep a separate one for clear coats to stop any paint residue from colouring the clear coat. I've got two spray guns, with one just kept for clear coats just to be sure. The W560 is the same as the W550 but comes with two spray/container attachments and one motor, so I suggest that would be a better starting point.

Without trying it out, I can't say how well it will spray paint on to guitars. It may be just as good as a rattle can, or it may produce an uneven pattern with small 'clumps' of paint, which might be acceptable on a door or wall, but not on a guitar.

As it's spraying, you always need to use a good solvent spray mask, regardless of the paint type used, as you really don't want atomised paint or oil-based solvents entering your lungs.

[mjg]

Thanks - that's given me a lot to think about Simon.

If I do end up getting one to try I'll let you all know if it works (or not!)

[Dedman]

you can usually pick up a small compressor on sale, the advantage being you can also use it to pump up tires, footballs ect, blowing dust away and so on. The small ones that run on 10 amp power wont run air tools however (unless you like working for 30 secs then waiting for it build up pressure again). Something like this should be under $200, they are sold under literally hundreds of brand names but 90% of them come from the same factory. I use one of these for both my spray guns and air brush. I've even painted furniture with it.

[ILRGuitars]

Hire shops (Kennards, Coates, etc) also have a range of spray equipment available. They can have full and half day rates but I'm unsure of the prices nowadays.

[wokkaboy]

Hey MJG, as others have said if you have other uses for a spray gun (inside house etc) it's worth the outlay for a compressor and spray gun set. I picked up a similar compressor to the pic above on sale for $100 at Repco and a 2 spray gun set for under $100. You will get a far superior spray quality from this setup compared to the powered ones

[dave.king1]

you can usually pick up a small compressor on sale, the advantage being you can also use it to pump up tires, footballs ect, blowing dust away and so on. The small ones that run on 10 amp power wont run air tools however (unless you like working for 30 secs then waiting for it build up pressure again). Something like this should be under $200, they are sold under literally hundreds of brand names but 90% of them come from the same factory. I use one of these for both my spray guns and air brush. I've even painted furniture with it.

I painted the car in my avatar with one of those compressors & a high quality HPLV gun, now have a much bigger belt drive compressor that can run air tools properly.

If you are going to use a compressor make sure you have a good quality moisture trap in line and also loop the line from the trap to the gun up over the rafters so any water that gets past the trap has less chance of getting to the gun

[wokkaboy]

good advice as always DK !