7 replies to this topic

[venkman]

Quick question, got a compressor from Alsi last year and the 6 piece air kit with it. The kit cost £20 and had a spray gun in that looks abit like this

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3f2291d607

 

What i would like to know is, how much better would one at £30.00 spray compared to the one in my kit.Sprayed the front end of my cousins mini and it came up pretty good, just thought if i get a better one would it do better??

 

By the way I don't understand the difference between nozzle size and how they work!!!

[Stu.]

I'm no expert, but I think the more expensive guns spray with much better atomization and pressure to lay the paint on to a higher finish quality. I think they normally require a much higher air cfm (cubic feet per minute). I use an lvlp (low volume low pressure) gun as I've only got a small compressor. If you're thinking of changing your gun you must make sure your compressor will provide a higher cfm than the gun requires otherwise it just won't spray properly. I've sprayed a fair bit with my set up and find it ok. My gun requires 7.5 cfm and my compressor runs at 11 cfm. I spray cellulose though so know I can get the finish where I want it by flatting / polishing. I don't think most experienced / pro sprayers would use lvlp as the like the hvlp (high volume high pressure) guns, but they require much higher skill to use as they lay on quite a lot of paint at a high pressure.

The nozzle size choice depends on what paint you're spraying. The sizes relate to the diameter of the nozzle hole where the paint is sprayed from. Flow of the paint (more / less is controlled by the knob on the gun which moves a needle in and out against the nozzle to control the flow of paint. Pulling the trigger first starts the air flow, then opens the needle to wherever you've set the flow knob to allow the paint to flow which is atomized when it contacts the air stream, so a larger bore nozzle allows more paint out.

Edited by Stu., 10 January 2015 - 05:00 PM.

[Daz1968]

I really think if you are looking at a gun for £30 it won't be any better than the one in your kit, unless you move to a devilbiss, sata or similar then the quality of the cheaper ones are very similar, I use a devilbiss sri pro, only a small gun but the finish from it is very good also over spray is much less than the cheaper gun I had before. Really need to consider how much you are likely to use it though before investing though. This is out of gun finish from mine

[castafiore]

Wouldn't have thought there would be a huge step up from an Aldi spraygun (which are basically the ones you see on eBay for £12-15) and a £30 branded one from Machine Mart.

I have the Aldi kit and compressor but haven't used the spraygun yet, but I am just going from what I have read on other forums where there seems to be a view that you are paying for the name with the cheap Clarke etc. spray guns.

I think you would probably need to move up to a quality specialist spraygun like Sata or Devilbiss to see a big difference. Even then it is down to skill as a good painter will get a good finish from poor equipment.

Even on the mig forum and the Detailing World forum, professional guys use the cheap eBay guns for primer and small bits. You would also have to consider that with a small compressor you may struggle to get the best out of gun that needs a higher cfm than the Aldi tank can provide. It will be stopping to refill after a couple of minutes.

One thing to avoid is the Aldi media blasting kit. I bought one just because they were reduced but the compressor has nowhere near the power to run a blasting gun.

Edited by castafiore, 11 January 2015 - 11:58 AM.

[Rog46]

I believe that with practice you can get e reasonable finish from any gun (without practice you'll never get a good finish regardless of the gun) 50 years ago I got quite a good finish from one powered by a vacuum cleaner on blow! However they will vary a lot in how much you need to thin the paint and thus how thick a coat you can put on before it runs (vacuum cleaner gun needed it very thin and started to run very easily, so lots and lots of coats were needed taking a long time)

I could be wrong in my beliefs and I'll watch with interest to see if the professionals add to this thread!

[venkman]

Thanks for the replys might have a look at the more professional ones not going to use it over much so will take that into consideration!

 

 

Wouldn't have thought there would be a huge step up from an Aldi spraygun (which are basically the ones you see on eBay for £12-15) and a £30 branded one from Machine Mart.

I have the Aldi kit and compressor but haven't used the spraygun yet, but I am just going from what I have read on other forums where there seems to be a view that you are paying for the name with the cheap Clarke etc. spray guns.

I think you would probably need to move up to a quality specialist spraygun like Sata or Devilbiss to see a big difference. Even then it is down to skill as a good painter will get a good finish from poor equipment.

Even on the mig forum and the Detailing World forum, professional guys use the cheap eBay guns for primer and small bits. You would also have to consider that with a small compressor you may struggle to get the best out of gun that needs a higher cfm than the Aldi tank can provide. It will be stopping to refill after a couple of minutes.

One thing to avoid is the Aldi media blasting kit. I bought one just because they were reduced but the compressor has nowhere near the power to run a blasting gun.

 

Got the blasting gun used it once swept up the media and its never been out of box since, think blowing down pipe had more effect !!!

[castafiore]

Must admit I was annoyed - just assumed that the air tools they sell would work with the compressor. I think there are a few tips to get more umph from the little Aldi compressors but still not sure they would be up to blasting for any length of time that would be worthwhile.

[Minidarren83]

Try getting a sealey gold my mate has one and uses this with his private bodywork with a little practice you will get very good results from them