I guess it's worth mention. That a very reasonable solution is to get a LVLP gun. Opposite to HVLP guns they tend to be a lot less demanding on the compressor, etc. side of the problem! On the other hand for most people already stuck with their equipment. Without spending much, in fact rather cheap solutions. Is to increase the size of the hose, as mentioned on the video. And drill out the "limiting factors" of your assembly/installation. Be it a valve, fitting, etc. Sometimes a simple increase of 0.5mm on a limiting hole or valve. Can return quite interesting results for almost no cost! Worth considering. Cheers
I just bought this gun at Harbor Freight with a coupon. Super affordable price for what it is. Feels pretty durable too. I haven’t used it yet, but it looks promising. I’m not a professional painter, so I don’t need anything crazy expensive.
gixerman01 Thanks man! Your videos on this gun are super helpful by the way! I’ll be using it to paint some guitars that I’ve hand-made. Do you feel like this will be a good gun for painting electric guitars?
My shop line is just simple sweated household 3/4”;copper tubing. I put in 2 J Traps as water catchers just using common plumbing fittings. The diameter and copper help condense the water out well. I put it in back in 1999 and haven’t touched it as of 2019.
THANK YOU for all the GREAT tips. I have this gun and other guys are saying it isn't any good. I just got this gun and hope I will like it like you do.
Talking about air hose diameter and performance. I noticed that my impact wrench worked better when I did not use the coiled plastic hose at the end. I believe the inner diameter of the hard (yellow) plastic coiled hose is 1/4 inch whereas the heavy rubber hose It was connected to was 3/8. The coiled hose was restricting air flow which diminished the performance of the impact wrench.
Thank you, I will go get a 1/2 inch air line because the biggest volume air compressor I can afford is the 20 gallon Wen which is just 2hp and 5 SCFM at 40 psi.
@@gixerman01 what it means you can find in Holy Bible ;) And yes, nice of you to explain things about air volume, recently I learned about it too - few yrs ago ... Before that I always had problems when I wanted to spray paint with compressor ! Also with hose - about two years ago I got wide enough so my power tools can work now - it was stressful !!! I didnt know why nothing want to work, sure I tought it was my compressor because I have small one, 50 litar tank... With no big power or air volume flow but in the end when I change hose things start to work :) Sure it is not like in some shop or anything but I can finish my job.... Just I had to learn all on a hard way ! Now because of good and noble people like you others dont need to suffer... ;) Cheers dude !
Your advice about the importance of a large hose diameter is good stuff. From an engineering' POV, the rate of flow through a tube is described by Poiseuille's Law. Briefly, if you double the internal >radius< of the hose, you'll get 16x the airflow. Soooo, a 1/2" hose delivers 16 times as much air as a 1/4" hose. Going from a 1/4" hose to 3/8" hose increases the airflow about 4.7x
WRONG!!!!! DOUBLE the Diameter gives FOUR times the volume through the pipe/hose The formula is Pi x R Squared x Length . double the radius gives four times the area of a circle
You gave me more information on hvlp on the pressure that no one does thankyou. How do you start setup of of air an fluid to begin setup before starting to spray !
So.. Im trying to paint a 1969 Roadrunner (440 6BBL) Fiberglass hood. Seems Im mixing correctly, (1:4 1:4), have a quality Water/Oil filter in line and PSI guage. Setting to about 20/22 psi. Goes fine for 3-4 passes, then I'll get either water drops or might be "Clumps" of the Eurethane paint landing on my work! Now I AM using a 100' hose. @ 70/74°.. It's a thicker material, so using a 1.7 tip? Wonder if I should be using a 1.8 or 2mm tip? Very frustrating.😢 Any help be greatly appreciated! Thanks for the video!!
Love the video brother. As a caveat, I build houses for a living and have used a nail gun almost daily for most of my adult life and I can assure you that those coiled up hoses are laughed at in my line of work as well. Honestly, I won’t even use those to air up a tire unless it’s an emergency and I’m away from my tools. They’re pretty useless all around in my opinion. None the less, the information in the video helped me get a better understanding of how to use one of these guns. Very clear and most importantly, no rambling!
May be MY issue with the Clumpy Paint? 3/8" 100' hose. With SEM EURETHANE Mopar HotRod black hood paint (FOR a fiberglass hood)? Thanks for another great video! #semHotRodBlack #a12HoodPainting
I have been auto painting 260 years Bla Bla..anyway, I’m going to be using my new HF gun next week. My question is, should I purchase 1/2 x10’ or 1/2 x 25’ house? The compressor is close by where I’m painting so I was wondering if shorter was better
I'm going to get this HF paint gun. I'm mostly just painting bike frames and parts. What is the cheapest/ smallest size air compressor that I would need to get?? Also new to paint guns, so wondering if you can paint at all angles with these, or if you have to hold them fairly level?
@@iamher6422 You painted a Benz with this gun? That is rad. What color? Was it a 3 or 6 gallon? How much solid spray time do you get before the compressor has to kick back on and refill it?
Marcus Prince it’s a high volume/ low pressure compressor. Even while it’s running, I still have same constant amount of PSI. Benz came out awesome. What’s your FB page. I can message you some pics
@@iamher6422 Its just under Marcus Prince, I am on a little bit of an Fb hiatus of sorts right now (infrequent use), but by all means, send them! I want to see exactly what compressor your using too. Is it 3 or 6 gall?
Few questions 1. Can you put a better top to hold paint from a better gun? 2. Have you used different spray nozzle tips? Let's say 2k primer.. use a 1.8 from a different gun? Instead of the 1.4 that comes with it. 3. I was told 3/8 fittings are better than 1/4 for air flow and atomization.. do you do that? I ask these because I have 3 guns. One for each step. I buy them at $10 each.. would like to acheive great results with these. Especially the clear coat.
Yes you can use a different cup and lid. You may be able to get a larger tip, but I’m not sure where. I have seen a few people drill the tip with success but haven’t tried that myself. Yes a larger fitting will be better. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for the great info. Question: if im spraying a metallic/metal flakes should i keep the lil filter out the gun or leave it in? Its the famous harbor freight purple gun.
Good stuff. How do you select your pressures? From material being used, or gun specific? I have 2 guns, never used, and new air system, 3/8 hose with filter and regulator half way, and stedlin high flow couplers. Only 29gal tank though, but only painting a few parts for now. I didn’t get the purple, but did get the HF black widow hte gun for a clear, but I think it might suck cfms. Other gun is husky composite hvlp. Will spray sealer, base, and clear on Ecoated parts. Need pressures.
Hey Gixer! I have an aluminum boat that I'm restoring. I'm considering using the spray gun used in this video as a way to cut some of my costs. I'll wrap up finishing stripping the old paint off this week and will paint this weekend. Can I apply a coat or two of primer with the Harbor Freight spray gun before spraying the base coat? If so, can you recommend a good one that's cheap and pairs well with the aluminum? Also, can you recommend a mixing ratio for thinning primer. Thanks again for the great video!
Do you know why my clear coat was shooting chunks out of this exact gun? I had the pressure on 45 and was using 4 to 1 par clear with hardner and reducer
Great video!!! Thank you for making it! I'm borrowing a friend's Husky HVLP gun. It retails for $50.00. I'm going to buy a HVLP gun, which I'll use once a 2-3 time per month. Do you think the extra $35.00 is adding anything of value or would go for the $15.00 harbor freight HVLP gun? Thoughts? Again, great videos (the painting ones).
Ok guys help me out! I bought one of these guns to do some minor paint jobs. I have a pancake compressor 3hp. I operate a framing nailer off it. What pressure should I set the compressor at for small paint jobs?
I bought a Coocheer paint sprayer recently. I'm planning on using it this week to paint some walls in an apartment. Do you know anything about it and is it any good? This one is electric and is not gravity fed. It siphons from the attached paint cup.
SoooOOO glad I found your channel, you're the first one I've found that explains this step by step process in the simplest terms. Thanks for sharing your knowledge my friend!! 👍👍 Take care and God Bless. Jay.
I cant thank you enough. Ive been using one of these at work, and couldnt work out why the gun was getting clogged. I pulled out that little plastic strainer, and it was chock full of residue. Much thanks
Can using a 3/8" 100' hose REALLY be that much of an issue? Seems I'm getting a LOT of H20 dripping OUT OF the gun (Amazon 🙄). Im getting "Clumped" paint landing on my work! Help!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼
The bit about the larger fittings makes sense. If you have a larger hose but use a 1/4" fitting, you're bottlenecking at those fittings and kind of cancelling out the larger hose you spent extra cash on.
And not all hvlp guns use a lot of air. The cheap purple hvlp gun from harbor freight only uses 6 cfm at 40psi. A 1/4 air hose and fitting works just fine.
I'm a 40 year auto body repair man I use 2 of the arbor freight gun 10.00 each 1 for clear 1 base coat 5 years love those guns I have had the most expensive guns don't like them this guy is right on thank you
A newbie to hvlp bought those $10 harbor freight guns good to know more expensive guns don't do anything more than a low dollar gun. Experience is the key is what I'm gettin' from what your layin' down.
I'm a home hobby guy but was a professional metal body repairer in a truck shop. Been using those guns for a long time, I've found that the disposable cups work well, the caps snap on and usually don't leak, makes clean up easy. Thanks for the tips on air lines and fittings. HVLP was just coming on the scene when I retired.
People knock Harbor Freight products because they are inexpensive and not 'Murican made. For the price, they are perfect to learn with. Why spend hundreds of dollars on something that if you end up not staying with it, or only need it a few times when you can spend between 15 and 30 bucks for something that works just fine? I've been using all kinds of crap from HF and have had zero issues with anything. Of course the stuff isn't really fheavy use, but if you're a hobbyist or don't do projects very often then they are perfect.
Thinking about buying the purple spray gun. My air hose is 3/8 on 10 gallon compressor. Using to paint Harley Davidson Fat Bob Tanks and Fenders. Paint is one step acrylic Urethane. I used a touch up gun with binks regulator at my work for painting various Aircraft interior parts and Cockpit with polyurethane and high speed lacquer. Retired now. Thanks for the video.
When I was painting (not a pro) it was either Binks, DeVilbiss, or Sharpe. The first gun I bought, which I still have is an old Binks model 7 that I saved up for. I think you can't use that gun or those siphon feed guns in some places anymore. I remember when I bought it I had to change the nozzle because it came with a 'production' nozzle and it would push a ton of paint through there. Got a few of the cheapy HF HVLP guns and spot guns. In fact, about 18 years ago the HF near me had a special and was selling those guns for $10. I bought about 4 and still have 3 in the box. Not a bad gun. A lot of it is the painter and technique if you have a half-way decent gun. About 35 years ago when I was in the military I painted my car at the base hobby shop. Seen this Major paint his VW Golf and lay down one of the nicest paint jobs I've ever seen using a Taiwanese 'Buffalo' Tools brand knock off of the Binks 7.
The diameter of the hose is potentially the limiting factor if the hole supplying air (in the gun) is quarter inch. Take a look up the inside of your gun inlet. The smallest part is where your restriction will be. As long as your hose is bigger, or equal to the gun inlet (inside) you cannot improve on that with adding a bigger hose.
I use all high flow fittings starting from the compressor down to my guns. I enlarged the hole on my gun regulator (with a 5/16 bit I believe) to increase air volume .. no moisture traps or anything else to restrict air works nice
Thanks a bunch for your video it is very helpful ! Will look into a larger diameter air hose for more volume ! In addition I opened the bleed valve at the bottom on my tank which pushed moisture out of the holding tank with a drier in-line the air was perfect with a meter which measures water content ! Again many thanks !!!!
Thank you for this video! im new to this Spray gun stuff. i definitely want to go with whats recommended. Can you share a link to the 1/2 hose and the right fittings you were talking about? please sir!
@@eddted2876 6-8inches distance and the speed is something you will have to get a feel for. Going a little quick on the first pass is ok because you can go back and put more on, going too slow will result in a run or sag. You can always put a little more on, but you can’t take it off. LOL good luck.
HVLP (high volume low pressure) means a high volume of material is displaced at a low pressure of air flow. This means that more of the paint propelled by the spray gun reaches the surface you are spraying with reduced wastage, overspray, and pollution of the air.Mar 5, 2018 High Volume Low Pressure (
For the money this little purple gun is great....just make sure you clean it out REALLY well at first and then after each job, run lacquer thinner through it to clean it. ;-)
Thanks for tips. I guess I'll stick with my 1/2 inch hose. It cracked at connection, so I have to find a 1/2 inch barb to 1/2 or 3/8 NPT adaptor. The HF purple guns seem to be getting a lot of good press!
I bought my HF purple gun for $10...I picked up two at this price. First time spraying and my project turned out great. This little gun is well worth the price.
