HVLP sprayer question

[Erin Stringer]

I finally got started trying my hand at HVLP spraying. I received a PC gun (pic attached) as a gift and was trying to spray some latex paint today. 3 hours later I was still getting little blobs of paint instead of a nice flow. I know I started off with the paint too thick but by the end it was like skim milk (white paint) and was still not spraying well. I had the pressure between 10-20 psi. I would change it but did not notice any improvement in the spray. The visible parts were clean, not sure the best way to inspect inside.

Any tips or experience with this type of sprayer are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Erin

[Jeremy Bracey]

That gun comes with a couple of tools (multi-wrench and Allen wrench(s)?) Take the cup off the top and take off the "coupler" piece that the tank screws into. You may find with Latex paint that it made a gummy mess. YOu can also take off the nozel and get into the meat of the needle. This is also a common place for gumming to happen. I have never had a lot of luck with latex paint from this sort of gun. I have however sprayed many, many gallons of stain and laquer with the PC HVLP gun.

[Steve Cox]

The tip that comes with that gun is not big enough to spray latex (don't ask how I know :rolleyes: ). I bought a bigger tip and found it still wouldn't work very well and finally came to the conclusion that latex is not the right material to spray with that unit. Laquer though......

[dale rex]

I paint for a living and have used HVLP sprayers for about 10 years. They generally dont spray latex very well. I use a bigger tip with a larger opening and that helps, but they still spray in little spatters instead of a fine mist. If you choose your paint by its spraying characteristics you can improve on the appearance. This takes alot of trial and error and experience. When I must use the HVLP for latex I choose the paint by how it sprays. HVLP generally sprays oil based paints like this too,but they tend to level out nicer than latex paints.I use an airless paint sprayer alot for latex too, but they require alot of maintanence and cleanup,and unless you use them for a large enough job, dont pay to even use because of this.

[Don Selke]

Jeremy:
Follow the advice of the others and clean out your gun thoroughly. I too tried spraying latex and it is not worth the effort. There are a lot of alternatives out there, I spray Fuhr water base acrylic and have it tinted to what ever color I choose to spray. It is like spraying water base Poly or water base lacquor. There are several good manufacturers that can help you with your spraying needs. Log onto there websites and e-mail them for advice and assistance with there products. They will let you know the best size nozzle to use etc.

[Joe Scarfo]

I have this gun for the specific purpose of spraying a pjct for my MOL.

I discovered that I needed to thin the paint to eliminate the spatters when using the orig needle kit. this was pjct 1.

For pjct 2, I bought a much larger needle kit. I believe it was the 2.2MM. The hope was I could shoot the paint from the can (post filtered of course). Nope, had to thin the paint, just not as much.

However if I crank up the air pressure to the 50's or so, it'll do much better. So much for hvlp.

I'm considering ordering up a batch of a tinted water based finish to see if that's any better. I've heard of a nationally known supplier that specializes in providing this. Hopefully they can color match, I'll know in a few weeks or so as the pjct isn't a priority.

[Larry Anderson]

I'm very disappointed to hear of your latex problems with the PC sprayer. I ordered one from Amazon for the express purpose of spraying latex on kitchen cabinet doors I'll to be making soon. I also ordered the 2.2mm tip which is supposed to be for latex. But the bottom line here seems to be it isn't going to work. Guess I'll give it a try and contact PC for suggestions.

Larry in CA

[Curt Harms]

Here's my experience with a P-C HVLP gun. As previously mentioned, bump the air pressure up, larger tip, and thin with floetrol(sp?). I don't own a viscocity cup (which would be better) but I remember a tip from Bob Flexner about viscosity from Underestanding Wood Finishing p. 46. "Thin the finish until the steam of liquid that runs off the stirring stick breaks cleanly into drops, and there's no longer any stringiness in the liquid. This viscosity will give you good results." Porter Cable says a 2.0 or 2.2 mm tip should spray latex. I have sprayed some thinned acrylic latex that seemed to work better than thinned plain latex but that may have been due to variation between manufacturers.

Air pressure- I found the gauge/regulator on the end of the handle awkward, so I made up a regulator and short length 5'-6' of hose and put a swivel on the end of the gun. Made for a more agile gun, don't know how much I'm giving up in accurate air pressure regulation but it seems to work OK. I usually set the regulator gauge to about 25 psi before squeezing the trigger and the gauge usually runs 10-12 psi with the trigger squeezed. I've run higher air pressure and the overspray still wasn't bad at all.

Another thing to watch- I was spraying some primer and it started out OK then started getting splotchy and not feeding well. I couldn't figure out why, thought something was plugging up. It turns out the (thick) material was getting in the mechanism that lets air into the cup while not spilling material. The material stayed in the inlet and wouldn't let air flow into the cup, so the cup had a slight vacuum in it and material didn't feed freely.

The most important advice would be to experiment before committing to a finished project. Cardboard is cheap ;) Experimenting with the fluid knob and fan width might be worthwhile if You're new to the gun and spraying. I found I got a feel for how much of each with a little experimenting. HTH

Curt

[Erin Stringer]

Thanks for the tips. I'm a little disappointed with the latex results that seem to be the norm. I will probably thin it way down and give it another try with a larger tip. Beyond that I sent Fuhr an e-mail to figure out what they recommended. Unfortunately I am almost 2 hours from the nearest dealer so it may be a while before I get to try it out.