finishing NOVICE, advice needed

[Vince Shriver]

I'm looking to acquire a sprayer for small woodworking projects (cabinets, tables, wall paint [if possible] etc) and have zero experience with sprayer equipment. Rocker has a cap sprayer (Titan 75 HVLP) with gun advertised. Any and all advice would be much appreciated. Thanks, Vince

[David Ruhland]

Vince... about 2 years ago I was in the same boat, and started out with an Earlex 6003. ( this is also a 3 stage like your looking at) it was okay, but it was noisy in the confined space i was in i returned it and bought a Fujispray 5 stage - The more stages the more power. The old saying goes you get what you pay for. I have learned with the help of the folks on this forum and buying the book "Spray Finishing" by Jeff Jewitt I would buy a sprayer you can grow with. Depending on what you are spraying will depend on the NN (needle/Nozzle) you will need for your gun. I spray all waterborne products, some have a viscosity of 17 secs, some come out of the can with a viscosity of 180 secs or more.. for the 17 sec i spray with a 1.0 N/N for the 180 stuff I thin and spray with a 1.8 I think most guns come with a nozzle of 1.3 as standard - its okay if you dont know what that means yet we will help you... plan to spend lots of time learning how to thin the product your spraying. Spraying walls can be done with your HVLP, but its tedious as the HVLP is not really designed for this. I am currently kicking tires on a titan 440 airless for painting walls. I have both the cup gun like your looking at and a gravity flow (cup above gun) i hardly ever use the cup gun if that tells you anything.

Keeping your gun clean is important, so make sure whatever you buy is easy to clean.

Titan is a great product, but also take look at Earlex, Fujispray, Apollo, to name a few....

Jeff Jewitt has a website called "homestead finishing" that has lots of good info for you take a stroll on over there... There is also lots of good info on this site.

[Vince Shriver]

Thanks, David. Great information, much appreciated.

[Dennis Peacock]

I've sprayed finishes for years with nothing more than HVLP gun from Lowes.

[Stan Calow]

I've been happy with my low-end Earlex turbine sprayer for the small number of jobs I use it on (hobbyist). Even happier when I saw the prices of those units that were in the OP.