Official Luthiers Forum!

I would like to know what sprayer or gun and compressor will give me a professional finish. I make guitars one at a time.

Boy that's an open question Bob...

Mike Doolin uses a little touchup gun and gets jaw dropping results, you don't need much of a compressor with one of those.

I use a Devilbiss HVLP with a 60 gallon compressor and suck compared to Mike

It's really about practice with finishing...

You don't need expensive equipment, I would suggest that you try to get HVLP though simply because it puts more finish on the guitar and less in the air. You can buy package deals (Rockler has a really cheap one that got pretty good reviews) or do what I did and get a nice gun and a big compressor (I use for way more than painting mind you).

The only things I would tell you that you can't skimp on if you get a compressor and not a package is to make sure you get an air filter and a moisture trap, their not that expensive and you don't want contaminants to spoil your final coat of spraying

Cheers

-Paul-

_________________
-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

Any air compressor will do, just make sure its big enough to power your spray gun. Your spray gun does not have to be anything fancy either . The quality of your finish is usually going to depend on your skills like, air pressure adjustment, sanding, and buffing. Mike Doolin uses this spray gun for his finishes. I also have one of these guns, it works very well.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnu mber=86          ;      

I'm using the Fuji HVLP gun and turbine system, and have nothing but good things to say about it. Their customer service is also excellent.

I've got a fairly bog-standard compressor and a SATA MiniJet conversion HVLP gun (Gravity feed, small touch-up gun, not cheap, fantastic quality, runs on normal compressed air). Compressors are mightly bulky, though, but this still might be the cheapest 'high end' solution for high-quality finishes overall. I was simply tired of the cheap-and-nasty regular grav feed gun I had, and I have to say the difference is incredible. This one actually makes spraying quite fun!

I have an old-fashiond fire extinguisher filled with cotton balls to
run my air through, as well as a fine wire filter in my gun, and a
small filter on the air hose Those imported guns work really
good and they are dirt cheap.Roy Noble38403.9363888889

I run my air thru a 2 ft pipe filled with cotton balls, also a fine
mesh screen in the cup.

I run my air thru a 2 ft pipe filled with cotton balls, also a fine
mesh screen in the cup, also a filter trap on the air connection
of the gun itself.

The only thing you really need concern yourself with is thee gun. It will tell you how big the compressor needs to be. Remember to get a conmpressor that is slightly larger than the sprayer requirements.

Also, several people are running their air through pipe and cotton balls. I assume they are trying to remove contaminants. There are far better, cheap solutions to the problem that give more predictable results. These are small filters that remove particulates, and even some water from the air and don't degrade as the cotton ball solution will over time. If you are interested, send me a private email and I will get you the information. My website also has small compressors but frankly, mine are more commercial quality and probably more than you need.

Last, make sure you use a regulator on the compressor. This is important for predicatable results. Otherwise, the pressure will fluctuate and this can lead to "spotty" (no pun intended) results.

Good luck, Steve

www.aircompressorexchange.com

Steve,
My outlook express not working. Do you have a regular e-mail address?

Steve, my outlook express is torturing me. Do you have a regular e-mail address?

Thanks to all of you.

I actually have several; one for each of my personalities!

sfbrown_1@msn.com

I generally check this one a couple of times a day. My work one is:

steveb@amplex.net

Regards, Steve