Been given a spray gun

Connect them up to your airline and try them out. But not on your car. Spraying is a difficult skill to master.

Steve

They need a fair bit of cleaning, and as I understand it, different spray gun setups work for different paints. It'd be much cheaper to just check out the guns and find out what's useful before cleaning them and buying a bunch of different paints and trying them. You'd also have to try them at different air pressures. All in all, it'd take a long time and cost.

I think you're getting too technical. IME most sprayguns will spray any paint providing it's the right viscosity, and most work best at around

25-30psi. I have 3 sprayguns. A Devillbiss JGA profesional gun. A gravity feed gun, and a pressure pot type. They'll all do the same jobs, but sometimes one is more appropriate than the others. I also have a nice Badger airbrush. Ideal for small areas or components. I suggest you take them to bits, leave them in some cheap cellulose thinners to clean them up, and try them out with whatever paint you have to hand. You might have to thin it a bit. If you don't like them, at least they'll be nice and clean to sell on eBay. :-) Mike.

Out of interest, which would you say worked best with 2 pack?

As I said, theres little difference between them. The only real difference is in the spray pattern, and the volume of paint they can spray. If you're thinking of spraying a car though, I'd have to say the Devillbiss would be the gun I would use. I should add, that although I have sprayed 2 pack in the past, unless you use a clean air breathing system, I'd advise against it. 2 Pack is far more hazardous than say cellulose, so I wouldn't do it again.. Mike.

I need a course on spraying - i can get a decent finish with rattle-cans and my el-cheapo airbrush but cant for the life of me get a decent finish with a big gun and a compressor, and i have a decent one and a cheap one :(

J

I'm only an amateur. Self taught, by trial and error. :-) Most of the spraying I do is on parts of cars. Wings, doors, etc, although I did spray an Escort van once. Only got one or two runs, but by the time I'd rubbed them out the finished result looked quite professional. Maybe you're making the same mistake I did when I first used a bigger gun. It took me some time to get used to the volume of paint that was coming out in comparison to an airbrush or small spraygun. Overlaps become much more critical, as they can easily lead to runs. It helps at first if you reduce the volume and spray thinner coats, until you get the feel of how much paint you're putting on. Mike.

Leeds college of technology do one. IIRC it was either £300 or £500 for a 5 day course for amateurs. I decided I'd be better off trial and erroring it...

Make the most of it, they are about to make non water based paint like cellulose and epoxy unobtainable. Water based paints won't air dry in any reasonable time and to a decent hardness.

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For what value of about? IE, next couple of years or next couple of months?

I wouldn't advise spraying 2-pack unless a) you have the right gear b) you have a dedicated "spraybooth" and c) you have experience. Check out this site for why I decided to stick to celly :

And I do have the gear and the experience! I use my JGA for topcoat - it has the right cap & needle for celly - and a cheap Clarke for primer.

Just glanced though Practical Classics today. Implied that DIY painting could be made impossible.

If UK comes in to line with EU regs. It says low solvent content paint will have to be made and used from 1/1/2007 but can supply old higher solvent paints that are in stock for 12months.

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I seem to get either runs or bloody un-movable dull finish almost orange-peel. Did my sunroof when i had it off and it came out almost satin finish. HOURS of wet n dry and Tcutting got it back to a light satin but still not shiny, and almost through to the metal in some bits despite 4 coats! Nightmare.

J

Its a good price for a course like that but as you say - might be better off trial and error with some scrapyard parts and spare time.

What sort of paint were you using? The common mistake is to lay it on too thick. Better to have several thin coats.

I've read the page before and don't remember any massive issues bar the need for an air fed mask. I know it sets *very* hard and so it's difficult to flat etc, but doesn't it also give the best finish out of all the paints around? I've got a big 3 phase compressor and a big shed to spray in. Am I missing something?

Standard (cellulose i think?) stuff - had the offer of putting it in a rattle can or just in a tin - should have chosen can!

I cant get any shine unless it goes on fairly thick, but its only a matter of microseconds before runs then :(

You should be able to adjust the volume of paint coming out of the gun. Turn it down.

You can also use "top coat" thinners for the ..er top coat. Cellulose finish won't ever be as shiny or plastic looking as modern two pack (IME)