Originally Posted by JonSchuck

Hi all. Just discovered this site and have spent the last week or two reading lots of the threads here, old and new, trying to learn things.
I absolutely hate painting with a brush but enjoy spray painting. The few things I have built I used an Apollo HVLP and Minwax (I know nothing about paint) and the finish has seemed OK. Not that I would know a bad finish from a good one but I didn't have any runs. Now, after reading this, I realize I have a Graco XR9 sitting in the back room. Can I use this to finish the base cabinet I am making? That never occurred to me. I thought those things were used for painting walls and fences. Would I need special tips or need to do anything else special? Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by MichaelKellough

I think the lacquer manufacturers suggest airless so they're responsible for fewer VOCs in the air (since you don't need to thin for airless).

For spraying instruments filling a 25 foot hose with lacquer seems crazy.

I'd go with a gravity fed HVLC since I don't like a lot of VOCs in the air either. Gravity fed since you don't need much volume per coat time for instruments and clean up is simpler.

For spraying clear coats I use HVLC (an old Apollo 3 stage turbine).


I'm currently researching airless sprayers for latex paint. I like the idea of air assisted airless as a combo unit but good ones cost $$$$. March of 2010 I got suckered into buying a cheap new combo unit that Milwaukee put out. It has a well speced DIY grade airless pump and a 2 stage turbine and a combo gun. Set it up to spray latex a couple days ago and it wouldn't prime. In the shop for warranty "repair" for an indefinite period of time.

That problem got me to look into the subject and found that for air assisted airless you need a pump with electronic pressure control (to minimize the on/off pressure differential) to minimize the spray pattern size change. In air assisted mode you have the pump pressure fairly low 700 to 1000 psi and with a lower end pump the deadband (on/off pressure differential) might be 500 psi so there can be a huge difference in pattern size and even atomization.

Now I'm looking for the lowest cost electronic pressure controlled airless pump to pair with my Apollo sprayer as an air assisted rig. Any ideas out there?

Another option which I'm leaning towards is to get another 3 stage turbine and run them parallel. With a 2mm or larger tip my current HVLC gun should be able to spray latex with little thinning.

Originally Posted by TahoeTwoBears

Michael,
I've got a 4 stage Apollo and wound up buying their cheaper gun ($100?) for spraying latex only. Worked great. I only sprayed my shed (12x16) with it, but it worked great and I didn't have to thin the paint.

Mike

Originally Posted by TahoeTwoBears

Here you go Paul.

Apollo Sprayers International Inc. - World Leaders in HVLP Technology Development since 1966

If you don't have a dealer, you can try Altura Paints in Vista, CA. I've worked with them and they're great.