[Gpops]

Don,
Is that "Gpops" as in Grandpa? I m just "Pops" to mine. I don t know how I acquired the handle but one day I was "Pops" and it stuck.

Greg

- GregH

Hi Greg,

Yes, I acquired the name Pops the same way with my three kids. It then became Gpops and just this last Jan it progressed to GGpops.

Good luck with the upcoming build. Hope" SWMBO" plans on lots of dust and disruption.

Don

 

[ghanson]

"GGPops"! Wow, congratulations on the multiple generations!

Greg

 

[MrUnix]

If you already have a compressor, it's hard to beat the little purple HF guns.. right now they are on sale and with a 20% off coupon you can pick them up for about $11 a piece. I get excellent results spraying oil based enamels with them and have had good results with latex as well.

Cheers,
Brad

 

[ghanson]

No compressor besides a pancake-type which powers a nail gun. The SCFM is good enough to pop in some nails but nowhere near enough to paint. That is why I'm looking at a turbine system, plus it gives me some portability since bathroom and kitchen cabinets may be in my future.

 

[ghanson]

Follow-up:
I bought the Fuji Mini-Mite 4 with the G-XPC gun. I added 1.0mm and 1.8mm aircaps to the standard 1.4mm that comes with the gun.
On the advice of a professional painter friend I also purchased the 3M PPS system. (He said it will make my life better.)

The turbine and gun arrived this week. The PPS should be here within the next few days. Of course, it's 26F in my garage so I don't believe I'll be doing my test sprays with the gun this weekend!

My thanks for all of the help from the members of the board. I'll be sure to post project reports and pictures as I progress in the craft.

 

[ijpdesign]

GregH-
how do you like your Fuji Mini-Mite. I am in the process of narrowing down my choices and may be going with the Apollo 5 stage. What, in the end made you choose the Fuji? How does it spray for you? Is it spraying everything you run through it, has it had any hiccups with running anything?
Thanks for your thread.

 

[ghanson]

I love the Fuji! It is a gigantic upgrade from the 2-turbine Campbell Hausfeld I had before.
The Fuji G-XPC gun is all stainless steel and the Mini-Mite turbine is very strong. The system laid down beautiful coats with water-based paints. Be sure to thin properly then adjust the gun for the viscosity.
Price point is comparable if you're looking at 4-turbine systems. The 5-turbine Apollo jumps about 65% for that extra turbine.
I chose the Fuji because some skilled woodworkers/refinishers I know told me to get it. I am a hobbyist but like to do a good job and they basically said, "Quit looking, buy the Fuji." I took their advice and am happy I did.
Let me put a plug in for the 3M PPS, too. Paint goes into a plastic sleeve which goes into a pressurized paint cup. You can spray at any angle (including upside-down) without loss of pressure or consistency. At cleanup you simply toss the plastic sleeve and run water through the stainless steel gun. It took me about 2 minutes to have the gun completely clean and ready to put away. No scrubbing, scraping or cussing! I might like the PPS even better than the Fuji.

Let us know what you choose.

Greg

 

[Steamboat_Willie]

I purchased the Fuji Mini-Mite 4 (gravity cup version) with hopes of using it for a lot of latex spraying. (Hardly an inexpensive purchase!) But after much frustration and giving it a good try, I wound up returning it to the mfg. I'm sure that there are others here who may have good success shooting latex, but I didn't. After numerous conversations with their factory tech support folks and the dealer, here's what I learned and experienced.

~ HLVP and latex paint was not for me.

~ Every latex paint mfg's paint behaves differently. Thinning and gun adjustment that works for one could be very different for another.

~ It seemed like I just wasted what I felt was too much paint trying to figure how what the proper paint-to-water mix ratio was for a particular brand of latex paint, i.e. 10%, 20%, 30%. I'd start a project with a full quart of paint and probably could waste 40% of the can by the time I was done trying to mix it appropriately. That wasn't always the case. But that did happen. If I'd mix up a batch of paint and it didn't shoot well I'd throw it away and go back two or three times trying to figure out which ratio might work.

~ The factory rep advised me that I should NEVER add Floetrol. They said that Floetrol may be appropriate and work well for a latex brushing application but not good with HVLP. They said that only water (distilled) should be used. Apparently the Floetrol thickens the paint and thus is working against the thinning that you're trying to achieve with the water. Sounded reasonable to me but what do I know …

~ One time I REALLY went for the thinning gusto and probably thinned a good 35%+ (???). Now THAT was interesting. I quickly learned that you could thin too much.

~ As I would shoot the latex I just couldn't get that smooth "Rustoleum-rattle-can" slick spray finish that I was trying to achieve. Granted that's two different types of paint. But a nice and smooth finish was what I was aiming to achieve. During one unsuccessful spraying attempt I encountered paint drips emerging from the spray nozzle. (that was fun!)

~ Whenever I was spraying something, I found myself somewhat distracted with, what seemed like, a constant "fiddling" with the needle adjustment and spray pattern knob merely trying to get an acceptable spray application. I made every effort to make sure that the gun was appropriately cleaned after using it. But good cleaning didn't help.

~ I found that most often the distance that I had to hold the spray nozzle from the work piece was about 3 inches, NOT the 8 inches that I've seen others mention.

Thus I gave up and threw in the towel. It didn't work for me. that's just my two cents.

Ed

 

[ghanson]

I had a better experience shooting latex. I used water as the thinner and probably had to go 15% to get the right consistency. I believe the paint was from Sherwin Williams and the guy at the store said the same thing about Floetrol in an HVLP.
I have to say that the paint laid down very smooth and only required very light sanding between coats.

I wonder if your spray gun was defective because mine did not require much fiddling and once dialed-in it would spray with a consistent pattern.

Sorry to hear of the trouble. What did you end up replacing it with?

Greg

 

[GregD]

I also had good results spraying SW interior trim paint with my HVLP (Earlex 6900). I thinned with water to get the viscosity in the range acceptable for the gun. I adjusted the gun so that the flow of paint was just enough to get a consistent pattern at 3 or 4 inches between nozzle and target. I then moved the gun very slowly and/or used multiple passes to build up the coat of paint just until it looked wet. I am not very experienced so I get my best results when I go slow.

I imagine the paint with primer products have a heavier body and would spray differently.