The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop What kind of guns you usin' & does size really matter

It has literally been decades since I have done any bodywork or serious painting. I was taking stock of my collection of older guns in anticipation of the up coming bodywork on my pickup. My inventory of spray equipment yielded a Binks, a DeVibus MBC, a nice little DeVilbus touchup gun a few Sears guns and a Campbell Hossfield, all of them siphon feed guns. The biggest problem with these old guns is that they have been sitting around for years, in some cases decades. The packings and rubber are all dried out and you can’t get parts for them any more. I didn’t own a gravity feed gun, because when they first came on the scene they always looked off balanced to me, kind of like trying to balancing a basket ball on the back of your palm.
Now I’m kind of a snob so I usually wear a disguise so none of my friends recognize me when I go in to the Harbor Freight store, you know, the dark glasses, hat and collar turned up kind of thing. But on a couple of my visits when they had gravity feed spray guns and touchup guns on sale for $6.95 I just couldn’t pass up a deal like that and pocked up a couple of each. I figured no matter what the quality of the merchandise they still had to be good enough for shootin primer or Por15. I was very surprised to find that the workmanship was not all that bad. I mean they have a fairly nice feel to them and the tips are actually mad of brass not pot metal. I haven’t sprayed anything with them yet so I can’t say how they perform. I was wondering about the tips, both guns come with1.5mm tips. I often hear our painters here talking about different size tips depending on the material that they are applying. I suppose that the 1.5mm tip is a good all round size, besides I don’t think that you can get other tips from Harbor Freight. What exactly is a 1.5 mm tip anyway, I mean where exactly is that dimension taken at? My old guns, if they had any numbers at all on the tips they were like a No. 1 or No.50 tip etc., and bythe way I never knew what that meant either.
The day is probably gonna comes to get serious about painting the old gal and I’ll be calling Eastwood and ordering a new set of DeVilbus guns like they’ve got on their catalog cover this month. But in the mean time, I got a lot of not so fancy priming and painting jobs like the framework and suspension that I hope I can get through with the oddball equipment that I have now.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,
I bought a couple of Harbor Freight guns and had no problem with them. They cleaned up well and sprayed consistent. I used them on my frame with 2k epoxy Crossfire(NAPA) paint. I also used them on my truck with tractor paint both primer and finish. Pics below.
Dan

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2485059000071274430dPKoat

Denny Graham,

I would bet there is a rebuild kit for the Binks gun sitting on the shelf at your local automotive paint store. This gun was the benchmark for most spray guns until the 'upside down' guns made their appearance. This could be your utility gun, and the new one could be your fancy gun.

Stuart

I bought a gravity feed gun from harbor freight and it worked great. I haven't changed anything on it.

Like you Denny I have my 25 year old spray guns but mine work fine. They now are primer guns. I bought a cheap gravity feed gun for painting and it works fine for an old ex body man. I don't think it would hold up very well if you put it into production use.

Have a .45, '32, '25' 30-30- and 4 .22's
:blat:

Now don’t go shootin’ your self in the foot if ’n sheriff Taylor
gives you a bullet, gizmo!
Denny G

Heh- nice one Gazim.

I have a Taiwanese knockoff of a Binks gun that I bought before HF started offering their guns. Its ok, if I was painting more I would get one of the guns that lets you use the bag system.

I like a gravity feed gun- you just have to make sure you have a place to hang it while you are setting up- nothing is worse than filling it with paint and realizing you don't have a hook to hang it on while you are fiddling with your parts.

As for the tip size, there is typically a range specified with the paint you are using. Go outside that, and there is no guarantee that your paint will atomize right. I like a tip size about 1/3 of the way up from minimum- I tend to get runs when I'm not careful, and I like to work a bit on the slow side. Usually primer needs a bigger tip, which is one of the reason a lot of people have a separate primer gun. I like to have one around with 1.7mm for paint and 2.2mm for primer.
Oh, and I have a 22, a 38, a 7.62x39, an 8mm Mauser, and a 54 Cal black powder.

Denny, there are gasket kits for Binks guns. I still use a Binks 2001 in my manufacturing of ormanental iron. I painted my 53 3100 with it and have had nothing but praises from the fellow trucksters. If you need some parts let me know by PM, I have a pretty goood source here in Ft Worth.

Inuendo deleted by moderator

I would like to remind you gentlemen that this is a family site and is visited by many ladies as well as youngsters, and those of us that do not participate in this sort of base commnication. Sexual innuendos have no place here or anywhere else for that matter. I would hope that the site moderators will delete the previous posts and give a gentle reminder to read the by-laws of this great site.

There are far too many good informational sites about old trucks and cars that are not monitered as to the language content and I would hate to see that sort of thing creep into this site.

Well I have to admit that my little 1/2 hp powered Pasche won't do the job. It's great for my 1/48 models though!

Oh and I agree with the previous post too. I love innuendo as much as the next person, but this is a family site and a 'safe haven' on an internet full of scary places.

So now that we have gotten over the INNUENDO, which, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Milton Burl, Red Skelton, etc., etc., were experts at! Maybe we can get back to the subject.
I'm so d@## "gun" shy about the new paints that I am almost completely crippled in the paint department. I have a couple of hundred dollars worth of quarts on the shelf that I have bought over the last winter that I’m afraid to mix it up. DBU, DP50, ALK-200, after reading the labels they all sound like they’re gonna kill me the minuet I pull the trigger. I’ve got power supplies, glass tanks, anodes, reams of information and a couple of years of monitoring the electro-plating forums and just can’t bring my self to buy/keep/use cyanide around the shop, so I’m crippled there also.
So last night it crossed my mind that if the vapors are so utterly toxic that if one inhales a snoot full that you have signed your death warrant, if you minimize the vapors, you’re a little ahead of the Grim Reaper. Well, how bout HVLP, we haven’t mentioned these here. Again I’ve not used any of them since they came in only recently relative to my painting experience. I’ve read that put only about 10% of the atomized material in the air that the old standard guns did. I just can’t see how they can break up the paint like the old high pressure guns did. What are your experiences with HVLP.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

It has been my experience that it takes more air pressure to pull the paint up out of a cup than it does to let it feed by gravity. I am by no means a expert on anything especially painting, but I like to try, I have a Sharp HVLP and the old reliable Binks #7, the Sharp is about 9 yrs old and the Binks is every bit of 25 and parts are redially available for both. I think the biggest problem with being a casual painter is sometimes we don't get our gun's really clean and then want to blame the gun. JMHO

Denny,
I've been using these 3 guns,
Sharpe Finex FX100,
This is their small touchup gun, with I believe a 1.0 tip. I probably use this the most, it's just right for all the brackets, braces and small items and parts like the grill bars. It sprays nice, but to tell you the truth, I had one of those Taiwanese knock-offs before,( it walked off from my garage somewhere ), that worked just about as nice. I use it for everything from epoxy primer to topcoat. On those small parts, I just can't get the control with a "bigger" gun, and usually end up with runs.
For primer, I've been using an older model Devilbiss Finishline II. I use a 1.4 tip for epoxy and 1.6 for primer surfacer. It's an HVLP and actually sprays nice, but it's an air hog compared to the other guns. My compressor runs about twice as much when I use it. I do run a couple of pounds more air through it than the specs call for, I find it sprays a little better that way.
On the topcoats, I've been using a Devilbiss Plus GFG 670, 1.3 tip with the PPG Concept. It's a compliant gun, which means it's not really HVLP, but not high pressure like the old guns. Sort of in-between I guess. This thing will lay down color and clear like glass when it's used properly, but it's pretty fast compared to the others, it'll really hose on the paint. After spraying the primer with the HVLP, I've got to really pick up the gun speed with this one.
Not that I'm condoning or endorsing it, but how many painters on all those Overhaulin type TV shows do you see wearing a fresh air respirator? I've yet to see one. Granted, they're in a good booth with good ventilation.

Bob

Your right about the fresh air outfits Bob. My painter friend, (not a good enough friend to do my painting) just sprays in a homemade booth with a 24" exhaust fan in the back end. He uses a respirator and just stands up-stream as much as possible.
I'm still paranoid about this crap they are using now days.
I'm surprised to hear that the HVLP gun uses more air than the siphon gun, I always thought that was on of the advantages of using them, that is less air pressure which usually, but not always, translates into less volume of air used. of course the term, High Volume Low Pressure probably says it all.
Think I might get serious about looking for one this summer.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

HVLP guns have a lot more air holes in the atomizer- you can really see the differance if you hold them side by side.

The nice thing about the newer guns is they don't waste as much paint. As long as you spend some time doing some setup the finish comes out nice.

As far as tip size goes, you need one that is big enough to lay down paint fast enough that you can maintain a wet edge on the job you are doing, but not so big that all the paint comes out of the cup in one shot.