A while back I bought a new paint gun and system but only today while shooting some panels for a friend's old caddy did I really get to try it out.
At a suggestion from my paint man I got the 3M PPS system for use with my HF cheapo HVLP paint gun. The PPS system is very interesting. It comes with a set of disposable bladders and snap on lids which include a filter in each lid. You fill the bladder and snap on the lid and place that in a plastic support cup and there is a snap on attachment for the paint gun. Mate the cup to your gun, an 1/8th turn and you are loaded.
After you snap on the paint bladder and hold the gun upside down and squeeze the trigger the air in the bladder is sucked out and the bladder collapses. Then once paint is moving through the gun, you can use your gravity feed gun in ANY direction. The bladder is sealed so no paint dumps out through a cracked or loose lid, nor does it go through the breather. So no paint spilled or sloshed while trying to paint in odd directions. So a lot less to clean up.
When you are done, you just remove the cup/bladder and squirt about 5 oz of laquer thinner through the gun out of a plastic squoze bottle while holding the trigger it to clean the gun! You take the bladder and lid combo and take it to the chemical recycle center or just let it dry out.
1. Clean up goes from 30-45 minutes to about 5.
2. The gravity feed gun can paint in any configuration! Up / Down / any angle! No paint spills out so the gun stays clean.
3. since you are using a disposable bladder and lid, you always start with a clean system.
The bad news is that my cheapo HF HVLP gun didn't have the draw to work with this system. It couldn't collapse the bladder and suck the paint through. So I bought a Devilbiss Finishline III gun with a couple of different needle sets. But its a much better gun anyway.
The purchase bad news is that you have to buy (at least at my place) a bulk load of bladders and lids, but, you'll have plenty for future projects. You can keep refilling the same bladder. You can also get different sized bladders. The 3m gun is very nice, but also pricey. The finishline 3 gun is around $120. The local schools teach with this gun, then the student can buy a high dollar one, and this gun becomes their primer gun.
Considering how well the gun shoots, the amount of time saved, and the amount of thinner saved, I think you still come out ahead.
I like it.
The HVLP is efficent too. I had enough paint left over that I ended up painting the ugly black lamp post in my back yard (no prep no nuthin) with the hideous 1977 caddilac 'saffron' paint color which is sort of a burnt orange metallic. I was shooting replacement bumper filler panels. Then again, maybe it will just look like its rusting!
