The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 33 gallon Craftsman is it suitable to paint?

Hello folks,

I have 33 G craftsman compressor, 6.5 HP. So far I have used it for cut off wheels and impact wrench and air rachets etc. Will the same compressor be good enough to paint the truck. I want to paint the truck myself and is there step by step guide to paint the truck all the way from stripping paint to finishing
I am newbie so bare with me please

Any ideas are appreciated.

Ganesh

you will have to see the CFM requirements of your paint gun mine is a devilibiss hlvp and requires 90 lbs and 12 Cubic Foot PER Minuite out put according to the manufacturer,I would like to know has any one done it with a smaller compressor a hlvp gun and did it come out ok .Sometimes the manufactures will over rate the compressor needs so as not to have a gun failure.seems to me like it could be done with a lot less cfm. Many large compressors dont put out this volume there are decieving they will have 80 gallon tanks but low CFM numbers?

I am not a professional painter that is for sure, but I have painted a lot of smaller parts and things with my small air compressor. It works fine as long as I only paint for a couple minutes then wait for compressor to build up, then paint for a couple minutes...

i sprayed my cab with primer,sprayed an astro van with a tinted epoxy primer then shot the whole top half w/a flattened black lacquer with no issues.my compressor is a 4.5 horse w/ 25 gallon tank.wasnt a hvlp gun though just a $50.00 cambell hausfield from wally world..............dave

Thanks guys for quick reply and how important is really HVLP gun, can we not get same results with any other paint gun or I have to look for specific types of guns.

I have kind of disagree with the 2 minute painting quality becuase that will start giving different shades and that will be bad

Waiting to hear more inputs.

Ganesh

I forgot to add this. Specifications are 8.6 scfm @ 40 psi and 6.4 @ 90 PSI

Ganesh

I've never seen a small compressor like your 33 gal that had enough output to paint a vehicle. As noted above check the CFM requirements of your paint gun. If your compressor isn't rated for continuous duty at that output you are asking for trouble.

That makes sense too, I have to see what is the rating the gun is requiring if it is below the above posted scfm I should be a rockstar right

Ganesh

I am not a pro,but have alot of experience.My old srayer dose a better job than my HVLP.However the HVLP dose a good job and only uses half as much paint and paint is high priced now days so I use the HVLP,also the HVLP dose not get the over spray all over the place so makes clean up easier.As for the compressor you will just have to try it.It won't matter if you have to wait on the compressor when you are shooting primer and that will give you and ideal what the compressor will do for the paint.

aah speaking of paint, How much primer and paint I should buy and how much does it cost, not to side track my own post but wanted to have a ballpark estimate.

Thanks for your input

Ganesh

I have about the same size compressor but use an LVLP gun that I got a good deal on, I forget its CFM requiremenst, but it worked well. I was worried about not having the CFM for an HVLP. One thing, if you run the compressor too hard or too long is you'll be spitting water out your paint gun, I had that happen with a DA. For painting, I have an inline trap of some sort and so far so good.

I painted my truck with a 5hp 20 gal compressor using devilbiss hvlp gun but I painted one piece at a time. It worked fine. It would not be able to keep up if I had painted the entire truck at once. I painted a tractor with it too and I had to stop frequently to let the compressor catch up.

Thanks guys, I will check the LVLP and one piece at a time, I am just worried about the shades if it may created in difference.

Ganesh

If you're not using a metallic paint and use the same batch number paint you shouldn't have a miss-match issue other than possibly texture. The factory paints all of the panels (doors, fenders, hoods, deck lids, body) separately and doesn't generally have problems.

The biggest issue you are going to fight with a small compressor like that (presuming you are getting enough CFM) is moisture buildup in the tank and spitting out through the gun. I think that compressor is too small. I don't believe that it is 6.5 HP, either, if it plugs into 120V it isn't possibly more than 1.5 HP.