Harbor freight paint guns

SVcummins

Well-known Member
Anybody using any of these ? I have one of the old
style ones and have done a lot of painting with it but
what about the hvlp guns ?
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I have the old style works fine. Will pickup one of those later this spring, gonna paint 3 tractors.
 
I have one of the purple guns and I hate it like the plague. The lids on those sprayers screw on like a mason jar and if you get the tiniest trace of paint on the threads it's a knife fight to get the lid off. Beside that it doesn't spray very good.

I use their #97855 siphon sprayer and it works fine.
 
I have had two or three and they are just right for me. I would not be able to do a better job with the best of guns. There are perhaps some professionals who want a better one but they are above my skill level
 
Those old spray guns waste a lot of paint compared to the HVLP guns. Painted both of my tractors with the $27 HF HVLP gun, and it did the same job as my old Binks model 7 siphon type spray gun (used to be the gun to have). When I used the old style Binks Model 7 everything in my shop had overspray on it, don't have that problem with the HVLP type gun.
 
The lid is kind of cheesy, but I had no problems with mine. It did tend to leak out the top vent a little bit if hold it sideways, or upside down but if keep a rag handy you can wipe any paint off the top of the lid. Even the old siphon guns leaked also if held them sideways, or upside down.
 
Yes I?ve had paint leak out the old style guns and
leave a big mess when you are trying paint upside
down. I think my old gun is ok but I hate to get a
batch of paint mixed then it won?t work
 
When you get one of those HF paint guns its best to (no matter what style) run some thinner, or something similar through it before you first use it. It will also give you a chance to test the gun, and the settings before you use it.
 
We bought one of the HF HVLP guns with the plastic cut & lid and the cup reacted with the reducer or something and the lid became impossible to put on, was too large by 1/8th inch. But as far as putting paint down it worked fine. The gravity feed cup is nice, so much less to clean you can clean them with a quart of lacquer thinner as opposed to a gallon or two with a syphon gun.

I bought a detail HVLP gun with a smaller metal cup&lid, worked fine for things you normally would have sprayed with spray cans. Used it several times with great results, then i dropped a small part when cleaning it, fell under the shop bench and disappeared. Bought another gun just like it. Only worked so-so. Bought another one and it would not spray anything, even straight thinner, store exchanged that one. The newest one is just O-K, not as good as the first one was but a little better than the second. They're $14 paint guns, disposable.

Back when all this was going on the store was 20 miles across town on terribly busy streets & roads. The new store is about 6 miles away and I can sneak around on backroads except for the last mile.

I've got 4 of the old quart cup syphon guns Dad had, a Binks, a Craftsman, a DeVilbis, and a no-name. With the cost of today's paint, reducer, hardener, and thinner to clean the gun up I don't see how anyone can justfy using one of those guns. Way too much area contacted by paint to clean, way too much over-spray.
 
If you are going to spray paint at odd angles or upside down it would be best to use a pressurized sprayer like this one. It will spray in any direction and can't drip.
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I bought one like Stephen showed, and it is really nice for spraying in any position. I made a lot of overspray with it, but Stephen said I probably did not have it set right, and I'm sure he is right. It's capable of making a nice glossy finish with the JD paint that I used in it.

One concern that I have is where I could find a new pot gasket. It appears that the gasket does not like John Deere thinner, because it distorts just a little during use. Not enough to make it unusable, but it is noticeable. It shrinks back to normal size after you're done though. I've thought about making a gasket out of cork.

Bottom line - I like the gun when I'm lying on my back painting the under side of something.
 
You might call HF and see if you can get replacement gaskets. If it is swelling up from solvents you probably should stock several.

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I only paint a project about once every ten years. I?d
rattle can this project if I didn?t already have the
paint and it still might be cheaper to just buy a case
of rattle cans buy the time I buy a new gun the paint
thinner a regulator and a new water trap and get all
set up
 
I painted my truck with the $27 one. I bought the disposable cups and lids that HF also sells. I have never used the cup and lid that came with the gun. I use the disposable ones and clean them. When they get really grungy I put a new one on. You should play around with the paint, thinner, air pressure settings and gun settings until you are happy with the spray pattern. Once you have it dialed in write down every setting so you don't forget.
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That came out very nice, put some old school chrome steel wheels on it, I think it would look even better (those dated 1980's wheels just don't look right on that truck).
 
My experiment with a H-F gun was -- the gun shot fine the cup dripped droplets onto the work. I have a Devilbiss gun but the H-F purple was on sale for nine dollars. I don't even think I cleaned it .I threw it out. Worked good without the drips.
 
I have a half dozen of the purple ones, a couple I've never used. When they're on sale for $9, the whole gun is cheaper than a replacement cup.

That being said, the purple ones are good for smaller projects, but they don't seem to deliver the volume of product necessary on, say, a complete paint job on a pickup. I have other guns for that and for shooting clear coat.

Someone mentioned running thinner through them first. Good idea. I also run acetylene welder tip cleaners through all of the orifices on any gun before I use it for the first time.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys . The thing I?ve got to decide is whether it?s worth it to buy a new setup and use this gallon of paint or buy a case of rattle cans .
 
I have tried most of them and I like the big gun in the $50 two piece set the best. Even better than the $70 gun. The cheapest gun can be had for $10 on sale, which is cheaper than the cleaner to clean it. I am tired of the orange peel and am ready to try a much more expensive gun.
 
I never had orange peel problems with any gun, its all in how you adjust it, and how you handle the gun when painting. A more expensive spray gun doesn't mean you will get better results, you can get orange peel with a $400 gun just as easy as you can with a $10 gun.
 
(quoted from post at 05:49:34 05/02/18) I never had orange peel problems with any gun, its all in how you adjust it, and how you handle the gun when painting. A more expensive spray gun doesn't mean you will get better results, you can get orange peel with a $400 gun just as easy as you can with a $10 gun.

This true.

I'm just amazed at how inexpensive HF tools are. I bought a Devillbis JGA, used, for $75, 43 years ago. That's about $300 in today's money, and that was a deal. A new one was a bit over twice that. My tool budget would have stretched 500% if we had HF around back then...
 
(quoted from post at 11:57:45 05/04/18)
I'm just amazed at how inexpensive HF tools are. I bought a Devillbis JGA, used, for $75, 43 years ago. That's about $300 in today's money, and that was a deal. A new one was a bit over twice that. My tool budget would have stretched 500% if we had HF around back then...




I still have my old Binks Model 7 spray gun ($300 in 1982) still works great, but it wastes half of the paint to overspray. Half gets on what you are painting, the other half gets on everything in the shop if you cover it all up. Using the cheap $10 HF HVLP paint gun I use half the amount of paint that I used to, and I don't have to cover everything in the shop because of the less overspray of the HVLP. If you get lots of overspray in your shop with a HVLP you are using it wrong.
 
(quoted from post at 23:02:27 04/12/18) When you get one of those HF paint guns its best to (no matter what style) run some thinner, or something similar through it before you first use it. It will also give you a chance to test the gun, and the settings before you use it.
est to take it completely apart before you start using it. My sample was half plugged up with assemble gunk.

Personally I use an Iwata LP400LV.
 
(quoted from post at 12:54:21 05/22/18) I have a HF cheap one--works good for me--Used it to paint my D4


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You don't want that old D4, I'll give you my address, and you can drop it off so I can dispose of it properly LOL. Nice job on the D4, wish mine was in that good of shape, mine has a bucket loader on it.
 

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