Any painters in the house - working with a HLVP gun

**pingable** · 03-20-2010, 05:54 PM

planning to borrow a friends Graco HVLP setup...

I have tons of feet of iron gate I need to paint and I don`t plan to do it like the last time which was with a brush...

Just short of drop cloths, good eye protection, and respirator

**rcrobbins** · 03-20-2010, 06:50 PM

What`s the question you have? I can help you out with anything you need to know about HVLP, but fail to see a question stated.

**pingable** · 03-20-2010, 06:57 PM

whoops, missed that one. On the 101 basics...is a good respirator needed ? I was making myself excuses and looking at those $$ battery air fully closed respirators.

I`m going to assume it atomizes and does somewhat fly everywhere ?

**rcrobbins** · 03-20-2010, 07:10 PM

I like to stress safety as a top priority when painting, especially dealing with known carcinogens. Pick up a good 3M dual cartridge respirator, $5 full paint suit, $2 head sock and a pack of nitrile gloves. It does atomize the paint, but does it at a lower pressure at the cap which equals less over spray than conventional paint guns. I could go on for days about adjusting a HVLP, so I normally revert people to this article How should I properly set up my HVLP spray gun?. After reading those basics, if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

**imported_advs1** · 03-20-2010, 11:05 PM

X2 on the respirator

**pingable** · 03-23-2010, 03:32 PM

Back to the drawing board. Instead of his itty bitty Graco setup, I`m thinking I`m just going to buy a hvlp gun set.

Any tips on what to buy....etc. Alot more homework to do. My compressor puts out around 11-12 CFM

**rcrobbins** · 03-23-2010, 05:30 PM

If you`re only painting Iron gating, I would just recommend Harbor Freight`s Purple Gun with the 1.4 tip. It lays great for the price. Though I wouldn`t ever use it to paint a car or bike, for a beginner it`s a great entry door gun. If you want the next step up, I like the Kobalt HVLP from Lowes Home for around $100. You can also look into getting a mini gun, which has a smaller fan pattern for your project. Also, check out you local craigslist for "hvlp" and see if there`s any good deals. Northern also sells guns by Vapor, for around $40-50, they look alright and have good reviews. They do carry a Vapor 3 gun setup too, if that`s what you`re after. Hope that points you in the right direction.