![]() ![]() Of course all of this can be side stepped by thinning the material being sprayed, you will then get into the realms of trying to match the material viscosity between each mix, when spraying larger items this can be a pain, even with a viscosity cup especially the mess you tend to make of the bench and surrounding area. The lower power turbines must use a courser needle to spray the same material, but will not have as fine a finish on the work, therefore more rubbing down between coats. Needle size does make a difference to the atomisation of the material being sprayed, the finer the needle/nozzle set the finer the atomisation, not really a surprise, but the amount of work needed to get the correct viscosity of the material is a balance between the needle size and the power of the turbine, a four stage turbine can spry Emulsion paint without thinning with a fine pointed needle, therefore a better finish is achieved without too much de-nibbing in between coats. Some of the cheap guns on e-bay are very good, but must be considered a throw away item, nearly all of them have metal handles that tend to get uncomfortably hot after a surprisingly short period of use, if looking for a gun, get one with a rubber covered handle if you are going to spray anything of any size, but you do get what you pay for. Had a chance to use a few different spray guns over the last few weeks and these are my observations: Had a chance to use a Fuji four stage turbine unit over the week-end: Drool Drool, not only even better, but so much quieter as well, more like a small domestic vacuum cleaner, did not realise how noisy the others where until I heard (or did not hear) this one, now it all comes down to what this poor old pensioner can afford. I did not get a chance to try different needles and spray nozzles in all of the guns and am sure this would make a difference to the finish achieved.Įarlex: perfectly capable of spraying outside furniture, fencing, handrails, decking and walls, but not a fine finish machine, let down by the constant bleed gun.Īpollo 1200: As above with the reservation that the gun is not as good as the Earlex.Īpollo 1300: Quantum leap above the other two, the three stage turbine and a decent no bleed gun does make a difference, handle on the gun got a bit warm, I think due to the short feed tube, could achieve a better finish with a smaller needle than the 1.8 supplied with it.įuji Mini-Mate: I am no guru where spraying is concerned, but this gear made me look like an expert, the finish was outstanding for not a lot of extra effort, whether it is worth the extra cost is up to you, if you want to finish furniture to a professional high standard, then this is it, this unit came with a 1.3 needle, I can only imagine what the Fuji four stage turbine spray units offer. It seems as with all things, you get what you pay for, the lighter gun on the Fuji made use that much easier, the others had a 900ml bottom feed gun and where awkward to use in confined space’s (inside cupboards and draws) the main difference was the standard of atomisation from the given guns and turbines and the tightness of the spray pattern, without doubt the Fuji was the best turbine and gun, much more controllable and consistent with its delivery of air and paint to the gun and less overspray, the gun controls where easier to use and the standard of paint finish is up there with the best, I ended up with some glass smooth finished machined MDF, admittedly this took some work and a lot of de-nibbing on the first coats. ![]() ![]() Fuji Mini-Mate, another €100.00 up in price, but what a difference, the one I used had a gravity feed gun of 600ml this was so much easier to use, (lighter) it also had a flexible tube feed which I found made the gun go where I wanted, I had not realised how awkward the others where until I tried this on the Fuji. Apollo 1300, big step in price, but also spec, this is a three stage turbine with a professional no bleed gun, the standard of finish compared to the above two is a quantum leap over them, its a moot point if the €100.00 increase is worth the extra.Ĥ. Apollo 1200 again a two stage turbine, gun was not very good, considering the increase in cost against the Earlex, again a constant bleed gun, see later comments.ģ. Earlex 5500, two stage turbine, impressed in the first instance, especially on the lack of overspray and the control over the paint content of the spray, the patten control was also impressive, not impressed with the constant bleed gun as it kicked up a lot of dust when not being used.Ģ. This is a copy of some of my posts on a Forum discussion on HVLP units, some of the reading flow may be off as others posts are not included, my first investigations concerned trying different units available on the market.ġ. It has been suggested to me that this could usefully be posted in Tool Reviews so here it is. ![]()
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