Spray painting - beginner needs advice

Hi all

I want to learn how to spray. I've done a few jobs on wheel etc with rattle cans with surprisingly good results and now I'd like to learn how to do it properly. I've got the space (big empty shed).

Can someone recommend a good compressor for a beginner? also need spary guns etc so any help much appreciated. I'm going to steer clear of 2-pack as I don't want to die. Does choice of paint affect the equipment you need. I can't see why it would. There are surprisingly few good guides online! Might buy a book!

Cheers

Stu

Used to be a sprayer myself,the best guns to go for imo are Devilbiss or Wagner they seemed to give the best finish,as for the choice of paint your using this depends on the size of the hole in the nozzle your using (ie)if your using a thick paint with a tiny hole then the nozzle will just bung up & all you'll be firing is air no matter how much you turn the volume up on the gun although any decent brand of gun should have interchangable nozzles available for it to combat this problem...HTH.

Also forgot to say,when you do start spraying,go lightly to start with as in 2or 3 light coats will be better than 1 heavy coat(unless you want runs everywhere)

[northwind]

everyone loves Devilbiss. I used a Siegen one which was pretty decent, a complete pain to service/clean though.

Trouble with DIY spraying is that a good topcoat is hard to find. I used a singlepack, as every cellulose clearcoat I've seen is basically worthless if you want it to last (I resprayed a damaged panel with a celly clearcoat and discovered soon after that insects hit hard enough to damage it, never mind stones...) And of course it's vulnerable to petrol spills. Singlepack is OK but still doesn't last well, I was having to re-finish mine far too often because of paint fading and minor scratches, and it's also not good with petrol (though not as terrible as celly). Basically not good enough for a long lasting finish on a bike that gets ridden.

I don't know anything about the water based ones that are taking over now but I've heard they need baked to hardness? And as you say, 2K isn't nice.

I'm quite proud of the job I did of mine, as a first time effort I've got nothing to complain about, but I won't do it again- partly because of the investment of time and money, but mainly because after a year it looked so sorry for itself.

Originally Posted by northwind

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I don't know anything about the water based ones that are taking over now
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Water-based laquers/paints are good to use if your working in slightly damp conditions as it won't bloom(cloud over)on the finish as obviously its water-basedbut cellulosed based stuff reacts with damp & WILL bloom.

The one thing to remember with water-based is before using it,make sure it is really well stirred firstly, otherwise you can sometimes get a skin forming which will block the gun nozzle no end & create a host of problems especially if a bit of skin fires on to what your working on,once its on its on unless you want to start again from fresh,then you've got the problem of getting your surface back to pre-spray preparation.

[punyXpress]

Wait for a warm day!

Just make sure wen you go to put the laquer onto the waterbase make sure its well dry, silly thing to say but it will affect ur finish.
Also dont lash the laquer on ever, especially wen its cold and i dont know how much you want to spend but ive just bought a new waterbase devilbiss GTi for work and it cost me £300, but then it one of the best along with SATA.

Thanks for the help. I'll have a look at Devilbiss. should i be looking at a minimum capacity air compressor or particular type? sorry for noob questions!

[northwind]

The free CFM output is most important- capacity is just a battery, CFM is the actual airflow. Your gun will tell you what it needs.

I did all of mine with 2 tiny little compressors, the first one was a 15 litre 6cfm B&Q one which everyone would tell you is useless, but wasn't- I just had to spend a lot of time waiting for it to recharge. Then it blew up, so I got a 25 litre 7cfm SIP jobbie which, again, was officially too small for my gun but worked a charm. But ymmv. Compressor is the hard part, professional guns tend to be a bit thirsty and big output/reservoir compressors aren't cheap. Or small!