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ORIGINAL: rainedave

I bought a new spray gun. The $10 Harbor Freight gun was fine while I was learning to spray, but it wasted tons of material and just didn't lay down a uniform pattern. What do you expect from a $10 Chines knock-off?

Anyway, I spent some time at some of the auto refinishing forums and found out about a $75 HVLP mini-gun that has an excellent reputation. No, it's not a $300 SATA, but from everything I read it comes very close. It's made by Astro Pneumatic and it's model #4020. The best thing about it is that it's designed to operate at 4CFM or less. That's about what my small Craftsman compressor puts out at 30psi. Another nice thing is that, being an HVLP gun, most of the material ends up on the surface you're painting, not in the air as with conventional guns. That's because the nozzle pressure is only 10psi (inlet psi is set to around 40). It can spray a 4 1/2" fan which is plenty large enough for sixty-size models. I can't wait to try it out.

I also found out the hard way that it was the red lacquer auto putty that was causing my dope adhesion problems. So, I brushed a very thin coat of finishing resin over the wing fillets and the putty. I'll scuff it with some 320 and the dope should start sticking. Once I get the fuse re-painted I can start with the clear coating. The new gun should make that go pretty fast. The old Harbor Freight gun had about a 2" fan and it took forever to do a wing. But, that's ok. I'm learning as I go.

David