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Harbor Freight Purple HVLP mod

85CUCVtom

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Long video, could have been much shorter but thats not the point.

I have one of these guns, it works great! I've painted a bunch of stuff with it. I'm not a master painter but I can lay down a decent coat of paint. The spray pattern adjustment has always seemed a little coarse. I doesn't smoothly transition from a wide fan to a narrow pencil patter but hey what do you expect for $15.
 

MWMULES

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Glad I am not the only one that does that, about every 3 months they run the ad and I will get one except for last week realized I still have 5 and no painting jobs coming up so let it slide, did go get another set of $9.99 magnetic tow light sets. Like to keep them around also, I just sold a M200 trailer and the farmer left his at home, so him I set I had at cost.
 

clinto

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I have a $400 Sata gun I never use anymore because of these. I've shot CARC, Gillespie, TM9 urethane paint, automotive primer, base, clear and pearl through these and had very few problems. I've had a few come apart and a few where I stripped something on them but they are, for the most part, very good.

Let me see if I can find some pics of the stuff we've painted with these.

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big block 88

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Lol interesting... my sata hasnt come out of the cabinet in years now(we have painted the last 16 trucks with the harbor frieght stuff. These cheap ones are great use, abuse and into refuge.
 

thoner7

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Location
NE TN
I am looking at these guns. What tip size do you need for CARC substitute? Probably that Gillsepie brand? And maybe some clearcoat.

They have 1.4mm 1.7mm 1.8mm 2mm....

And what would be considered a "heavy grade airless coatings gun"
 

Ray70

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I have a $400 Sata gun I never use anymore because of these. I've shot CARC, Gillespie, TM9 urethane paint, automotive primer, base, clear and pearl through these and had very few problems. I've had a few come apart and a few where I stripped something on them but they are, for the most part, very good.

Funny you guys mention not using your Sata guns anymore. I also use a Sata Jet 2000 and a 4000 and my B.I.L recently bought one of the HF Spectrum guns and at first glance it looks like an exact Sata knock-off.
Some day soon we're going to take them apart and see if parts interchange.

I also now use a $20 ebay HVLP gun for primer instead of my old $700 HVLP turbine system...
 

SgtMajHarper

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Falcon, CO
I am looking at these guns. What tip size do you need for CARC substitute? Probably that Gillsepie brand? And maybe some clearcoat.

They have 1.4mm 1.7mm 1.8mm 2mm....

And what would be considered a "heavy grade airless coatings gun"
I would have to go dig it out of the shop to check numbers if any are even on it for sizes, but I have used a Harbor Freight paint sprayer for a few years on 5 different military vehicles, using the red oxide primer and Gillespie paints with great results. I hate Harbor Freight tools, everything except their air tools which all work great for me.
 

thoner7

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NE TN
I would have to go dig it out of the shop to check numbers if any are even on it for sizes, but I have used a Harbor Freight paint sprayer for a few years on 5 different military vehicles, using the red oxide primer and Gillespie paints with great results. I hate Harbor Freight tools, everything except their air tools which all work great for me.
And that’s the purple one? It’s 1.4mm. Do you have to thin it? I’ve never used a spray gun and when I have tried I totally failed
 

SgtMajHarper

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Location
Falcon, CO
And that’s the purple one? It’s 1.4mm. Do you have to thin it? I’ve never used a spray gun and when I have tried I totally failed
I did have to thin it...following the instructions (not manly I know, but I wanted it right)....I think it was like 1/4 thinner to paint ratio.....guessing now. Gillespie has all the info. on their site.
 

Ray70

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The tip size is very dependent on how much you thin your paint and how confident you are in laying down enough but not too much.
Behr takes and extremely long time to flash off, so you are better off using a slightly smaller tip to avoid too heavy of a coat, which could result in runs.
I tend to use the 1.4 and 1.7 in my Satas for everything from basecoats, clearcoats, single stage and even primer.
The issue you may find with a siphon gun is that you will need to thin it a little more than a gravity feed or pressurized gun because the limited suction simply can't draw the liquid up the tube if it's too thick.
If you've never sprayed with any particular gun its a good idea to do a few test passes before spraying your project to get used to gun speed, overlap, fan width etc.
With the Gillespie I would start with 10% reduction and try it, if it spits or comes out too slow / dry then bump it up to 20% and try again.
 
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