New to painting

Jared91

New member
I want to start painting small things like motorcycle tanks helmets exc, not sure what size compressor would be suitable as well as if should get an lvlp or hvlp spray gun. Looking for All the help i can get i dont wanna spend $1000 if i can help it. What are you guys using for equipment?
 

chopolds

Member
I think most of the guys here do this full time, or serious hobby. So probably have big compressors. If you are only doing small jobs, look at the guns first. They will tell you the CFM needed to use them (air tools, too). Then chose your compressor accordingly. Be aware, though, most of the 'cut rate' stores tend to over exaggerate the capacity of the compressors they sell!
 

Jared91

New member
I think most of the guys here do this full time, or serious hobby. So probably have big compressors. If you are only doing small jobs, look at the guns first. They will tell you the CFM needed to use them (air tools, too). Then chose your compressor accordingly. Be aware, though, most of the 'cut rate' stores tend to over exaggerate the capacity of the compressors they sell!

I have an older but big compressor so i dont know how ill find the cfm on it but what do you guys recommend for paint guns?
Is the eastwood stuff any good? Im serious about learning it's something ive had interest in my whole so looking for any help i can get. My longterm goal would be to make a career in it
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
I know the Devilbiss starting line seem to be mentioned quite a bit on this forum. Great starting gun. I used to use Devilbiss all the time.

Like ChopOlds says, consider the tools to. Some of them are air hogs. Normally a 5 or 7HP with an 60 gallon tank would have sufficient cfm for most air tools.
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
That "should" do it for smaller things, but keep in mind that it's always better to be bigger than it is to realize that it's too small
 

chopolds

Member
Another issue with using an "underpowered" compressor, is that to keep up, it runs all the time. What happens is, all that hot compressed air, retains moisture, that will contaminate your air. Even using a filter sometimes does not help, unless you let the air cool enough for it to drop the moisture out into the filter, which means putting the filter a long way away from the compressor (tubing wise, you could zig zag a bunch of copper tubing to let it cool the air charge.)
 

John Patton

New member
You mean, you need an extra cooler for it, and for environmental safety.

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Another issue with using an "underpowered" compressor, is that to keep up, it runs all the time. What happens is, all that hot compressed air, retains moisture, that will contaminate your air. Even using a filter sometimes does not help, unless you let the air cool enough for it to drop the moisture out into the filter, which means putting the filter a long way away from the compressor (tubing wise, you could zig zag a bunch of copper tubing to let it cool the air charge.)
 
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