BarBuilder said:
Up to this point I have been doing all of my finish work old school style with a brush.
Nothing wrong with a good old brush or even a nice mohair roller for a nice finish. Sometimes beats the heck outta cleaning up after spraying particularly on smaller projects. [big grin]
BarBuilder said:
Unfortunately I am finding that my air compressor is just too small to support it and my shop space does not allow for me to get a compressor large enough to do so.
I am not sure what your current compressor outputs in terms of CFM and what your conversion gun requires but have you checked out Asturo guns. The Asturo ECO SX K1 is rated at 4.5 CFM @40PSI. I don't have one but I had the same problem you had before I upgraded to a better compressor.
BarBuilder said:
My research seems to indicate that a Fuji or Apollo system may be a good fit for a quality finish job with limited shop space. Any FOG members out there with opinions or experiences with these rigs?
I have a Fuji 4 stage with a gravity feed and siphon feed gun and love them and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them and the company which is a delight to work with if you have any problems. While I think turbine systems are not as fast as compressed air systems, I think if you are patient you can get as good or better finish with these systems as you would get with a compressed air system.
The advantage of a turbine system on site, or when you need to change from one coating to another quickly is a real benefit.
I looked at the 5 stage systems and for another .5psi, I didn't think the price was worth it for me, but if budget was not an issue, I have bought the dual turbine with the pressure pot. Unfortunately by the time you pay for the more expensive systems (dual turbine, pressure pot), you might as well just buy a air assisted airless and be done with it.
The biggest asset of a turbine system is the high cfm and low psi which results in low over spray, but this is a drawback when you want to push latex or pigmented lacquer even if you thin with distilled water or Floetrol. In Scott's video, you can see how he is spraying oil based enamel paint and the 5 stage Graco and I can do the same with my 4 stage and pigmented lacquer, and it's as slow (and painful) as you see in the video. The finish comes off nice though.
Whatever system you get, I think it's is a good idea to get a whip hose particularly if you are using water borne finishes. The air that is generated by the turbine is quite warm(even with a whip hose) and most water borne finishes flash off much more quickly because the finish gets heated up as you are spraying and the resulting finish dust lands on the newly sprayed area and creates a lot of fine nibs.
Under the circumstances, (budget etc.) if I was to buy today I would buy an Apollo, Graco or Fuji turbine with the 3M/Accuspray gun with the PPS system instead of screwing around trying retrofit my Fuji guns with the PPS system.
durango said:
Be aware that the slope into quality finishing is just as slippery as the one into Festool woodworking.
Yes, consider yourself warned, [big grin] this is a slippery slop.
Hope that helps.
Tim
Beats the hell out of my archaic brush method. And the unit is really not very noisy. Not much more than a shop-vac or DC. The real beauty too is that nice compact size of the unit and it is all self contained. Thank you for sharing. BTW - is that you with the rig in the vid?
