That $400 paint gun I refused to buy finally burned me

I kept using my old HVLP from Harbor Freight to save cash, but last week a run in the clear coat on a pearl white job cost me 3 hours of wet sanding and a redo. Customer was cool about it, but the 60 bucks I saved turned into a $400 lesson. Anyone else learn the hard way that cheap guns ain't worth it on metallics?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_mitchell18d ago

Check your air supply first before you write off the gun. I ran a cheap gun for years and blamed it for every run and tiger stripe, then found out my compressor was spitting water and pulsing pressure the whole time. A $25 moisture trap and a regulator made that same Harbor Freight gun lay down pearl like it cost ten times as much. Sometimes the cheap tool isn't the real culprit, the dirty air feeding it is.

finley_price2417d ago

Ain't the gun's air cap or tip size messing with your fan pattern more than moisture ever will?

charliestone17d ago

And honestly, Mark's post made me stop and think, because I used to be the guy who blamed the tool every single time. I would have bet money that my old gun was the problem on a metallic job, but now I realize I never even checked what was coming out of my compressor. The air pressure and moisture thing never crossed my mind, I just assumed the gun was junk. Now I'm wondering how many of my past headaches were really just dirty air all along. It's a lot easier to spend $25 on a trap than to curse out a $400 gun you don't even own yet.