Painting Applications

Miscellaneous

SPRAY GUNS FOR AUTOMOTIVE PAINTING 

Q. I am presently using a Binks siphon fed spray gun and am considering purchasing an HVLP system.  Would an airverter gun be a good choice for automotive finish work?  Is there another gun out there that you would recommend?  I spray mostly lacquer paints but sometimes spray basecoat/clearcoast and acrylic enamels. I am very satisfied with the quality of my paint work using the Binks guns but not happy with the over-spray and paint consumption (paints/coatings are getting very expensive). Have you had any experience with the turbine HVLP systems, and if so, what can you tell me about them?

A.  The Binks HVLP spray gun is still very popular for automotive finishing, but do you check your air supply pressure? Regardless of air quality regulations, it is always advisable to keep the pressure at the cap (that is the atomizing air pressure) below 10 psig. If you don't own a cap/gauge assembly, it is worth your while purchasing one from your Binks supplier. Remember, the lower the atomizing air pressure, the lower the overspray. But you need to keep your fluid pressure down in order to be able to atomize the paint with less air.

You asked about turbine spray guns. They are very good, and you can certainly consider them. AccuSpray has a relatively inexpensive turbine, and Can Am Engineered Systems has a really high quality turbine. Both guns are excellent and will give you good results.

Finally, you asked about the airverter HVLP gun. That is also an excellent spray gun because you can turn down the air flow rate quite low and still atomize the paint.

All of the spray guns you mentioned will give you an excellent job if you keep the air pressure down to a minimum; however, I'm not sure that you need to purchase them if you can get the Binks gun to give you the desired results.

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