I will be painting my g/f's bike soon and wondered if there were any advantages to using a certain spray gun. I already have an old school gun that has the paint in the bottom of the gun as you spray. Would a gravity fed gun be any better (paint is on top of gun as you spray) to use. Would results be any different?

 

i wouldnt worry about it, just make sure your air lines are free of moisture, if your not sure pick up a dessicant dryer that couples in line, before the spray gun. i used an "old school" gun when i painted my bike, turned out awesome!

 

Thanks for the input. I was just wondering since I was at a tool store yesterday. The gravity fed gun looks better but Im sure both will lay a nice coat. Just out of curiosity, how many coats of base and clear did you do?

 

a gravity fed gun is just 'greener' than the old school gun.

 

well you dont want to lay thick coats, just nice thin ones. i started out with a thin coat, over roughed upprimer, to just barley see beneath it, let dry for about half hour, and repeated this four times. did the same for the clear coat. out of curiousity what color are you going with-

 

Im just goin with a plain gloss black

 

Get an HVLP. I got 4 Sata HVLPs for painting cars. they are the gravity feed type, and its High Volume Low Pressure. so you get more material and less overspray floating around in space, and its easier on your home compressor, since you realistically only need about 19-22psi at the cap to spray, vs a siphon gun, that needs alot of air and pressure to suck out paint from the can, where it blows about 40% into the atmosphere, and doesn't even touch the bike.

I'm hoping your using some good paint through those guns, like Dupont or PPG.

Oh yeah, please wear a respirator, even if your outside or vented. Play it safe. Automotive paint contains Isocyanates.

Not only is it "greener", it will get more of the paint you paid for on to the bike, and not wasted.
Waste of money.

 

sure if ya wanna get technical ^

 

This is true and false. HVLP is the way to go b/c it does save more materal by putting the paint out with less pressure so lessatomized paintis sent into the air and more on the part you are painting. HOWEVER HVLP is HARDER on your home compressor, the name stands for High Volume Low Pressure. It does use less pressure but it requires a MUCH higher volume of air to move the paint at the "softer" pressure.

just a little fyi

 

Get a bigger compressor.