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What do you guys think about a spray rig like the one in the Rockler link?
It is on sale, and has great reviews. Has anyone used one to spray nitro, or one similar to it?
What has been the result? I have had my eye on a $350 Earlex, but this price can't be beat.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page ... ilter=hvlp

Kevin

Kevin, I wish I could help you with this decision. Alas, I have zero experience with these type units. With that said, it's been said here here that it's not so much what you put on, but what you leave on that counts. So if folks get nice finishes from spray cans, I can't imagine this would be worse. Seems the tradeoff for a not so good sprayer is that you may have more sanding to do so more work and more sandpaper. Of corse this one may be great!

Just curious, what is the appeal to this type sprayer over one that runs off a compressor?

Here is one person's review:

62) Submitted by Jim, from Boulder, CO on 1/26/2009

Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Bought this for a large built-in project over Christmas and have no regrets. I was quite surprised by the relatively high build quality of the turbine and gun for the price.
I used it to spray shellac as a sealer and it did marvelously--2 lb cut straight from the can with very little adjustment.
My experience with Lacquer wasn't nearly so good. Granted this was my first go at spraying lacquer, but I couldn't get good atomization. To not get orange peel I ended up thinning the lacquer to almost 1:1. This could be "normal" for HVLP, but the can said it should require no thinning.
Anyway, overall I am very pleased the time savings on this one project alone justified the price for me.

My understanding is that there is going to be less material waist with the HVLP as the overspray is greatly reduced. Also, no compressed air tank to hold and release moisture into the spray. The turbine may still create some moisture, but I have not read anywhere that this is a problem. I can be with a compressor. I have been using a 27 gallon 2hp compressor that I have to wheel into my back patio where I set up my knock down spray booth. Not that big a deal, but it would be nice to have a small compact unit to transport. I have a brand new very expensive HVLP gun that you use with a compressor. It was $350 back in 1991. My dad purchased it and never used it. I think it was back when HVLP was just coming around. This gun has a special piston system rather than just a mechanical trigger. It is suppose to be better, but I don't know how or why! I thought I'd see if I can make it work with my compressor on my current two builds, and then decide on the need for something different, or, just go back to my regular gun.
I think the Earlex 5500 unit generates alot more CFM and can automize much better perhaps then this gun. It runs $350 and sometimes $320 on sale.
If it is not needed, I can use the money on something else for the shop and use what I have, but I'm always looking for something that might be better.

Kevin

I looked at the gun and I could not tell if had replaceable and sized needles. If a gun is not adjusted correctly you can get a pebbly surface, drips, and even bubbles blown into the finish (at least the water based stuff I spray) All of these things are hard to remove with sandpaper. If it has a fixed sized needle I would fear that it was sized toward paint instead of lacquer.

John, it actually does come with two needle sizes. 1.4mm and .09 I believe, which is pretty fine.
The reviews for spraying furniture type stuff are pretty good.

I've heard pretty good reviews on this as well. I'm spraying with a 26 gal 5HP compressor and a set of $80 guns I got from TCP Global. The gun I use most has a 1.4 needle and I think I've got my technique dialed in pretty good now.

BUT - if I didn't have this setup now I have no doubt in my mind this is the unit I would get.

Kevin Sjostrand wrote:John, it actually does come with two needle sizes. 1.4mm and .09 I believe, which is pretty fine.
The reviews for spraying furniture type stuff are pretty good.

I use a 1 and a 1.5 so it does look to be the right size. You can not go wrong with the price.

From what I've read, the optimal tip size can vary a bit depending on the gun.

Kevin, not to add to your dilemma, but the Walcom EGO is a very good, small HVLP gun (used with a normal air compressor) that sprays a perfect sized pattern for instruments and is very popular with professional luthiers. I found a kit with 2 size jars for this gun from a large eBay spray gun vendor for a little over $200 last winter. It was over $300 everywhere else without all the pieces included in the kit. It has a 1.2mm tip which was perfect for SealCoat shellac and the KTM-SV finish I sprayed,

So the point is that for roughly $100 more than this unit, you could have a proven, first class system used by many luthiers so it would be easy to get advise and pointers if you ran into problems.

I have a unit similar to this ,it was from grizzly , It took a while to get it figured out but does the job, My best advice is that finish is all about the prep . If you have a good base prep and then you need some technique , it comes out. One thing to remember is that it isn't so much what you put on but what you let one.
Learning how to spray is not as hard as learning to adjust the sprayer. before you use the thing on the guitar you can practice on cardboard. I was surprised to see as many pro's using harbor freight guns and getting excellent results.
Practice and technique will get your there