New Spray Gun Suggestions

I'm looking to upgrade my £15 suction fed spray gun to something a little nicer and wondered if anyone had any suggestions on what to get?

My compressor is only small (approx 9.5cfm) so not sure if that may limit my choice, and I have a budget of £75ish.

It will mostly be used for spraying landy parts and bodywork rather than small intricate items if that makes a difference.

I'm only used suction fed guns so far, is this better/worse/harder/easier than gravity fed?

Cheers, Harry

I can't comment of if gravity fed is easier than suction fed, as I have only ever used gravity fed.
I bought a gravity fed Devilbiss FLG5 after trying a cheep £15 gun, and the finish was much better.

as usual, I offer no help at all with your query, but..
back in the mid 1980`s, I bought a little clarkes "jumbo air" spray unit. very basic little compressor and cheap suction fed gun..
I lost count of the vans I sprayed in oil based paints with this set up way back then.
eventually I moved, took my little jumbo compressor just for pumping tyres up & stuff.
the old non used gun was hanging on my shed door for the last 9 years that I can remember, but as I`m slowly killing myself with a total refurb of my garden/fences/ big car port & driveway, I made some nice wooden gates over the weekend, 1 @ 2.4 metres wide & 1 @ 1.2 metres wide and they were dry as a bone fresh new wood !!
so I wondered if my old spraygun would spray my prefurred fence/gates treatment of creosote/old engine oil/bit of diesel/flushing oil/whatever I could find..
took me over 2 hours to clean the internal parts of the bunged up gun, but I done it.

so, with big plastic sheets acting as a "spray booth" sort of thing, I got my new then unused, 25 metres airline fitted, 5 gallons of black mixed oily wood preservative, and got into my long lost rythem of spraying, if only my new wooden gates - for now..
in the next few weeks I will have lots of new 6 x 6 fence panels to spray

so, i`ve now got the bug fer spraying again, and am back on ebay looking at new spray guns for my other hobbies, so I will follow this fred for more up to date Info..

thanks guys..

This was my second time spraying after I tried the cheapo gun and it looked crap,
This was the outcome with the flg5

Get a gravity feed. I use two small Iwata guns & a Sata Minijet on a daily basis & they are far superior to the suction feed guns. All HVLP, less air use & greater paint transfer.

Iwata & Sata are well outside your price range, but some of the cheap Sealey guns are very nice. I've got a cheapie similar to this Clarke AP16GF Gravity Fed Spray Gun - Machine Mart & my 2hp compressor will JUST keep up with it

Last time I played with one of my older suction feed guns I'd forgotten just how bad they were until I disappeared in a huge cloud of overspray

£50 gravity fed and you will be laughing at the finish.. Suction fed is lumpy and ****e in every way. I use mine to spray the fence.

Cheers for the advice guys

I would love to get a Devilbiss but sadly they are just a little out of my budget for now...and I don't think the Lidl compressor will do it justice!

In the end I ordered a gravity-fed Sealey S701G with a 1.4 nozzle for £30 on e-scam, will the 1.4 end be ok for etch primer and Nato Green (i think it's cellulose)

I know it may struggle with high-build primer, but the compressor is only 3.5hp, 25l tank and 9.5cfm so not sure it has the welly for a bigger nozzle.

Very much looking forward to a lack of overspray...I'm still clearing up the mess from the last time the suction gun was used

It should turn up on Monday so i'll get cracking and post up some pictures.

Cheers, Harry

You'll still need to mask bits you don't want to paint!
I use a 2k high build primer through the Sata & that only has a 1.0 set-up. Little bit more thinner & 2 coats but for smaller areas its fine.
My full size gun has a 1.4 set-up & handles primer, paint & clearcoat with no problem. It only gets used for large areas.
Resprayed the RR a couple of years ago, metallic so base coat & clearcoat & with the exception of the bonnet & the roof I used the smaller guns. Did it a panel at a time which isn't usually recommended as there is a risk of slight variations between the panels but as it was a complete respray I took the risk. Turned out fine.
Reason it was done a panel at a time was that I was doing it on the drive & fitting it around work so it was a day here & there.

Ratae, thanks for the advice - looks like I should be ok then I'm planning on doing the whole 90 in one go, (minus doors, bonnet and windscreen frame). Sounds like you did a far more thorough job than me, I'm just giving it a dusting of etch primer then several coats of satin nato green

Don't worry everything will be masked up, last time everything else in the garage got coated because I didn't have any dust sheets though

For dust sheets, are old bed sheets ok or is that plastic sheet from Screwfix a better option?

home base do plastic dust sheets I think it was 5 for 99p quiet big and at that price just roll em up and chuck em out!! I would recommend plastic as old bed sheet can get worn in places so the paint will leak through. Depends how much you want to keep everything clean. Gravity fed feels smoother and I personally believe the gun is weighted better to allow a smooth swing of the arm allowing a much better finish.

Forgot to say, get one of the gauges that you can fit to the air inlet of the gun, much easier than trying to use the gauge on the compressor & there will be a drop in the hose anyway.
This sort of thing:
Clarke Pressure Valve & Gauge - Machine Mart
Use ptfe tape on the threaded connections.

Problem with bedsheets is you're likely to get little bits of cotton & dust in the paint which is extra work to flat & polish.

Thanks guys, I shall go and check out homebase tomorrow.

The garage is pretty dusty anyway, so I've spent the day with a brush and a hoover- hopefully that should be ok!

Ratae, I'm currently going compressor - 5m hose - moisture trap/regulator (mounted high up) - 5m hose - spray gun. Do you think the pressure drop will be bad still? I would quite like to start tomorrow but the air place is shut until monday

I've got the moisture trap/reg mounted on the compressor - sometimes I need to move the compressor to get to a job. Just go for a length after the reg that allows you to work comfortably all round the job. Too short & you might find yourself pulling the hose over a painted area
Bigger the hose bore the less the drop. Mine's 10m with 10mm bore.
Never had any problems with it.