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I'm looking for recommendations for a small gravity feed touch up spray gun for guitar work.

Anybody?

What's the air supply?

If there's enough air available to drive a HF jamb gun, I'd go with that. Inexpensive, good to learn what the operator likes and what the operator wants to improve on. Cheap learning.

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Peter Havriluk

For spraying guitars you don't need anything too fancy- a small cheap jamb gun and a small compressor works fine. It only takes a couple of minutes to coat something the size of a guitar body, and you will be sanding and buffing the finish anyway, so a less than perfect surface is O.K.
Some people get great results with cheap equipment, and some people get lousy results with expensive equipment. Most of us get passible results with whatever equipment we have. After you gain some experience spraying finishes you may find a better gun will give you a better "off the gun" finish, and require a little less work to sand and buff it out (but as you gain experience you will make the cheap gun work better for you, so for guitar work it won't make much difference - for "as is" cabinet finishes better equipment is worthwhile)

HF jam gun
the only thing I will add is to get a water / oil separator for the compressor unless you have a turbine

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I use one of these https://www.spraygunsdirect.co.uk/index ... 4Wkeq.dpbs

M

A few years ago I bought an Iwata LPH80 after recommendations from a bunch of builders. I'd been using a Harbor Freight gun and one I got off of Stewmac and never felt like I was getting the results I wanted. Too much overspray, more sanding required, etc. The HF gun was decent, but after 6 or so guitars, the seals started failing and it got messy. I love the Iwata. Great control. Lays down everything that I've run through it. A bit more expensive, but really a pleasure to work with. Whatever route you go, invest in the 3M PPS kit. I keep containers loaded with finish, solvent, and shellac. Makes for easy swaps and cleaning.

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

All true. My suggestion for a HF gun was driven by its being CHEAP. Good for experimenting with preferences. And Tony, above, got six guitars out of one before it started to show its price. That's a lot of home-luthier guitars.

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Peter Havriluk

Perhaps a decent quality airbrush might also fit the bill. I know some people have done entire guitars with an airbrush.

I use a Devilbiss SRI-Pro based on recommendation from Brian Howard. I like it quite well, nice weight and great quality. Not cheap. I have three but two of them I bought on a deal from Craigslist and rehabbed them with new packing nut, springs and fluid tips.


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Short version:
The QualSpray QS-125WB is exactly what you're looking for. Gravity-fed touch-up gun designed for small compressors.

Fuller version:
I looked at Homestead Finishing's house brand "QualSpray" guns after Don Parker mentioned how little air supply they need. I sold my Iwata, and my wife gave me the QualSpray AM-8008/5008 “SmartPak” kit for Christmas. This kit comes with two guns. One is a medium sized LVLP gun, and the other is a touch-up sized LVLP gun.

I used the medium gun for the first time two weeks ago to spray a non-guitar related project and couldn't believe how nice it was to have something that my compressor could keep up with rather than pausing to wait every few minutes. Rather than say it sprayed better than my Iwata, I'll simply say that I sprayed better with it than with my Iwata.

The single version of the touch-up gun is the QS-125WB. You can grab that with the appropriate sized needle, and boom. It's exactly what your post is asking for.

FWIW, I also have a new California Air Tools compressor. It's an absolute dream, and kept up with the gun just fine. I can't begin to describe how incredible it is to have a compressor that doesn't make me feel like I need ear protection.

I’m glad the recommendation worked out well, James. For Jim, the OP: yes, it is a great combination. If you check out the Homestead Finishing website, you will find this gun, plus a few others that might fit your needs. Homestead is run by Jeff Jewitt, who is not only a published expert on finishing, but is also a guitar builder. And if you are interested in any instruction on finishing guitars, Robbie O’Brien has several Jeff Jewitt video courses available on his website. I normally would not make so many plugs for things to buy, but I have gotten a whole lot of value from buying products and information from these two fine folks (Jeff and Robbie).

I have Sata Devilbiss and HF and Fuji semi pro 2
mu favorite for finish is the Fuji
I use the HF for spraying molds and fixtures.
My Sata and Devilbiss are 20 yr old and are used more for auto and that kind of work.

Changing seals is easy and also look at the needle size , along with air supply and oil separators.
there are many variables in finish so you can't say all are good or all are bad you need to look at the
entire picture.

I 60 gal air tanks is better than a pancake I love the turbine units over the compressor
but again not all are the same.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I purchased a “Diablo” gun from HF Recently and was pretty impressed by how it laid down em6000


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I've had a Devilbiss gun for years and also have a Sata minijet and a Fuji GTX2 gun. I also prefer the Fuji gun. I no longer have the big compressor I need for the Sata or the Devilbiss, but the Fuji with the turbine (Mini MIte 3 in my case) sprays instruments better than anything else I've used, and the turbine doesn't take up the space that my big compressor did. I use a small, quiet California Air Tools compressor for everything that needs compressed air now, but it is marginal for spraying.

Dave

I have to agree with Dave. I got a Fuji Mini Mite 4 about 4 or 5 years ago and wouldn't change it for anything else I've seen.

Brent

Thanks you, everyone.

What a wonderful resource this is.

Look at Homestead Finishing, it is owned Jeff Jewitt. Jeff very knowledgeable about finishing and is an accomplished luthier. He will steer you in the right direction.

This thread got me thinking again about getting the PPS stuff for my Fuji gun. My gun is one of the older gravity feed guns, with a true gravity (non pressurized) cup, so all of the online stuff you see from Fuji and others about using PPS on the Fuji guns was pretty irrelevant to me (they all used the pressurized cups). Amazon had an open-box deal on a 50 liner/cap package that was too cheap to pass up. That and an S24 adapter and I was ready to go.

Got the stuff in this week, and it works great. The turbine gun is a little slower than the online videos to purge the air after hooking the gun up to the cup, but it purges fine and shoots great afterwards. Haven't done any real finishing yet, but the new cup is much smaller than the Fuji cup I had been using (I got the "mini" sized PPS). Much easier to maneuver and being able to use the gun at any angle is really nice. So is not having to clean the cup...

Anyway, thanks to everyone who reminded me to do this!

Dave

I just use the cheapest spray gun I can find. It is adequate for most things, even sunburst. Didn't feel the need to buy an expensive spray gun. But my air supply is a screw compressor shared with a neighboring CNC shop.

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