Should I buy an Iwata LPH400?

DWinTX

Member
I'm curious about your opinions on whether I should buy this gun. I currently have a Devilbiss Finishline that I'm using for primer. I also have a Devilbiss Plus that I bought about 7 years ago and ended up never using except to paint one engine bay. I am spraying sealer/base/clear on my 70 Corvette pretty soon, all of the body work, priming and sanding is done. Just need to get the clear and more epoxy for sealer from SPI.

I was going to use the Plus for both the base and clear. I've read it's a decent gun, but it seems like most of the opinions I've read here say the LPH400 is considerably better. I can get one of those for $345 from ebay, which is pretty reasonable. So would you get the Iwata when you already have the DV Plus? How would you use them, one for base and one for clear, or use the Iwata for both?

This won't be for just one car, I have three other projects to do.
 
Lph400 is one of the best guns for both base and clear. Get a 1.4 with silver cap, and buy additional purple cap for difficult metallics, a lot of people complained about bad luck with spraying base with silver cap, so iwata did special purple cap specifically for difficult metallics. For money like that-345$ you will not find a better gun, just my opinion
 
The only competition I see is devilbiss tekna pro lite, 572$ on Amazon with already both caps for clear and base and you will get the cup and digital gauge. After buying same stuff for iwata you will get close to the same price. And you already spraying with devilbiss... So it's gonna be easier for you to get used to the gun, while iwata is a complete different animal. You really need to try both guns
 
Thanks serjik. I'll have a look at the tekna. So I gather you think the Devilbiss Plus it quite a bit lesser gun that the LPH400 or Tekna?

How is the Iwata a different animal?
 
I have a Devilbiss Tekna that I use on base, I have a Iwata Lph 400 1.4 silver air cap that I spray all my clear with. I have some sharpe razors that I use for sealers and a Devilbiss GTI for a back up if I would have problems. The Tekna is one of the best guns out there in my opinion, You can spray base and clear with the Tekna if you want but I do not recommend using your base gun to spray clear because you may have sprayed a metallic and that break loose in your clear and then you have a dissatisfied customer. I use the LPH 400 to spray Universal and Euro clears from SPI and it lays a slick clear once you get the gun adjusted to your spraying needs, I spray both clears with the fluid 3 turns out from closed at 90% fan and 32 psi at the gun. If you want just a clear gun also check out the Devilbiss Tekna Copper with the 7e7 air cap, I used one my friend has and was really impressed. Good luck on your purchase and there will be more opinions soon.
 
Your spraying style will be a factor in whether you like the Iwata LPH or not. The LPH is suited more for the slow steady and close to the surface (4") style of painting whereas a SATA would require a bit more speed and distance from the panel.

I have the Tekna Copper as well and it requires a bit more speed and distance (6") from the panel than the Iwata but not as much as the SATA. (In my limited experience with them.)

If you clean your spray gun properly, you can use it for epoxy, sealer, base and clear with no issues. You will want a separate spray gun with at least a 1.8 tip for build and poly primers.

My LPH400 has the Silver cap (1.4) and I have never had any problems spraying metallics with it.
 
Lph400 by manual should be sprayed at 16 psi. It will use the less air, so if you have not great air compressor, it's perfect for you. It will have the less overspray than any other gun, which is great if your spray booth doesn't have good air movement. The gun is slow.
Compare to that, pro lite is fast, more air eating, a lot of overspray(I would say the most of any gun). So if you don't have a good booth, I don't recommend that gun.
The last, and most professional for me is Sata, hvlp or rp. eats air like crazy, especially hvlp, but has lower overspray and is very fast, fastest. I prefer Sata gun to anything else.

Back to lph400- this gun is unique, that it suppose to be sprayed at 16-20psi, but everyone spray it with around 30 psi.and that makes it almost same fast as prolite. So you have perfect gun for hobbies jobs, and great gun even for professional and fast paintings.
In the end, I would go for lph400, unless you gonna spray every day(than I would go with Sata/tekna). Also, yes, you don't need to buy purple cap right away, you can try to spray both base and clear with silver cap, many people have problem doing that, but not all, some like to spray base thru it as well, just like 68coronet
 
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Thanks guys, looks like I have some thinkin' to do.

I'm a total novice, so I'm not sure I have a spraying style yet. I have noticed while spraying all those primer coats that I had to slow myself down, I find myself speeding up. I do have plenty of air, I have an Eaton 60 gal with a 7.5 hp motor. Don't remember what it puts out, but I've never had problems with any air tools, including a blast cabinet. Sounds like either of those two guns would be great.
 
I think you're right. Just ordered the Tekna. Did some searches on here and it can't find a negative word on it. Plus I don't have to wait for it to come from Japan. :)

Thanks.
 
I believe you will really like it. It sprays everything well. A paint rep gave me one 8-9 years ago to spray primer, and it sprays Turbo mixed 4:1:1 perfectly on smaller areas with a 1.3! I liked it enough that I bought another one and currently use it for base mainly. Sprays epoxy very well, base sprays nice and even, and clear very nice also. I normally spray everything with a 1.3 and TE20 air cap. I spray a lot of epoxy and solid base colors with a LPH 400 1.4. It is also an excellent gun.
 
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I really like my Tekna as well. It has a much bigger spray pattern than the Iwata and like Chris said most people naturally spray with a quicker motion than you can with the LPH400.

The Iwata is nice when spraying smaller parts, like motorcycle fenders, etc. because of the softer spray and smaller pattern you waste less paint. When using it I actually have to tell myself to go slow and steady.
 
I'm curious about your opinions on whether I should buy this gun. I currently have a Devilbiss Finishline that I'm using for primer. I also have a Devilbiss Plus that I bought about 7 years ago and ended up never using except to paint one engine bay. I am spraying sealer/base/clear on my 70 Corvette pretty soon, all of the body work, priming and sanding is done. Just need to get the clear and more epoxy for sealer from SPI.

I was going to use the Plus for both the base and clear. I've read it's a decent gun, but it seems like most of the opinions I've read here say the LPH400 is considerably better. I can get one of those for $345 from ebay, which is pretty reasonable. So would you get the Iwata when you already have the DV Plus? How would you use them, one for base and one for clear, or use the Iwata for both?

This won't be for just one car, I have three other projects to do.
I had 2 lhp400. 1.3 orange cap plus a purple and a 1.4 silver for clear only. I can't really compare because these are the only "real" guns ive owned. Others were cheapie. I like them. I borrowes a friends sata once and noticed it hosed clear on much more
 
I've never used my TE10, only the TE20. What is the real world (not advertising blurb) difference?
 
I found this youtube Paint Society video sums up this LPH400 gun quite well.
He recommends the LPH400 with the Orange Tip using the 1.3 for all around use.
The demonstration shows a proven awesome job for both base and clear.
While this is an older gun it seems to still draw a large popularity of great support by the professionals.

As a new painter myself -- what has drawn me to this gun is:
1. It produces low overspray / as a non professional painting from your garage without a spray booth, it is a super plus
2. With low overspray it will waste less paint
3. Since it has been around for along time it is easy to find parts
4. The 1.3 orange tip seems to be a great choice for an all around gun for use with sealer, base and clear.
5. Amazon lists this gun with the PPS 2.0 adapter that will fit my existing cup system

I have (2) cars to paint.. I have a mustang where I will be doing a urethane white base/clear and another vehicle where I will
be spraying a silver metalic. The test here is whether LPH400 with the orange tip 1.3 will spray the silver metalic well. If not, I suppose I will
try the purple cap, as I understand this is geared for spraying metallics.

<Just my thoughts>
 
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