Trying to pick out a dedicated clear gun.

N

northerndave

I'm sorry to do this to you guys, starting out with a "Which gun should I buy?" post.

But please, bare with me and let me lay down some details which I hope could help some of you in offering suggestions.

All of my paint jobs are completes, all classic cars/trucks.

My shop air is made up from 2 compressors, they are tied together with a total of 120 gal of storage, they are both 2 stage units and the pressure switches are slightly staggered so one plays backup to the other. Very rarely do both kick on but it does happen. Combined I suppose I make a total of around 32 cfm. I run 2 stages of filtration/oil/water separation ahead of a refrigerated dryer. After the dryer I have a dedicated line to the spray booth which runs trough a 4 stage unit including desiccant, after desiccant I run through a motor guard sub micronic.

Once inside the booth I have a wall regulator which will be coming off as I've already learned from my research here, lol. I have various guns now and some have inlet regulators, only one of which is a decent one that I like (Iwata).

I will be adding RTI or Iwata inlet regulators to the rest of my guns.

​I've been selling some old guns, I still have a variety of devilbiss guns but I really only have 2 guns currently that I use on a regular basis. I have a FLG4 with 1.8-2.2 that I use for primer and spray poly. It's not super awesome in quality but it does well enough for primers. The other gun I use is LPH400LVX (orange cap). I purchased it for base coats and thought I would be spraying my clear coat with my old devilbiss plus gun. It turns out I like the LPH400 better for clear than the plus gun, even with my orange cap.

So looking forward, I realize I could just buy a silver cap for my LPH400 and I'd be set for clear. But I want a dedicated clear gun, and I just want to make sure I'm buying the right one. I'm interested in sata 5000, I like what people are saying about it. I realize it would be way faster than LPH400, but I think the gun to part distance also opens up a bit and I do kind of like that too.

Here are my determining factors: I do complete sprays, I have enough time to shoot with a deliberate style as long as I can get around the car fast enough to sew the coat together. I'm not a high production shop, I'm not trying to match a factory finish. All of my work ends up wet sanded and buffed, my finish goals are slick and glassy, if I can reduce my cut and buff times because the clear laid out really slick that would be great.

As far as product, I want to spray SPI uni on everything.

So, I'm looking at LPH400LV, I guess I'm also considering W400LV, WS400HD(evo) ans the sata 5000. (other suggestions welcome)

Thanks in advance.

Dave
 
Out of the guns that you mentioned I own the Iwata WS400 EVO HD 1.4, the W400LV 1.4 and the SATA RP 5000 1.4

For completes I get the best finishes with the Iwatas hands down, the WS400 EVO being a bit faster than the older W400LV.

With the SATA I want to like it, but I just can't get it to lay the clear flat enough for restoration kind of work, I think I made a mistake of actually ordering a 1.4 instead of a 1.3 with that gun.

Like Barry K has said, it is a fire hose gun, it puts out a lot of material and I'm not used to that kind of speed I guess. I have played with different settings and different pressures but I can't get it to work as nice as the WS400 or the W400. If you can demo an RP 5000 with a 1.3 tip I think you'll be happier, specially coming from a LPH400.
 
Thank you, yes I was assuming the same from what I've read. I'd assumed that I would want the rp5000 in a 1.3 if I went with the sata. I think I may be able to demo a WS400, but probably won't be able to demo a sata in my area. The W400LV can be had very reasonably from my local rep right now. He'd actually do a pretty nice deal on LPH400LV as well. I'm still waiting on a price for WS400 though, all of the Iwata's I think I would need a 1.4

Do you have any experience comparing W400 and LPH400 for clear coat?
 
I seem to remember guys spraying with harbor freight stuff here. You look at the harbor freight compared to the old SATA guns and its pretty much what they were replicated from. We got a Tekna copper gun, did not really work out well. Most of the issues have been fixed by running 1/2 inch hose. All I have learned over the years is it rarely makes a difference what gun one uses, its the painter. You can buy all the best stuff Foose uses and still never replicate his paint jobs. Best atomization with your style is what you are searching for.
 
northerndave;n79714 said:
Thank you, yes I was assuming the same from what I've read. I'd assumed that I would want the rp5000 in a 1.3 if I went with the sata. I think I may be able to demo a WS400, but probably won't be able to demo a sata in my area. The W400LV can be had very reasonably from my local rep right now. He'd actually do a pretty nice deal on LPH400LV as well. I'm still waiting on a price for WS400 though, all of the Iwata's I think I would need a 1.4

Do you have any experience comparing W400 and LPH400 for clear coat?
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The W400 I run around 26-27 psi and it's definitely faster than the LPH400. For completes I like it much better, I can leap frog from one side of the vehicle to the other quicker and I never have a problem keeping a wet edge.

If I'm painting something small, or sometimes spraying jambs outside the spray booth then I use the LPH400 at around 20/22 psi and it lays the clear down very nice with less overspray than the W400.

But overall I think the W400 can give a slicker coat, the extra overspray is worth the better finish.
 
I have 2 sata 5000 a 1.3 i bought for base and a 1.4 for clear imo they are both the best clear guns on the market lay much flatter than any iwata I've had, but i spray fast and heat my clear too so that changes things. I too do mainly resto work, so my vote goes to sata
 
There's still somebody on ebay selling the 5000 sata's out of Italy for around 400 bucks I think?

I'm assuming RP is the way to go for me?

Honestly I probably do 6, maybe 8 projects a year. I'm not spraying production volumes. But When I do spray something, it's got to be nice. They all end up nice in the end, but if I can cut down on some of the post spray finishing, that would be great.
 
mikhett;n79726 said:
I use a devillbiss plus rp with a 1.3 for clear@35psi.
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I do have that gun right now. I have 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 fluid tips.

I guess I could dust it off and give it another shot. I used to really like the gun, but I stopped using it when I got the LPH400.

I could clean up the plus, stick an RTI inlet regulator on it and maybe I'd like it.

I tend to think I'd grab the 1.4 tip though....
 
JWolfe;n79720 said:
I have 2 sata 5000 a 1.3 i bought for base and a 1.4 for clear imo they are both the best clear guns on the market lay much flatter than any iwata I've had, but i spray fast and heat my clear too so that changes things. I too do mainly resto work, so my vote goes to sata
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Are you saying you heat your clear prior to spray or you bake in the booth?
 
I heat clear (non activated) to 110 deg then activate usually ends up about 85 deg used to do this when i used spies Clear and also ss imron the viscosity change is like Spraying with 10% reducer but no solid loss sprays like hairspray some may frown on this but works for me no problems in 10 yrs universal sprays great anyway i just like it a bit better this way
 
northerndave;n79736 said:
Cool.

I've heated my paint before for the same reasons.
Click to expand...

temperature sure makes a big difference in viscosity
 
My old clear gun was a W400 non compliant and it layed a nice clear. Just used a lot of it. Replaced it with an impulse buy LS400 HVLP for no real reason. Took me a while to slow down and spray slower with the LS. I've had it around 5 years and it would be hard to pry it out of my hands.

I don't know about Sata but any of the Iwatas mentioned would be great. I would probably lean towards the W400lv as it seems more reasonable. Guns over 700 bucks is getting hard for me to swallow. I paid around 500 for the LS and I though that was enough. In the end it wouldn't spray any nicer than the old w400. Just looked a lot cooler.
 
Thanks.

Yes they made it pretty confusing when they released so many different guns with the new supernova gun body.
 
I spray everyday with the iwata ws400 Evo with a 1.3. It's hands down my favorite clear gun yet. I believe the 1.3 can hide everything out of it pretty good, although I have a 1.4 tip as well, it really sprays a lot.
 
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