Whats the minimum Air Compressor I can use for HVLP?
Whats the minimum
Air Compressor I can use for HVLP? I'm reading now that you should have 10 cfm at 90 psi or 230 Volts and 10 amps or 8HP and 80 gallons. That equates to an air compressor that is BIG BUCKS!! I just do not have a MONSTER compressor, nor can I afford one, since a good one runs like 750 bucks. ( I already bought a nice Hobart welder this year) I will be shooting my car a panel (ie such as fender, trunk, hood, the biggest would be roof) & I have a 220 VAC Dayton Speedaire & it is
not up to the task, I finally confirmed its 2HP & has a 30 gallon tank and only putting out 6cfm at 90 psi. I am present equipped to shoot a License Plate is the way I look at it. I am totally frustrated. I totally overlooked this because my machine weighs like 250 pounds. The most I can afford ( my Financial Officer, the better Half, would make me start needlepont or gardening as a hobby if I shelled out $700 to buy a 80 gallon Ingersoll Rand ) is to buy a used 5 HP machine for say
200 , but that would only get me to 7 cfm at 90 psi. I could mate the tanks and get 30 +20 = 50, but I doubt I will try running two 220 VAC units in tandem as the amps would probably kill the breakers. My last choice would be to make my own monster compressor out of parts, dont laugh I have really done some dumb things.I may be the lousiest painter, but I the L___ was nice enough to give me a way with machinery, I've been rebuilding an engine as a parallel project this summer. To paint my
car , I have already bought a Neotorik Breathing System, two barrel fans for ventilation, a Makita Sander, Tons of PSA Disks, some decent guns, Primer , tons of sandpaper and I have spent hours studying and reading and watching the SPRAY 101 DVD. I dont want to GIVE UP. Any suggestions? Most guys have this thing about buying Big Tools. Usually I go for Hi quality, I'm not into buying for size, thats why I shelled out the money for the Dayton Speedaire back in 2000, but though its
rugged and will last 50 years, its just too small.
Last edited by Carrameow; 08-19-2006 at 11:43 PM.
What color do you plan on spraying your car ? (also metallic or non metallic) ? I'm assuming you will be using acrylic urethane
basecoat/clearcoat.
The size of the compressor needed will be dictated by which gun you use and/or the size of the project you're painting. If you're only painting one fender you could probably use a little compressor with almost any spray gun but for painting an entire car you need to make sure you have
enough air.
A gun that uses 15 CFM of air doesn't need a compressor that will produce that much air as long as you have a tank large enough to hold enough reserve air to get you around the car.
I usually recommend that you use a compressor that has a minimum of 60 gallon tank and produces around 13 CFM. This will drive most guns long enough to get around most cars but it's usually best to get a compressor that is larger than needed so that it doesn't need to work so hard and won't
generate the moisture problems that smaller compressors tend to do.
I know Ive posted this picture a hundred times, but I painted this entire car using a single Craftsman 5 hp compressor on a 30 gal tank with a 40 gal surge tank added to it.
If I were you, I would start looking through the Pawn shops
for a decent 5-10 hp compressor and add it to the one you already have. Since you said you were only going to spray 1/2 of the car at a time you'll probably be fine. The only time you're going to have any trouble with not having enough air will be when you go to clear it. I have to turn up my HVLP guns WAY out of their efficiency range to break up the clear but can run 5-10 psi for the base and have plenty of air.
tks jon e
i saw a 399 buck husky 80 gallon at HD today. for all the money i ve saved my family by fixing & driving cars with
200K plus miles on them, I would buy it today.....
but then i thought I should try to learn to make my own air compressor, i need to learn that electrical stuff anyway
Thats a great paint job. I am very very envious sorry for the bad typing, my writing is ok but as usual I got Grease on my fingers, the SAAB needs a new hydraulic tensioner, alt and water pump,(Im making a 250 hp engine for the car) my wifes car needs struts and the car i am painting is the only reliable transpo I
have today,daughter wont lend me hers-- I'm driving it with "bullet holes" from the trim being peeled and welded panels on it, it ssure gets 2 nd looks!
Last edited by Carrameow; 08-20-2006 at 03:49 PM.
In my opinion, you have a fair amount of work ahead of you
before you think of painting. you need to finish the patch panels and strip those nasty paint panels and get to priming. your current setup should be ok for the 2k primer. it wont be smooth anyway. I say fix the known damage and when youre ready for a final prep, maybe look at renting a monster over the weekend.
Thanks I sprayum
but I have finished the patch panels. What I plan to do is still do the trunk first and then the hood and then the fenders vice the entire car. If I do the entire car, I will repeat any mistakes I WILL DEFINITELY make all over the car. I expect errors from gun adjustment, air pressure, bad bodywork and so forth, though my bodywork has been pretty good so far. Also other errors from mixing paint to just being nervous will pop up. But if I take the
hood and trunk and fendersoff I can do each panel straight from stripped to paint & clearcoat and then sit back and find out what i did wrong. I can even take them down again and redo them if they are really terrible.
I know this might cause some more time, like 4x the normal time to paint a car, but what is the rush? The longer I take the better I think i will do. Finally, it may be against the law to paint your car at home, but its not against the law to paint a panel at home
(he he)
At least I get a Monster Compressor out of this for...$120!!!
I may end up with a flat, orange peeled, runnyand poorly masked paint job when all the dust settles, but at least I am going to come out ahead, by irony. A man sold me his tired Sears 5 hp 20 gallon compressor for $50 on EBAY and
when I looked at the picture of the motor my teeth almost fell out..it had a brand new $250 GE 5 HP 20Amp Motor on it!! I picked it up last night. Then today I tracked down a nice 70 dollar 5 HP Devillbiss Pump with some real cfm--all for a total of $120...I can just take this stuff and set it on my Speedaire Tank and use the existing pressure switch or even go out and get a nice tank. I may have to do some electrical mods to the Cutler hammer motor controller Last Friday found me
tired and discouraged after pricing similar units at various stores for 600 to 800 dollars!
When you get it going, since you say the 5 HP Devillbiss pump puts out major cfm's. If you mount the pump to one tank, pipe a few feet to your second tank, it will act as quite a good expansion tank. Which should let
most of the moisture fall out into the second tank and keep it from your air line. You will still want to run 30 to 50 feet of hard line with a drop and a drain leg, but the slowing down of the air movement in the second tank will let most of the moisture fall out.
Many people do this with a larger pipe/hose, 2 to 3 inch before going back to 1/2 or 3/4, shortly after their main tank. It seems to work quite well.
Thank you dcrog!
I used a $50 HVLP gun, with my craftsman 3HP compressor (15 gallon) with rgeat results for my first paint job. It turned out well and I am pretty critical. I never ran out of air while priming/painting. I guess the cheapo
guns dont use much air. I used a high temp reducer so it would give me more time to work and it would be flatter.
Anyway, you will learn a lot here.
Good luck
Thanks for the encouragement
Thanks for the encouragement!
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How many CFM does it take to run a HVLP spray gun?
HVLP, or High-Volume/Low Pressure, uses a high volume of air (typically between 15-26 CFM) delivered at low pressure (10 PSI or less at the air cap) to atomize paint into a soft, low-velocity pattern of particles. In most cases, less than 10 psi is needed in order to atomize.
How do you match a compressor to a spray gun?
Matching your paint gun and compressor
For small projects or single panels, your Air Compressor should be rated at 100% of the CFM required by your paint gun. If you're spraying a whole car, you'll want 150-200%. For example: A 15-20 CFM air compressor is a good match for a 10 CFM paint gun.
What size air compressor do I need for a spray gun?
While some air spray guns have a rating of lower than 10 CFM, we'd recommend your compressor CFM for spray painting is at least 12 CFM. For professionals, this figure may need to be higher – the important thing is you've checked your spray gun's CFM requirements and chosen a compressor that exceeds that figure.
How big of an air compressor do I need for a LVLP spray gun?
A standard LVLP spray gun will run 5 to 10 cfm at low PSI, but a 15 to 35 PSI-capable compressor will be a great option if you want efficient performance.
