Wagner W180P Electric Spray Gun

[sxlalan]

Does anyone have any experience of the Wagner W180P Electric Spray Gun? I am having trouble getting a smooth painted finish on a cot I'm making and am considering trying yo spray the unit (painting the 36 dowels that form the sides by hand is very tedious!). I appreciate that I would be better with a compressor system but on a tight budget was wondering what sort of finish I could achieve from the Wagner.

Cheers

Alan

 

[sxlalan]

I'd like to add the Earlex Spray Station 3000 to the mix as well if anyone has any experience with it http://www.earlex.co.uk/html/hvlp_html/hv3000.htm.

 

[edmund]

Hi, I've used the Wagner spray gun (same model) for painting a radiator and managed to achieve quite a respectable finish (it was much better than I expected for what is quite a cheap piece of equipment). I was using water based paints only so I don't know how the finish would be with oil based paints. I wouldn't use it to achieve an ultra fine finish or use it on any of my cabinet work.
I'd say that the following helped to give me a reasonable finish:
1. use the viscosity measuring device to check your paint. In all likelihood the paint will be too thick (for the emulsion I was using I ended up using 2 paint to 1 water to get the viscosity just within the recommended level). You'll need to do a bit of experimenting to get the right viscosity but it's essential the paint is sufficiently runny.
2. apply using lots of thin coats (I ended up using four applications for the emulsion and three for the special radiator coating on top).
3. test the sprayer on some cardboard before using to check on droplet size. I found it worked better toward the finer droplet size (but not mist!).
4. occassionly you might get some big droplets spitting from the nozzle due to paint collecting around the nozzle - happens if you stop spraying and start again, so worth checking and giving wipe.

If in doubt have a practice on some scraps of wood to see how it turns out.

Hope this helps (and good luck).

 

[sxlalan]

Hi Edmund

Thanks for such a detailed explanation!

Alan

 

[Chris Knight]

Edmund makes several good points that affect spraying in general - such as getting viscosity right.

He is dead on about droplets. It is useful to have a rag in your hand and wipe the nozzle from time to time to remove any "dewdrops". Likewise, watch out that water or paint doesn't run down the container and drip onto the work.

 

[tim]

and never do it if you are trying to hit a deadline when using an unfamiliar finish................



T

 

[edmund]

I take it that Tim is speaking from bitter experience ... (think we've all been there).

On Alan's dowel spraying it's also worth pointing out (as you probably know) that it's worth being extra careful when spraying cylindrical objects. If you're not careful you could get a build up of paint at the point of its circumference closest to you which will then decrease as the spray hits the points of the 180 degree arc. The temptation is then to spray vertically again as you progress round the 360 degrees of the cylinder which will end up with more overlapping of paint (making things worse). I'm sure some of you experts out there have some tips for this. Had similar experience with radiator, which has undulating faces (imagine spraying it horizontally and you'll see what I mean) - trying to fill in the bits that are missed ends up with the bits that are already painted running (that's why I did the back first so that the mistakes are hidden ). As a non regular sprayer I have to deliberably put myself in the mindset of (1) keeping the spray nozzle parallel with the surface being sprayed (2) remembering that it's not a paint brush so that you can't spread the paint around once its on the surface and you can't lay off the finish with a final flick of the sprayer.

Let us know how you get on Alan.

 

[sxlalan]

Thanks all. I will update on my experiences if I do decide to go down the spray route.

Alan