Here goes, there's a sale at the local Big Lots which features an air gun for 20 couple bucks. I just made a frantic run around the house and it turns out hubby tossed the flyer into the garbage that picked up today...hence the lack of particulars regarding the product in question.

I've also been offered an $145.00 model, brand name, used (just the nozzle cap and bottle) for $25.00.

I have no idea how to shop for one except that I have an Iwata 2000 airbrush and need a larger spray than 2 inch capability.

On chat, one head mentioned a door jamb touch up gun, which they used for "larger" airbrushing.

I would be interested to know the size difference in the spray from both the automotive puppy and the door jamb gig.

Also, if anyone has any advice of what to avoid or look for when making my final decision, it would be deeply appreciated.

Knowing someone will ask, "For what shall you use it, dear Linda, dear Linda? For what shall you use, dear Linda, for what?"

I wanna do big skies, big water and big mountains.
Basically I want to use it as a background tool.

I'm hoping for a 4-10 inch spray, or a 4-12 inch spray if possible. I realize, I'm giving some of you a chuckle with my ignorance in this matter, and that's kewl! But please, if you can help me keep from buying my way into a dilemna, please do!

Thank you ahead of time for not yelling at me or making me feel more stupid than I already do.

[ September 19, 2001: Message edited by: Linda Silver Eagle ]

Look up either model, for pics, to get an idea of what to look for.

Hope this helps........
 

The older siphon feed (can on the bottom of the gun) touch up guns arent very good for what you want to do, they are hard to control, i never did like them.

Im sure someone will get on me here for sugesting a paint gun thats sort of a generic gun, but ive bought a few over the years and they hold up just fine. The only problems ive had with them is the cheap pressure guage which i just get rid of, and some of the cup lids dont fit too good, I replace the cup with an aluminum one from the auto paint store, about 20 bucks. I use these guns every day, no problems at all. Well, the purty anodizing color on the gun does eventually come off when they get cleaned with thinner a lot, but I dont care about that.

hope that helps you decide.
 

Both are good to use with waterbased materials and I have done just that, many many times.

The Detail gun has a 1.0mm sized tip, my HVLP has a 1.9mm.

The detail gun is a nice compact gun.. fits well in my hand, not very bulky at all and it has the same controls on it as a regular sized HVLP gun.. meaning I can rotate the tip to reorient the fan, it has adjustable fan width and adjustable fluid control.. it's really like a double action airbrush on steroids.

The siphon attachment on this gun is really slick. Just unscrew the gravity cup and the attachment goes in the cup's place, allowing airbrush jars to be used with the gun and they hang off to the side.

The nice thing is you can get a pretty fine spray or pretty wide, very light coats or dripping wet coats with this gun so it's pretty versatile.

I use the detail gun to spray vinyl inks when doing fades on larger vinyl graphic kits.. it can go through an ounce of ink in mere seconds so it lets you work pretty fast!

Oh yeah.. I spent $100 each on my guns.

Keep em clean and the cheap-o's shouldnt give you any problems.
 

I did get an email suggesting I do watch what brand I get as parts may be hard to replace.

I have been using a syphon feed airbrush and just hate it when it fizzes out and splatters when the paint runs out...is that why the top feed guns have lids for the cups? ...to avoid that problem?

I can't tell you how happy I am that I can get these questions asked / answered, especially, the night before I'm supposed to inspect a "good deal" at the coffee house swap meet in the parking lot tomorrow hehehe!

Anything else I need to know? I may have to take the one that's there (used) without getting to use it...and would love to know if there's a way to inspect it without using it or should I tell him to keep it and order / wait for a newer more expensive model / version?
 

If you don't mind me askin...how come?

(ps - glad you made it back on line!)
 

Theres not a good way to tell if the gun your looking at works unless its hooked up to an air source and have something to spray out of it. But you can check to be sure it has an adjustment for a fan spray, some of those really cheap guns dont have an adjustment for that. pull the trigger back to be sure the needle isnt stuck and turn all the adjustments in and out to be sure they will work. You could prob put some water in it if they will let you, then you can tell if the packing is good (not dried out)if it doesnt leak out the back of the gun where the needle goes into it.

hope this all helps you.

Mike, that gravity touch up gun sounds interesting to me, I may just get one now.
 

I don't know where I'd be without this place!

Thanks again!
 

I have one of these...hope the picture comes through. It's made in Taiwan and it has been just great for those 'in-between' jobs and more.

Star Touch up Gun Model No. SJ-108

http://members.tripod.com/~Bernice_Tornquist/airgun.jpg

http://members.tripod.com/~Bernice_Tornquist/airgun.html

[ September 20, 2001: Message edited by: Bernice Tornquist ]

[ September 20, 2001: Message edited by: Bernice Tornquist ]

You can't beat it for 70 bucks.
 

It didn't show me anything...but thank you for going to all the trouble you did! I'm still hunting today, the swap meet won't take place till the sun is about ready to go down...hehehe coinquedinque...I think not hehehe!

Kewl news, though! I got an arm load of poster board from our local "networker." Promised to paint him up a little coroplast sign for the lot. I'll get some exposure and then look out! (No, really, this guy runs his mouth a lot and more money passes through his hands than anything I've ever seen.)

S'anyway, I'm cutting stencils tonight! Woohoo!
(for airbrush stuff, bullet holes, etc. Thanks Tickerman for the seminar!)
 

So I went to check out the sale Big Lots had, and yer not gonna believe this...there was a touch up gun AND a big gun in the box. Extra springs and washers, extra connectors, everything but the hose to the compressor. There was even some face masks in there.

I took a look at the schematics, and boy have I got my work cut out for me. I learned when I got my airbrush that I need to dismantle and reassemble till I can do it blind folded BEFORE I even dream about blowing any paint through em. I sure don't want to break em before I can make any money!

Two guns for $29.99. Cute box too hehehe! I hate they aren't top feeders but I couldn't pass this up and be stuck with one gun, when the general consensus was to have both. I've got 30 days to try em out and return em, if need be.

Now if I can just pin Nancie Phillips down for a few minutes to see how to take em apart without breakin em...hahaha!

If anyone is interested in takin a 25% in size, 100 dpi look at em, I put the box on my scanner and posted the pic on my website (...currently an experimental site, built in ICQ.) (Yes, I know I need to take all the dozens of rolls of film down to Wally World and get em developed, just hadn't had the time to spend on that project.) I figgered the pics we found scattered when we moved was enough to test run the thumb nails option. By the way, I love it. But that's a different paragraph all together hahaha!

http://60434646.home.icq.com/hp/gear/photo/photoalbum.html?item=10.1

If this doesn't come up, just back space on the url to the .com part and hit enter, then go the photo page and scroll down. The cute chick on the top of the page and in some of the pics, is my oldest daughter Emily. I told her she could show off some of her work, and boy howdy, she was holdin as many as she could in these shots!

Feel free to send an encouraging memo to her...through my email or the ICQ panel at the bottom of the page!

This is so exciting! Thanks a lot for all the phone calls and emails and posts here! I feel like I can do anything with all yawl behind me!

Much Love!
 

Instructions on how to treat your new purchase

If you want to do this properly and in the accepted blokey fashion do the following:

Step 1
a. Pull everything out of the boxes/cases/plastic bags and spread across the table in no particular order.
b. Dismantle all parts that are presently assembled.
c. Find a distraction, the best at this point would be a friend coming around with a carton of beer.
d. Knock table over or at least significantly disturb any order the parts may have inadvertently been placed in.
e. Leave alone for at least a week.

Step 2
a. By pure chance, win a job requiring all of the recent purchases.
b. Reassemble from memory, under no circumstances may you use any manuals or handbooks. (in the unlikely event that you retained them)

Happy spraying,
David
 

I am using the ones that look like a sata, they are hvlp gravity guns. I have 4 of them, one is a 1.3 fluid tip the others are 1.4 tips. I spray cars with them every day, using ureathane basecoats and ureathane clears, one gun is for high build primer and it works good too. the model # is 43430-2hsh, the price in the mag is 64.99 not sure what the date of this mag is though.

If your gonna use very thick enamels to coat out large boards, you might want to get a gun with a 1.8 mm fluid tip, but a 1.4 will work
 

The Detail gun (with plastic gravity cup and the sidemount siphon bottle attachment) is model # GM706 with 1.0mm tip - $95

My HVLP is model # HVLPDX, with aluminum gravity cup - $99.. comes with either 1.3mm, 1.5mm, 1.7mm or 1.9mm tips.

My HVLP has the 1.9mm tip and I used it for spraying the primer and paint on the jetski below.. worked great! Nice smooth pattern.. I had the fluid control leaned in a bit while spraying the color to make up for the larger tip.

This was my first paint job to completely change the color on a jetski.. white to black.. I've done smaller stuff on skis with airbrushes but nothing like this before..

Rick, if your having problems with your paint guns, maybe i can help ya. Send me an e if you have any questions. I've been using paint guns for 25 years, used a lot of different kinds.

[ September 21, 2001: Message edited by: Rick ]

I made the owner some vinyl flames to go on top but havent heard anything back from him or gotten any pics.