Paint Spray Gun - How To Pick A Paint Gun

Some painters adjust the fluid flow knob to WOT and use the trigger to modulate paint flow. We found that seating the knob then turning it out two turns then flooring the trigger works best for the untrained trigger-finger.

A quickie prep job with 600-grit sandpaper worked for painting the wheels. Make sure you have an enclosed, well-ventilated area to spray; the dust will find its way onto everything.

The first gun we tried was the $99 Craftsman Heavy Duty High Performance gun, a durable suction-feed multipurpose unit with a huge nozzle slightly larger than 2.0 mm. This thing sprayed a lot of paint-excellent for fogging a big car with primer. For this job, the siphon-feed cup was handy as a platform to set the gun down.

The next two guns were in the $99 DeVilbiss Paint Gun Starter Kit from Eastwood. The kit's large HVLP gravity spray gun comes with two tips: 1.3 mm for topcoats and 1.8 mm for heavier stuff. We had to experiment with the fluid-control knob to achieve the coverage of the Craftsman gun, but overall it performed similarly. It also included cleaning tools and a case.

Our favorite was the touch-up or jam gun also included in the Eastwood kit. It's really not big enough to do anything larger than about 20 inches (like wheels). We liked the compact size and ease of use. This gun would be perfect for the engine compartment and maybe even suspension or interior pieces.

The Eastwood and Craftsman guns represent the typical types of tools available, and the combination of all three lets you paint anything you want. We'd use the big Craftsman gun for the primer and the two smaller guns for the finish work. Time to go buy another project.