Wednesday, January 18, 2012

My New Toy, An HVLP Paint Sprayer

I told you guys my Christmas gift to myself this year was a new-to-me Canon Rebel.  I’m very excited to delve deeper into the realm of photography!  But it’s like learning a whole new language; It’s gonna take some time, for sure!

But another Christmas gift also brought a little pitter pat to my heart, and that was a new HVLP paint sprayer from my wonderful in-laws!!  I’d been eyeing this HVLP unit from Rockler for a while now.

At just $99, it’s an extremely thrifty option that I just had to share with you!  It has really good reviews on Rockler’s website, and I have to say that my experience with it so far has also been really good as well.  It lays down a very nice and extremely FAST finish. 

The keys to working with this (and all other) HVLP paint sprayers is getting your paint to the right consistency (not too runny, but not too thick), and adjusting your flow knob so that you’re laying down just the right volume of paint.  (I have mine set to just about the lowest volume, which makes it a little bit slower, but will keep me from getting the dreaded drippys.  When in doubt, always err on the side of more, thinner coats rather than trying to cover in one coat.)  Both of these aspects take some trial and error, but once you hone in on the right paint consistency and the right volume of paint passing through the sprayer, you’re going to get great results time after time, whether you’re painting pieces for your own home or trying to step up your professional refinishing game.

I’m also loving how easy it is to clean!!  I just take it in, dump out any paint that remains in the siphon cup, give it a rinse with some hot soapy water, then put some hot soapy water in the siphon cup and spray it through the gun to make sure it’s all cleaned out, and I’m done!

Rockler is also known for their great customer service, so I feel pretty confident that if I was to ever have problems with it, they’d be able to help me.

I’d like to say that while I am a Rockler Affiliate (I get a small amount if you purchase through the links on my site) I have not been compensated in any way for this review.  I just really like my new paint sprayer and wanted to share it with you as an affordable way to take your furniture refinishing to the next level.

Happy painting!

4 comments:

  1. I've been looking at that sprayer and debating on whether to get it. Thanks for sharing.

    Holly

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  2. I've been looking for an easy clean sprayer- yahoo! But it isn't $99, it's $140! Just when I got my hopes up,too. Crossing my fingers it goes on sale. Thanks for sharing this! I'll keep watching their website.

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    1. Daena, Drat! So sorry it's back to regular price. The good news is Rockler runs sales on it all.the.time. So you probably wont have to wait long for the $99 price again. I suggest signing up for their email alerts so you'll know when you can snag it on sale.

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  3. does it work with latex paint?

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