Quote Originally Posted by Daveembry View Post
Great info. Thanks so much for taking the time on all this. I have a couple questions as I get my booth ready.

1. I'm looking for info on the compressor and the water separator/dryer/filters that should be used. Big difference in costs with some $500 for the separators/filters and some $10. Reviews seem to show that you can find them to work well in almost any price range. I'll only use it to paint this airplane and so don't want to spend more than required for 1 time use but don't want a screw up either. I read that you should run about 50' of air line and then put on the water filters as it takes that far to let the air cool down and make the water vapor larger to catch in the filters?
2. How important is the CFM rating on the compressor. Looks like with the HVLP systems, you are only using 25-45 psi at the gun, and you are not painting large volumes so. Smaller tank and compressor would seem to work. Some systems say to use a compressor with high CFM but they are extremely expensive to get them that high. I have one that is just over 5 CFM and was thinking of trying to make it work.

Mitch set me up with 2 spray guns. The factory will actually set them up to spray (1 for brush and spray and the other for final top coat) and ship them to you all ready to go! great support there.

thanks for any comments.
Air quality is important. I have an 11 cfm 60 gal compressor and it is works pretty hard. Painted two planes with no issues but I would like the compressor to take more breaks. I would go higher than 11cfm. I ran a 50ft copper line right out of the pump into a water tank to cool the air then into the tank. Not required, just makes better air. Cold air filters better than warm air. I use a Sata 3000B gun.

I also used the 3 stage Devilbiss filters. Finish quality will depend on the tools and set up. The more you spend will not always give you a better quality though as the user is a very big part in the end results.