I work for a mobile automotive paint company and have only been doing this work for about 4 years. So not quite a rookie but not a veteran either. The company provided me with a Sata minijet 3000b hvlp with the sr cap. I have an iwata lph400 for any big jobs I come across and so far it is a great gun.

I am looking for a new mini gun. One that is capable of doing full bumpers with ease, but will give me a nice overall finish that will require little to no wet sanding and buffing.

The guns I have in mind are:

http://www.spraygunworld.com/products/C ... yJetW.html

http://www.spraygunworld.com/products/D ... eBoat.html

http://www.spraygunworld.com/products/A ... rCase.html

These are just a few i've seen and liked. I'm really interested in the CAT guns because they are american made, but can't find much about them. Any opinions or knowledge of any mini gun would be greatly appreciated.

I went through this process a bit over a year ago. I have real mini guns (0.8mm Star S2F and 1.0mm Devilbiss) but I really wanted a gun that would do smaller jobs where a full sized gun was a waste but the minis struggled.

My research found that the SRiPro was the pick and there was an Air Gunsa gun which came close, as did the small gun from Sagola. However, the standout best value was the Star SMV1000F-132G. Near enough to full size, so two finger trigger, small and light body and 1.3mm setup which you really need for a full bar. Fan, though is only 200mm so less paint waste and RP design means minimised overspray but nice finish. Side mount pot means that you can get right under the front of a bar on the car, effectively painting upside down. Very versatile.

I do a lot of bars so this has suited me really well. Fine even spray with full tulip shape and will happily cope with base and MS clears. I almost never have to cut and buff - just the occasional denib. I use it almost every day and I have other Star guns over 10 years old so quality is well proven.

Check it out:

NFT5 wrote:I went through this process a bit over a year ago. I have real mini guns (0.8mm Star S2F and 1.0mm Devilbiss) but I really wanted a gun that would do smaller jobs where a full sized gun was a waste but the minis struggled.

My research found that the SRiPro was the pick and there was an Air Gunsa gun which came close, as did the small gun from Sagola. However, the standout best value was the Star SMV1000F-132G. Near enough to full size, so two finger trigger, small and light body and 1.3mm setup which you really need for a full bar. Fan, though is only 200mm so less paint waste and RP design means minimised overspray but nice finish. Side mount pot means that you can get right under the front of a bar on the car, effectively painting upside down. Very versatile.

I do a lot of bars so this has suited me really well. Fine even spray with full tulip shape and will happily cope with base and MS clears. I almost never have to cut and buff - just the occasional denib. I use it almost every day and I have other Star guns over 10 years old so quality is well proven.

Check it out:

Appreciate the quick reply. I can't seem to find much info on the star gun you talked about...do you have a link? I've considered the devilbiss but it is quiite expensive and with that price point I think I would consider getting the new sata minijet 4400. Still very interested in hearing about the CAT guns and how they perform compared to the name brands.

This mob are about the cheapest and have excellent parts stocks.
http://www.airless.com.au/Star%20New%20Century%20Pro%20Series%20Spray%20Guns.htm

It looks like they'll do international sales too.

Prices include GST which isn't applicable for international orders. So, that gun at $183.50AUD works out to $166.82AUD which is $128.45USD. Add, say, $30 for freight and it's still pretty good value.

A couple of questions. First what don't you like about the minijet? That is about the cream of the crop in mini guns unless you went with the Iwata lph80. Is it too small? Are you looking for something that has a wider fan? The Devilbiss SRIpro (purple) I believe goes up to a 8" fan pattern. It is a nice gun and can spray out a panel nice.

But if you are looking for a gun that spays larger than mini guns and is smaller than the LPH400 then the Iwata LPH100 is the gun for you. It is a fantastic gun in every conceivable way. Side mounted swivel cup with a larger capacity cup and a genuine 8 inch fan pattern. It takes more air 7 to 8 CFM but if you can spay a LPH400 then you can difinately spray the LPH100. I would seriously take a look into one of these. Also check ebay for the best price. Wouldn't go any higher than a 1.2.

My favorite mini guns are Sata Minijet 4 SR 1.2, Iwata LPH80 1.2, Iwata LPH100 1.2.

I guess I'm looking for more of a clear coat gun. I can use the minijet as a base gun and have a separate gun for clear. I shoot outside and inside but neither are in a controlled environment.

I like the minijet but I don't like how small the cup is. It works good for smaller bumpers and panels but on larger bumpers and panels I have to stop clearing and fill up the cup. Also the parts for them are very expensive.

I've been looking at the devilbiss Sri pro with the 1.2 tip and it looks like a real nice gun and a lot of people have given good reviews on it. It has the 8oz cup option which would fix my cup issue.

I like the way an iwata lays down clear and people have said it's probably te best guns for clearing. So with that said I'm leaning more towards an iwata. The lph80 is too small and the lph400 is too big for just single bumpers and panels. I'm interested to know what the size is of the lph100 and lph101? Is there a difedrence between the two? Would the lph300 be compatible to the size of the lph100's?
thanks.

You don't like the cup that comes with the paint guns, then get an adapter for the 3M PPS or DeVilbiss DeKups paint systems and you can go from a 3 oz (PPS) to a 28 oz liner in the cups you use. Don't let the size of the cup stop you from buying what ever paint gun you want.

INXS2 wrote:You don't like the cup that comes with the paint guns, then get an adapter for the 3M PPS or DeVilbiss DeKups paint systems and you can go from a 3 oz (PPS) to a 28 oz liner in the cups you use. Don't let the size of the cup stop you from buying what ever paint gun you want.

I would do that but the company I work for doesn't use the pps or dekups system so I would have to buy all the supplies for it.

I apologize in advance that my first post is a thread hijack, however when I saw you link spraygunworld.com I felt like I should warn you asap. About a month ago I tried to buy a devilbiss from them. I got an email saying it was out of stock and they tried to upsell me some other stuff. I declined the sell and went about buying the gun elsewhere. A few weeks later my account was charged anyways. I tried emailing them but never got responses. I googled spraygunworld scam and found that they have done the same thing to hundreds if not thousands of people and that the company is actually just some guy reselling stuff out of his apt. My bank tried contacting him, eventually refunded me my money (thankfully since the gun was never even shipped :O)

I know the site/company was bought out in 2011 I think and supposedly the new managment was trying to fix all the mistakes "mark" had made. Mark however is the one who emailed me and this was much more recent than 2011.

I didn't check the date of the post before clicking the reply button but decided that this info might prove useful to anyone who reads this post in the future and might click those links.