Opinions on entry level spray guns, Sharpe vs. Astro

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PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2012 11:33 am
I need a reasonable quality gun for occasional car painting, right now we'll be doing a car with bc/cc urethane.

After reading through the forum for a couple of hours yesterday, it looked to me like the best bet for a budget priced gun would be either a Sharpe FX3000 or a Astro EVO 4014. From shopping around I can get either gun delivered to me for around $110. to $120.

I'm leaning towards the FX3000 as I can get it with a 1.3mm nozzle. We're going to use Limco 4100 clear and the tech sheet says to use a 1.1 to 1.3 mm nozzle.

It appears that the Astro EVO model may be being phased out as the Astro site primarily promotes a new "Euro" gun but there aren't any reports on this gun on the forum, which I'm taking to be a bad sign. Also I can only get the Astro gun with a 1.4mm nozzle, one size too big for the Limco 4100 paint.

Any opinions on these guns or other guns in this price range I should consider?



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PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2012 5:30 pm
We sell MANY of the Sharpe Finex guns and I've never had someone come back unhappy. Sharpe also has a very helpful tech service phone line, and parts/rebuild kits are readily available.

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PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2012 10:19 pm
If they say to use a 1.3mm for the clear,,,I would'nt even but it. Thats a base coat fluid tip,, and Im thinking its NOT a high solids clear,,and you dont want that!

A 1.4 is OK for the clear,,,but I like a 1.5. You can use it for the base and the clear.............
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PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 5:49 pm
OldDupontGuy wrote:If they say to use a 1.3mm for the clear,,,I would'nt even but it. Thats a base coat fluid tip,, and Im thinking its NOT a high solids clear,,and you dont want that!

A 1.4 is OK for the clear,,,but I like a 1.5. You can use it for the base and the clear.............


NapaStoreGuy andOldDupontGuy, thanks for the input.

The clear is Limco LC4100, I know its not greatest paint in the world but we're on a tight budget and its already been purchased, so at this point I just need to get a reasonable gun with the right nozzle size and I'll probably go with the FX3000 for the gun.

I've noticed that 1.4 seems to be the most common size for shooting clears but the tech sheet for the 4100 says the nozzle should be 1.1 to 1.3mm and since we're not that experienced I'm thinking we better stay with the tech sheet number.

I guess as you are stating if it uses such a small nozzle its probably not that high solid of a paint but maybe that's for the better for us as from what I understand the high solid paints take more skill to spray.

I'll have to say that I'm in love with these 2k urethane paints. I'm an old fart and the last time I painted it was with an acrylic lacquer back in 1980 (ok, stop laughing).

I was never very good with the gun but as long as I got enough of the lacquer on after a color sand and and buff out it looked great.

I didn't realize you could color sand and buff out the urethanes, we did a repaint of a hood with bc/cc last week and even though the clear coat ended up pretty orange peeled it looks great after a color sand and buff.

But unlike the lacquers, the urethanes seem really tough.

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