Fuji Semi Pro 2? Recommendation Please

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:13 am
Hello there,
I'm a total newbie to car paint.

Due to the epidemic, my job is temporarily paused and I thought it would be a good chance to do a bunch of DIY projects as the summer is approaching. I've never done any DIY so I'm excited.

Projects related to painting
- 2 Cars & 8 wheels repair and painting
- House (Exterior & Interior) Painting
- Furniture painting

I need a multi-purpose HVLP system to do all those projects and keep for a long long time.

Q : Which system should I choose for all multi-purpose machine that leaves NO Orange Peel?
Fuji Semi-Pro 2, Mini Mite 3, or Mini Mite 4? (My maximum budget)

Q : From researching on google, a few automotive HVLP review sites recommended a cheap electric HVLP gun (under $100). Is it possible to use this gun and leave no-orange peel at all? The one I'm interested in is this.
https://www.amazon.ca/Patterns-Attachme ... 58&sr=8-38

Q : If you have any alternative system to recommend other than Fuji within my budget, please let me know.

Thank you

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 6:34 pm
Okay, people say I am hard on new guys, but darn, if you can find one gun system that can do all that with NO ORANGE PEEL please invite Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and any other mythic creature you can think of to see this "magic."
I see at minimum 2 completely different gun systems there. Interior and exterior house painting??? I use one of these.....
https://www.harborfreight.com/airless-p ... nt+sprayer
Extra tips are cheap right at Menards and the thing is controllable and fast. I did a rental house of mine...shot 25 gallons of primer and topcoats in 6 hours ceilings/walls. Used a 30 inch wand extension which meant NO ladders and I had 10 foot ceilings to deal with.
Everything else, yes, you could probably get by with the 4 stage Fuji. But and I mean a big but..... you are a newbie and turbine spray finishing is real learning curve...you are going to get some orange peel if you can't afford to go over 4 stages in budget.....
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 1:29 am
DarrelK wrote:Okay, people say I am hard on new guys, but darn, if you can find one gun system that can do all that with NO ORANGE PEEL please invite Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and any other mythic creature you can think of to see this "magic."
I see at minimum 2 completely different gun systems there. Interior and exterior house painting??? I use one of these.....
https://www.harborfreight.com/airless-p ... nt+sprayer
Extra tips are cheap right at Menards and the thing is controllable and fast. I did a rental house of mine...shot 25 gallons of primer and topcoats in 6 hours ceilings/walls. Used a 30 inch wand extension which meant NO ladders and I had 10 foot ceilings to deal with.
Everything else, yes, you could probably get by with the 4 stage Fuji. But and I mean a big but..... you are a newbie and turbine spray finishing is real learning curve...you are going to get some orange peel if you can't afford to go over 4 stages in budget.....


Thank you very much for your reply.

Yeah and I kinda figured so that orange peel won't get away easily even if you have the best machine.

So I should avoid Semi-Pro2 and just invest on Fuji Mite 5 purchase one more gun beside the gun that Fuji already provides right? It says Fuji Mite 5 is a 5 stage one and the price difference is not that much from Mini Mite 4 so I will go for it.

Unfortunately, my place in Canada does not have Menards nor I know a place where I can borrow a sprayer system and even if I could borrow the machine, it wouldn't be cheap.

I'm aware of the learning curve and I will probably do some testings before going into the serious job like painting on a panel(bonnet or fender) to test.
But o well, the local body shops quoted me for about $4k for the whole car painting and I have 2 cars to paint. (2 old cars) and probably that price to paint is more expensive than one of the cars. Also, a paint guy quoted me $8k for my house exterior painting.

I will purchase the Fuji Mini Mite 5.
https://www.amazon.ca/Fuji-2905-T70-Min ... 262&sr=8-5

I think that Fuji gun is good enough for car/automotive paint, no? Maybe it is just good for furniture and house painting only perhaps?

If not, could you recommend me a reasonably priced gun for automotive paint?

Thank you very much for your help.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 8:10 am
Well, if you can make that jump into the 5 stage that's definitely going to get you to more pro quality finishing especially with the cars/wheels. Just my opinion, but you can tweek the paint and clear mixes enough to get almost no orange peel. Best gun for cabinet finishing as well.
As for the house painting take a look in ebay/canada.....
https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... r&_sacat=0
Graco airless sprayers are pretty much the norm and are best for interior or exterior home painting. You can't go wrong with one of these.....if the costs scare you off simply buy one on there and flip it back on when you are done to recoup your money.
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



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PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:00 am
Sorry to jump on this thread but I'm planning on doing my first paint job. I purchased a Fuji Mini-Mite 4 with T75 gun and 1.0/1.8 tips. Is the Mini MIte 4 powerful enough to get a good paint job for a newbie? My order is currently on backorder and I can cancel to get a Mini-Mite 5. I bought the 4 on sale so there is roughly a $300 USD price difference canceling it and going with the 5.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:56 pm
It's kind of squeaker on this. The 4 is quite capable of handling medium solids clears with little to no tweeking of the reduction. If you get into the high solids clears like Tamco Euro Clear you definitely have to reduce more and play around with spray outs to achieve the best results. Now the 5 stage is going to handle almost all automotive coatings with probably only gun adjustments being needed and little to no extra reduction. Personally I'd go with the 5 just because of this....You can always cut back on the pressure/cfm of the 5 but you sure aren't going to be able to make the 4 put out "more" pressure/cfm if you need it for better results.
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 4:54 am
Thanks for the reply! I'm keeping my eyes open for a 5 stage Fuji. I'm not painting anything fancy, just an old Toyota 4Runner that my soon to be 16 year old daughter will be driving. From your reply, it sounds like the 4 stage will probably suffice but you made some good points about the 5 stage.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:50 am
Yeah, I mean, there is just nothing written in rock when it comes to these systems. It's been 28 years ago I did my first full car paint job with a highly modified 2 stage system. Careful planning, shorter hoses, turbine on wheels, tweeked to the heavens coatings, and I would say I still got 90% of what I could do with a 5 stage now. And, that was using PPG 2021 clear which was about the highest solids clear you could get at the time. Just saw that car a year ago and that paint looks as good as the day we cut and buffed it.
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:23 am
Pay attention to DarrelK. I got a lot of good advice from him. There's several threads on here that get into detail on what works.

In a nutshell:

I have a Citation 4 stage that works. I keep it because it also has supplied fresh air. I did have to experiment with reducers and cooling to get it to spray right and even then, I usually have some orange peel.

I also have a Fuji 5 stage. It will generally work using manufacturers recommendations for reducing/mixing. I sprayed with it over the summer and found that cooling the turbine air was also needed. If ambient temperature is around 75F or cooler, then no cooling needed.

I used slow reducers with either turbine.

I picked up a 6 stage turbine (another DarrelK recommendation) and I've been working on building a housing for it off and on. Should be done with it soon and will try it on my next project.

Anyway, the reasons for using a turbine (for me) is that they run on 110v with low power usage compared to a compressor, and the overspray is greatly reduced.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 5:51 pm
Yeah, and let me know on here how that 6 stage works out for you.....
We did my truck with the 6 stage unit.....
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