Anyone use an HTE spray gun to shoot equipment paint? My neighbor borrowed my old Binks #7 and let some kind of house paint dry in it. I'm painting my F350 in a couple months and decided to get a new gun. I'm also replacing some pins/bushings in my backhoe and I always paint any parts I have off the machine.
The reduction in overspray between the old spray guns and the HVLP units is worth the cost of the new equipment. I'm hard pressed to understand someone using a Binks gun for house paint.
Yeah he told me he was spraying oil-based paint when he borrowed it 10 years ago. A year after he borrowed it, I saw it in his shop and took it home. I realized it was toast when I took it apart to clean it. The HTE (high transfer efficiency, I think) guns supposedly use less air, have less overspray and deliver a better finish. The downside is they aren't as good with higher viscosity coatings. I think they'd be fine with Case equipment paint, but I was hoping someone had used one.
Have you considered a really good quality airless sprayer. I have two Graco's and although I haven't used it on equipment I think it would a good job. I wish you were near me because you would be welcome to try it.
From what I've read, HTE is primarily for shooting clear over base, and being VOC compliant. I've never owned a HTE gun. I haven't used a suction gun in years, and use a cheap HVLP gun for equipment paint. A airless will use a lot more paint than a HVLP, which can get pretty expensive if its very big equipment, and / or if you are using expensive paint. So I guess it depends on what you are using for paint for the f350, a base coat/ clear coat sounds like you could do a lot less sanding of the clear with a HTE if you're looking for a great finish, but if you're just shooting it, a HVLP should be fine.
I use an airless for houses and large buildings. I had to use one years ago to paint a log stacker. I don't know who ran faster, me or the paint.
I recently bought a low-mileage 2002 Lariat F350 4WD crew cab dually with the 7.3 Powerstroke. It was immaculate, cheap, drove like a dream but had no bed. I found out why it was so cheap after I bought it. It originally had a 6 3/4 pickup bed. 6 3/4 dually pickup beds are as rare as hens' teeth. I considered a flatbed but really wanted a pickup to haul my farm stuff around in. After looking nationwide for a few weeks, I bought an 8' dually pickup bed and shortened it by 16". The cutting, welding and installation actually only took about three hours. I now have a dependable truck-of-many-colors that will tow anything I need. This winter, I'm going to paint it with white acrylic lacquer. I did some research and found out the HTE guns are sort of a hybrid between HVLP and the traditional. HTE is a certification. The traditionals, like my Binks, put 30-35% of the paint on the surface. HLVPs have a transfer efficiency of 60-65% while the HTEs have a 70-90+% transfer efficiency. I'm going to try one for the truck.
Considering where the price of paint & thinners have gone I'm thinking a brush. Get 100% of it on. Might look like hell but it's a truck? Joe H