Vol. XXVI · No. 04 • Workshop Almanac
— The Everyday Handyman —
Est. MMXIX
Vol. XXVI · No. 04 • Workshop Almanac
Est. MMXIX
HVLP, LVLP, or airless — the right paint spray gun depends on the coating you spray and the finish you want. This buying guide covers gun types, nozzle and needle sizes, feed styles, and air requirements, so you can lay down cabinets, doors, furniture, fences, or a whole room with a smooth, even finish and minimal overspray.
§ II — Reader’s Manual
A spray gun is the difference between a glass-smooth finish and a fuzzy, orange-peeled mess. The right one depends on your coating, your compressor, and your patience for cleanup. Here are the six things we weigh before recommending any spray gun in this guide.
HVLP (high volume, low pressure) guns give fine control and low overspray — ideal for cabinets, furniture, and trim. LVLP guns sip even less air, suiting small compressors. Airless sprayers push unthinned paint fast for walls, fences, and exteriors. Handheld cordless sprayers trade finish quality for convenience on quick jobs.
Fluid tip size is set by how thick the coating is: roughly 1.2-1.4 mm for thin lacquers and stains, 1.5-1.8 mm for latex and primer, larger for heavy-bodied paint. Too small a tip clogs and spatters; too large floods the surface. Match the setup to what you spray most.
Gravity-feed guns mount the cup on top, use paint efficiently, and atomize well for fine finish work. Siphon-feed guns hang the cup below for large-volume production. Pressure-feed systems suit thick coatings and long runs. For most cabinet and furniture work, a gravity-feed HVLP is the sweet spot.
An HVLP gun is only as good as the compressor behind it. Check the gun’s required CFM at working PSI and make sure your compressor and tank keep up without sputtering. Undersized air means a starved gun and a blotchy finish; some turbine HVLP systems skip the compressor entirely.
Adjustable fan pattern, fluid, and air controls let you dial the gun to the job — a wide fan for panels, a tight one for edges. HVLP’s high transfer efficiency puts more paint on the surface and less in the air, saving material and cleanup. Control beats raw speed for a fine finish.
A spray gun lives or dies by how easily it cleans; solvent-borne coatings demand full teardown after every use. Stainless passages resist waterborne paint corrosion, and quality seals stop drips. Buy a gun with available rebuild kits and easy-to-source needles and nozzles.
Read the guide. Then close the tab, walk away, and come back to it tomorrow. The tools that still feel right after a night’s sleep are usually the right ones to buy.
§ II — Specimen Pages
§ II — Specimen Pages
Every recommendation here is also a set of guns we left off. Below are the kinds of spray guns we have stopped recommending — not to fault one brand, but because the type tends to disappoint at the finish.
Old high-pressure guns blow half the paint into the air as overspray. For cabinets and furniture, an HVLP gun puts more paint on the piece and less on your walls.
A gun with a single fixed nozzle cannot spray both thin lacquer and thick latex well. Choose a gun with interchangeable fluid tips and needles sized to your coatings.
A big airless rig is fast for walls and fences but wasteful and hard to clean for small finish jobs. Match the sprayer to the scale of the work.
A cheap gun whose needle, nozzle, and seals you cannot replace becomes disposable after one clogged cleanup. Buy a gun with available rebuild kits.
A gun demanding more CFM than your compressor delivers will sputter and finish poorly. Confirm the air requirement before you buy, or choose a turbine HVLP system.
Disposable handheld sprayers are fine for fences and primer, not for a furniture-grade topcoat. Do not expect a hardware-store gadget to lay down a mirror finish.
§ IV — Directory
One email, every Sunday. New tool reviews, the best tip of the week, and a single recommendation from the editors. No clutter.
