Just a quick note from today’s experience. We switched to a different lacquer then what we typically use per customer request. We use a simple Kobalt gun I pay 38.00 for at Lowes. Does a great job. The new lacquer stated on instructions, thin up to 10%. Our other lacquer we would thin down to 50%. So the lacquer was thick and I was having issues with spraying it. I tried the Earlex 5000 we have because it has different needle sizes. The 1.5 mm needle allowed too much fluid and gave a large orange peel effect on the lacquer. Then I went with the 1.0 mm needle and still had the orange peel affect, only a little smaller this time. Still at a loss, I splashed some lacquer retarder into the lacquer and back to what has always worked in the past, my trusty 38.00 kobalt Lowes gun. The retarder evidentally was the fix I needed. The lacquer flowed out extremely nice using the correct pressure and settings on my kobalt gun and the finish turned out awesome on a set of kitchen cabinet doors. So I paid 300.00 for the Earlex last year and still the kobalt 38.00 gun out performed the Earlex easily. The issue I was having all along was the lacquer was drying to quick and was clogging my kobalt gun not allowing the fluid to “flow” properly through the gun and since I could not thin the lacquer like I am used to I was assuming it may have had something to do with a limitation in the gun since the kobalt gun is designed for thinner materials like lacquers.
Point is, unless you are going in at 500.00 and picking up a nice spray pot like a brinks, I would personally steer awary from the Earlex and go with a Kobalt gun from lowes and just wait until I am able to peice together enough nickles to afford a real set up for 500.00 or more. The kobalt guns do not possess a wide spray pattern but I feel that would be the only drawback.
-- Jerry Nettrour, San Antonio, www.topqualitycabinets.net
