Paint sprayers come in three general categories

Airless sprayers - mostly for less precise painting (i.e. houses)
Hobby/Airbrush - mostly for smaller painting areas and or very fine control
Standard/HVLP - used for most work involving general quality coverage

HVLP is High Volume, Low Pressure which means a lot of paint applied without needing a lot of air

Unfortunately, it has been my experience that cost and quality are linked pretty tight with painting equipment.


Modern spray cans from major manufacturers are actually more than good enough for most folks needs (I use OSH or Krylon "Spray at any angle" type) The biggest bang-for-your-buck in painting comes in the preparation work. (see this link http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...ml#post5960357)

O.K. thanks for the info. about the spray at any angle type. If I hate the results and do more of these, then I guess a sprayer will have to be on my buying list. But, for now, I think I'll just keep with the spray cans.

Did you use a chemical stripper before painting?

Nope, I wire-wheeled it clean first..

I have a Dremel with a small wire wheel attachment. Hmmmm.

I want to know how to make this one smooth - it sure does need paint. They did not take ALL of the paint off so I need help here, too. My BIL paints cars and has offered to paint any machine I need to have painted. It seems like the prep would be the hard part.
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It sure is. When I got an estimate for having my car painted and looked at the breakdown, it was 80% labor, 15% materials, and 5% local ""fees"

I did it myself for the 15% part....

Good Results = Time+Money+Effort Take away from one and it needs to be made up by one or both of the other two...

Is that for tuning the surface profile + removing paint, or do you just prefer to avoid chemicals and solvents? (Asking because somebody said earlier that the castings were left comparatively rough.)

If you look at mine you can see rough

I can't tell you where on the internet that I saw it but according to what I read, you can make your own waterslides with your photo quality printer with
the right material to print on. Good Luck in finding the article or the source for the material. In fact, I vaguely remember a couple mentions here on the board a year or so ago.

Well, I started with the wire bit I have on my Dremel and it became evident I would spend my life doing it. So, I need to find a decent sized wire bit for my electric drill the next time I go to Home Depot.