About two years ago, I asked for opinions on the Harbor Freight HVLP turbine / gun kit. This is the$69 unit that is similar to the Rockler and certain Campbell Hausfield examples.
As I was spraying a bed with Seal Coat this afternoon, I realized three things:
1.) I'm STILL using this thing!
2.) I heard about it here.
3.) I usually HATE the stuff I buy from HF, so I typically avoid their products, but this " 'wreckomended product" has been a real winner for me.
So, while someday I'm going to get a "real" high-end unit, as I'm sold on turbine units, this thing is still plugging along!
I've sprayed many, many projects with it, and it's all thanks to the 'wreck!
Good stuff Barry. It's good to hear when things work out well - especially stuff that comes from places like HF. It helps to build up the arsenal of knowledge of what's acceptable there and what's junk. I know the guns I looked at for oh-what's-his-name a while back (freakin' aging memory...) contained a selection of some pretty decent stuff. I don't recall if I commented on the gun you bought, but I know some of the other stuff was well worth buying. As well, I came across some pure junk - real junk on the same shelf.
I've had one for a little over a year with the same results. Still getting a good bang for the buck. However, as with all low end HF products, quality control is an unknown and the next one who buys one *may* get a lemon. However, they are good at accepting returns.
Of all the motorized items I've bought from HF, only one could have been considered a "bad" value. The 6" Belt sander. Within days the power switch literally broke and within two weeks, the bearing on the idle roller went. Getting a new switch and bearing from a local HW store was a snap and easy to install. *THEN* it continued to run for a couple of years until I sold it at a garage sale for about 50% of what I paid.
Still have a jointer, drill press, mortiser and the turbine all running happily along.
*Sometimes* you get more than you paid for or as someone else put it - sometimes you eat the bear.....
Probably made in the same factory in China as my el cheapo CH outfit which keeps on ticking, and which I've been waiting about three years for it to break so I could justify spending ten times as much for something with which to replace it, and that "something" is now probably made in the same factory in China.
(howzat for ending a sentence with the same six words with which it starts?)
Think of the Python gang here: Nice, nice, very nice.
I am getting up the steam to purchase an 15 million dollar turbine myself. As we spoke earlier, you know I just now have a good handle on my spraying technique with my high pressure guns. However, my clients seem to have an aversion to lingering clouds of overspray swirling around in the yard while I am spraying.
I have done a ton of research on these guys, and in fact, once you hit the $1,000 range, they all do a good job with some minor differences.
Still, once I tried one out I was hooked. The goal here is to eliminate all the variables in the delivery system and concentrate on the applied materials. I am trying to find some good info for industrial grade materials, and there a lot of choices out there but not many really knowledgeable folks for all around product knowledge. I have found that the coatings industry has really specialized, and it considers itself entirely different from the paint and finish group.
How about a pre-cat enamel that dries to the touch in 15 minutes, tack dry in 50, recoat in 60 minutes to 120 minutes after the original application and is cured dry in 2 hours after the second application? I would be a metal door coating fool with that stuff. In and out in a day. I am still digesting that, since I could spray (with HVLP) in one bay of the garage and be cleaned up by the time the client got home.
As well, I have had good luck with a cheap 4" grinder I bought there. I don't know the model number but it's one of the orange colored ones and it has a flipper switch instead of a simple single throw on/off switch. It's not as good of a switch as the paddle like on a DeWalt or a Snap On grinder, but the switch does have a long tail that you simply tap to shut off. My only criticism of the tool is that I believe every hand grinder should have a real safety switch and this falls shy there. As a grinder, it has performed flawlessly throughout lots of abusive work. Price was just under $20.
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