guess you haven't been around compressors enough in a work environment.
IT IS scary! A brand new compressor will run pretty clean. give it a
few years, and then get back to me. I've worked with MANY compressed
air systems. One place I worked, first thing in the morning we'd get
nothing but water out of the system if the designated employee forget to
keep up with moisture drainage each day. It was like turning on a
faucet instead of using compressed air; and that was just overnight, in
CA where humidity is around 50 - 70 percent. If you find it's not a
problem, then it's NOT a problem!

Since you claim you'll not be in a "production" environment, why all the
talk about hot turbine air? It takes a while to heat up. You could
spray an entire piece of furniture inside and out and the air isn't
gonna be hot. So I say you are making a big deal out of a non-issue. On
the other hand if it takes you 1/2 an hour to spray, then yes, it will
get warm.

I don't know if autobody sprayers use HVLP currently. My guess is they
do. My earlier comments were about what happens when they DON'T. I
worked in the automotive industry for 16 years and spent some time
discussing their problems. YOu can believe what I said or not.

If YOUR experience is compressors are hunky-dory and HVLP sucks, do what
floats your boat.

dave

mp wrote:

talk to a guy who sprays lacquer on vehicles for a living a see what he
thinks about the PITA that moisture in the air delivery systems causes.


Do you know of any autobody painters using turbines to spray lacquer? I'm
under the impression that most of them use compressed air. If it's such a
PITA, then why do they use it?


I know that cars are painted with water based products, but lacquer is
also used. They resort to copper lines placed in dry ice to condensate
the moisture out. or they go the big bucks route and buy various
driers. the effective ones are expensive; not your garden variety $30
gizmo from Campbell Hausfeld or HF. Lacquer and moisture in the inlet
air don't make for a fine finish.


Home woodfinishing isn't quite the same as painting cars in a production
environment. My garden variety moisture filter ($20) seems to work just
fine. I've just finished lacquering a kitchen and the finish is perfect,
moisture/oil contamination wasn't an issue.


you can always add retarder if spraying on a hot day with a HVLP, and
the air isn't hot right away anyway. For small projects it's no big deal.


An issue with adding retarder to compensate for turbine heat buildup is that
the temperature gets hotter the more you use the turbine, which changes the
required amount of retarder. I'd imagine this would vary quite a bit
depending on the make and model of turbine. May not be an issue with some, a
serious issue with others.

The advice I got from several respected sources was to steer clear of
turbines and go with either compressed air or airless. The good airless
units (Kremlin airmix, etc.) were out of my price range so I chose
compressed air.


I'll easily deal with HVLP hot air as opposed to moisture/oil laden
compressed air.


You make it sound scary, "moisture/oil laden" air. It's not that bad,
really. It's a small issue that's easily taken care of.