WoodRiver HVLP Spray Gun

I have read several reviews of the woodriver HVLP spray gun from woodcraft establishing it as a great low cost ($35) HVLP sprayer option for those with an air compressor.I have previously sprayed projects with a Devilbiss Finishline 3 gun with excellent results but wanted to review a lower cost option as well.  The gun will be tested using General Finishes Enduro-Var Satin water-based urethane finish which I have had nothing but perfect finishes from.

Initial thoughts

First impression:  Though the Woodriver HVLP gun isn’t quite as pretty as higher end guns (no fancy colored anodizing or machined logos) its decent looking and seems to be pretty well made.  One nice touch is that it comes with a cleaning brush, wrenches, and a few filters, my nicer guns have never included any of these accessories.  The gun is shipped with a hefty amount of oil so a thorough cleaning is necessary before the gun is used, this is important or your first spray job will be trash.

I was slightly concerned with how tight the spray tip was screwed in place.  It was very difficult to remove for initial cleaning.  I don’t know if this is the case with this spray gun but many other spray guns specify a torque value of 15-20ftlbs to prolong the life of the tip and prevent damage to the gun.  This isn’t a big deal but something to note so that people don’t think they should be tightened to this extent every time.  I will elaborate on this later, but i did notice that the needle itself doesn’t seem to taper to near as fine of a point as my devilbiss gun.

Cleaning

I didn’t get around to taking pictures of cleaning because quite frankly i hate cleaning spray guns and wanted to get it over with.  Some general notes are that this was an easy gun to take apart and reassemble.

Finishing:

My first use of this gun was spraying general finishes satin enduro-var waterbased urethane.  The gun seems to need a lot more adjustment than my devilbiss finishline 3 does and also seems to spray a LOT more material out faster.  So far I haven’t had good luck on the adjustment and the finish doesn’t come out in the nice fine, even spray that it does w/ the finishline 3.  Here are some pictures of the type of results i was getting with the waterbased finish.  The leveling adjents in the General Finishes Enduro car are excellent so a lot of this flattened out however there was certainly some orange peel left on the finish which i’ve never had before when spraying.

A decent amount of sanding was required to remove this texturing and get the surface back to smooth so that i could finish spraying with the finishline 3.  I still do not want to jump the gun and give this product a poor review as I am new to spray finishing and need to mess with my setup before I can conclusively blame the equipment.  Also i would like to try spraying different finishes.  Perhaps this gun sprays shellacs, and thinner finishes much better