All you need to know about the anatomy of your spray gun!

Are you looking at spraying your first project? Perhaps you’ve been out of the trade for some time, and need a refresher on the different setting of a spray gun. This handy guide will step you through the different settings you need to know!

All automotive spray guns have similar functionality to achieve a good finish. It is up to you and your skill level to ensure that you end up with a spray job that you are proud of. Looking at your spray gun, start from the bottom.

Fittings and Readouts

All air-operated spray guns will have a male thread that will hook up to your air line. It is up to you which type of fitting you use. The most common air line fitting is commonly known as a ‘Nitto’ fitting. It has a unique shape that requires the use of a male and female fitting to work. Another popular style of fitting is ‘Jamec’ fittings. Again, this has a unique shape that will only work with other Jamec-type connectors.

High-end spray guns have inbuilt air pressure readouts, but the vast majority with have no gauge. An air pressure gauge is very useful because it gives you the data to correctly adjust your settings accordingly to the paint manufacturers specifications. You should always follow their mixing and spray guide to achieve best results (unless you are a pro and have a few tricks up your sleeve). If you are not sure what Bar/PSI you should spray your primer, base coat and clear coat; simply Google the paint brand on Google or call the paint supplier. By law, paint manufacturers must have their MSDS easily available.

So, now your spray gun has the air regular (inexpensive part, you should strongly consider getting one) and whatever fitting of your choice. All air regulators will have an adjustment dial to accurately tune in the desired pressure.

What does that knob do again?

Let’s move further up the spray gun! At the bottom of the spray gun you will find an adjustment dial. This dial duplicates the function of your air regulator and is not commonly used if you have a regulator. Some sprayers actually prefer not using an external air regulator which is a little old school – they claim they know the PSI by the sound of the air coming out of the spray gun. Turning in the bottom dial will decrease the air pressure in which your spray gun sprays.

The knob located on the side of the gun or sometimes right up the top of a gun will control the fan of your spray gun. Play with the setting to get your desired spray fan. If you have a small workpiece such as a side mirror you may decide to reduce your fan size to ensure that you do not waste your paint by spraying into fresh air. As you become more proficient with your spray gun, you will pick up on what fan size works best for each individual job.

Moving onto the next knob, which is always located directly in line with the spray gun needle, is the fluid adjustment. This knob is great for reducing the amount of material coming out of your gun. You can also adjust the trigger distance to increase control of your spray gun. This can be incredibly important to ensure that you are achieving the correct amount of material coming out of your spray gun.

The pot that sits on top of your spray gun contains your paint. There are disposable cups on the market, for those professionals that do not have time to clean and would prefer to spend the money on consumables.

A note on cleaning your gun!

To clean your spray gun, you should always use gun wash. This chemical is made up of very harsh solvents, so you should always exercise care when using this material and wear appropriate PPE. At a minimum, you should keep your face mask on to avoid breathing in the chemicals, wear Nitrile gloves and wear eye protection.

Get a handy squirty bottle and fill it with gun wash material. Hop back into the booth and connect your air line to your spray gun. From here, you should turn the pressure of your spray gun up quite high and then feed the liquid directly into the top where the spray pot would normally screw in. Squeeze the trigger and let the gun wash run through your gun while aiming your spray gun down towards to spray booth filter.

If you are short of time, it may be worthwhile checking out an automatic gun wash station. Basically, the principle is the same – gun wash gets run through your spray gun at high pressure. To set it up you only need to connect a free air line to the gun wash station and turn it on when ready to use.

What else?

When purchasing your gun, you should consider buying different sized tips - 1.3mm and 1.6mm or anything in between. This can be especially handy when you are spraying different material. For example, hi fill will require multiple coats to build up thickness. Spraying with a small tip will be time consuming and not as much material will flow out of your gun. Therefore, you should investigate a larger tip.

Many professionals use different spray guns for jobs – a special gun for clear coat, maybe a cheap gun for primer and a decent gun for base coat. It is all up to you!

My advice is to buy something decent, take care of it, learn how to use it and most of all have fun. Also, a red-hot tip – try to refrain from lending out your spray-painting equipment to your mates. Nobody will take care of your equipment like the person who paid for it!

Feel free to contact our friendly team if you need advice, after all we also operate a spray booth hire business and have hired the booth out to hundreds of people just like yourself! Call us now on (03) 9791 5590.