wagner power painter

jscap99 · 05-02-2008, 05:21 PM

Is it possible to use a wagner power painter on a minibike? I think it probably wouldn't atomize the paint well enough.

**Jleon** · 05-03-2008, 02:26 PM

Have'nt used one in years but I think not. You'd really have to play with the flow point of the paint(viscosity)

dave dickson · 05-06-2008, 10:51 PM

Now the man at my favorite paint store says they have a tip that will spray auto paint for the wagner sprayer, it has it's own viscosity cup that comes with the sprayer, new, but that's the trick, getting the viscosity of the paint right, I also found out years ago when I painted houses with latex paint, that there is an additive that goes in the paint, that assists in lubricating the piston in the gun, that the paint is thinned with, not water, in latex, and in oil based paints, not thinner, Penetrol is for one and Flowatrol is for the other, now I am not sure if laquer based paint has the same kind of additive but I'd almost bet there is some kind of additive that you would use, I know I've used both the other additives for their prospective paints and you can tell the difference in the way the paint flows through the gun, plus you don't have to thin the crap out of your paint!!!
dave

**Jleon** · 05-06-2008, 11:07 PM

penetrol and flowtrol slow the drying time allowing the paint to level before it starts to dry. I know of nothing to slow down lacquer. I just thin it and spray a heavier coat-lots of them!

Frank Bullitt · 05-14-2008, 11:24 PM

This would work great for spraying rustoleum paint because you have to thin it out so much to use.

**GTO** · 05-15-2008, 11:56 PM

Avoid! skip the little buzz box and find a HVLP for about the same price.

COOP1418 · 09-30-2008, 01:15 AM

They have different thinners for laquer they are based on evaporating times the hotter they are the longer they take to dry.They also have a retarder you can add for hot

Texas days.Laquer is almost a thing of the past now,

EPA.

xdomhnallx · 09-30-2008, 06:46 PM

I am jaded by Wagner! I bought one of those years ago and it sucked. I couldn't imagine painting a mini with it. Granted I never played around with thinning the paint and all that (not to a science anyway). I have noticed that you can get a decent auto spray gun at Harbor Freight and even on Craig's List. The Wagner just seemed to throw paint in speckles, not a smooth fan spray like on the commercials and it sounded like a tattoo gun on steroids.

zerozero · 12-08-2008, 08:01 PM

I sold those Wagner spray guns for years, I still feel quilty about it! They were only any good with thin fence paint. They were basically disposable...well you threw them out when you half finished. I remember painting the hull of a small boat, it was going fine then it did a big squirt. Absolute waste os time. There was a better one that attached to your vacum cleaner, was probably the start of HVLP High volume low pressure sprayers.

**Oldsalt** · 12-09-2008, 12:02 AM

Harbor Freight touch up gun holds enough paint to do any mini bike frame. Cheap and they work well enough for even high zoot paint jobs on motorcycle tanks. Sure if you want to be a really acclained painter and/or use odd ball components then buy a really good gun. You'll need several. Would I buy a quart gun [of any brand, type, or cost] for painting mini bikes? Probably not, the low buck, easy to clean touch up gun does all I need to do and does it well. Here's a tip for useing a small gun. Take a stur stick and mark it at the heigth that would fill the little cup. Then mark lines below that that represent the amount of paint, hardener, and thinner [or whatever component] that is needed. Drop the stick in the cup and add each component to it's proper line. Put your hand over the top of the cup and shake. I don't strain small quanties but ya got to be careful about sanitation.