Anyone know of any good quality cordless spray guns that would work for spraying lacquer or conversion varnish (thinned) for general field touchup?

We're installing a couple of large projects right now and there's easily 120 colors involved here. We won't need to spray all of those colors but there's the potential for half of them. We're also hoping to not have to lug around an air compressor, or risk dumping finish out of the cup of a mini-gravity feed gun, since we're going to be working over finished floors.

I see a lot of battery powered airbrushes around, but the reviews all indicate that these are basically barely-sufficient for hobby work, and this is going to be a lot more than just hobby work.

In Chicago, we used Airless Air assist..(AAA) For onsight work in places such as Sears Tower, etc. Almost all of our work though was stained and glazed wood finishes, color work is a different story..!!
If I was to take a color job on premises, especially with that many color variants, there would be nothing ""Inexpensive"" about it..!! plus, when adding color, even if it is the same exact color, adds to the opacity and changes the applied extra color making it look not the same as but darker or more fuller, in appearance.!

Take for example two wood samples with the same coating thickness, say 4 mils thick, and then spray one sample with another 2 mil coat and let dry and compare them from a distance, you should be able to see that the more heavily coated sample now appears, in a side by side comparison, to be
The same color but more intense in the sense that is a fuller more concentrated color..! Then again being a colorist, you or your clients might not pick up on that..!

The same goes if your spot touching up, and getting the same results.!

Personally, any spray work that needed opaque touch up to any degree, I would take those parts back to the shop and spray the entire surfaces, as to the cabinet boxes, I would fine sand the areas down to remove some of the color and spray light coats of color over them using a fine mist of lacquer thinner/ retarded mix ( 50/50,) to blend in the edges of the spot sprays.! If your using or have to use coatings that are not capable of melting the existing finish, ones that do not re-disolve into themselves, such as nitro lacquered or acrylic solvent based coatings, to where this would be applicable, then personally I would decline the job to begin with.!! I will leave it to others to answer those unanswered questions.!!

I agree to Chemmy.
AAA is not the small rig to carry for touch up but you never know what kind of repair you will need.
i have Wagner Cobra double diaphragm pump for spraying.Very easy to clean and incredible efficient.Little to no over spray.
Think of this like spraying a door panel on the car.mask everything else and spray just the damaged part completely.Looks better and fast.
AAA is a great investment for anybody. i am a one man cabinet shop and i do my own finishing.
Also look for CA technologies 14.1.It is great general purpose rig for spraying precats and thinner body material. I use Cobra for 2k polys and thick materials.
Good luck

Thanks gents for the input here!

We do have a number of AAA pumps and we actually do own a Wagner Cobra 40:1 which is one of our flatline sprayer pumps. You're right, they are nice units and much more portable.

And to Chemmy's point, anything that needs more than an airbrush touchup would be going back to the shop.

However there are places where just a little color and a fresh coat of thinned clear will suffice, I'm just trying to find a light, portable way of spraying things that doesn't involve lugging around a compressor.
Not all the rooms will have electricity in them turned on yet, and there's 6 buildings, 4 floors each.

Matt and yavuz,I would love to own on of those cobra pumps but 7 grand!?I have a cat aaa and 14/1 kremlin and 30/1 kremlin,got the 30/1 for thicker coatings

Save your AAA for clears. 60 different colors..... that sounds like a 3M PPS system....your choice.....gravity or syphion....

Charge a lot for the job or skip it.....If they squeeze you on time......skip it......A lot of these commercial jobs "dictate" the impossible! Your the professional! You get the time and money you need! Don't allow them to place you in a no win position!

60 colors.....that's a lot of gun cleaning.....even with PPS.......

Jim Knowles, good points. We are using the Devilbiss Dekupps system which is similar to the PPS stuff, and yes those are perfect for these scenarios.

The situation at hand isn't really an issue of whether the we'd take the job or not, we built and installed all these cabinets and the price is quite sufficient to cover the cost of touchups, we've done projects of similar scope before, just never with SO many colors. The previous ones we did were almost the size of this one but only had a dozen colors across the whole project.

I'm just here searching for ways of making the touchup process simpler, especially by finding the most portable/lightweight spray options for small items. Bigger items that have been gouged/dented will just come back to the shop.

i would use a detail gun like a ca tech tjr gun with a gravity cup either 3m or dv. could probably get away with a pancake compresor.......i think , i say i think it is only a 5 cfm gun.unless you are spraying a very difficult angles i would just use standard plastic cup and a quick rinse in solvent. would be faster than changing out lids and liners.

good luck herb j

Jim b,
Those pumps you got are awesome. I love Kremlin pumps.Efficient and robust. CA tech 14/1 is my shop pump. Did swap the gun with a wagner 4700 and boy is a huge improvement over bobcat. Softer spray pattern and transfer efficiency.
ones i started spraying 2k poly i decided to go with Cobra.Ease of cleaning and mobility made the difference.Job site spraying and cleaning is always a hassle for me but not any more.yeah i know is high dollar but really saves me from lots of headache. it was close to 5 g when i decided to purchase.wow how they become 7 in less than 2 years.

Yea I was on fence 2 years ago then they seem to jump up in price out of reach at time.can you give me a guild on your tip size u prefer for 2k,etc.blue cap?

blue aircap 1140 tip is a good start

Jim B,
Honestly blue did not work for me. I currently use red cap and works great.411 tip is what i use for most of the materials and both my pump.
10 psi on the gun.around 30-35 psi fluid. The yellow filter is my choice for both of the pumps Cobra and CA Tech.
I am not affiliated any brand or company.I use SW and Renner for now.I hear great things about ICA and Axalta.
What ever i find without delay and works best for me.
Good Luck Sir !

For touch ups/repairs I use a small hvlp spray gun with the small 3M pps cup
Those mini guns don't use that much cfm
I know you need a compressor and you stated that you may not have power available
Look into cordless compressor like the milwaukee
Don't know if it will keep up but it's worth a look at it
I wouldn't use those airbrush
You really need to thin in order to spray
At least 30-40%
Not worth it
For stains it's fine
Then use an aerosol can for top coat
You could also look into the aerosol can machine where you put your own coating and use the can on site
Not sure how much it is
I think Mohawk makes it but could be wrong

Hey Matt, now that I understand what your doing better, I would advise a Paasche dual action air brush with double action and 2 ounce tapered jars with unthreaded material stems.. Those should be available from the merchant you purchase them from....Small investment, and for your size operation, you could afford as many as you deemed necessary. They also have air filtered hoses and fittings to accommodate area menuvering. they can spray a fine line of color about a 16th inch wide at low air pressure and have larger air and fluid tips if necessary.!! I have used them for 5 decade's both for finishing and artwork..! They also sell small air brush compressors that are relatively quite, as compared to a larger pancake type compressor also. But my main reason for suggesting these is the jars that come with 2 types of lids, one is for storing and transporting and the other has a small hole to use when siphoning as with a cup gun set up. No matter how many colors you need, you can prepare and keep them long term.! Just make sure you put in and test out the viscosity for every color before going onsite to use them..!! You can also buy extra jars and caps to fill and use for thinner, to wash out the the gun passages and clean the heads as you switch colors..!! to Hope this helps..!! Any questions just ask..!!

Chemmy, I like your suggestion. I've bought a few Paasche airbrushes in the past but maybe I bought cheaper hobby grade versions because I had a lot of problems with them sputtering.

I know what you mean about them being able to spray such an accurate little line, they are great for that. But no matter how well I kept them clean and how I reassembled them, I would eventually get to a point that we got only sputters out of them. I eventually gave it away to a team member that did art on the side.

Chemmy that's very helpful, thank you for all that. I don't think I mixed parts on those Paasches but it's possible. I'm not able to find what models I ordered but I do remember I paid about $80 each for them, so maybe I was buying a cheaper model. I see a lot of Paasche out there for nearly double that.

Your welcome Matt...whatever you decide to do I wish you the best of luck.!!
Sincerely,
Chemmy/Sam