TheBigLebowski Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 I was wondering if anybody owns or has operated the Central Pneumatic air guns and compressors (usually purchased at Harbor Freight Tools). Are they a quality product? Can they produce quality finishes? Or should money just be saved for a more expensive product? Thanks for your time and responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fookgub Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 I have one of these guns. I bought it on sale for $14. It's cheap and works fine. I've finished two guitars with it so far, and the results are very good. I originally thought this gun sucked big time, but now that I've figured out how to use it, I haven't felt any urges to upgrade. I shoot lacquer only, though... other paint systems may benefit from better equipment. The one issue I have with the gun is that I haven't been able to get the kind of efficiency that other people (notably Minijet users) seem to get. It takes me about a quart to put a nice thick finish on a guitar, whereas the HVLP crowd seems to get by with a pint. I think it's mostly because the gun I have is just a bit big for guitars, and the spray pattern adjustment could be better (ie: you're not going to be able to burst with this gun). Also, HVLP is going to be more efficient regardless. Anyway, I think that if it's your first gun and you're going to be shooting lacquer, the cheap gun from Harbour Freight is a good buy. If you're going to shoot a more expensive/finicky paint system, you should probably look to a better gun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brutas Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 I have worked at a shop where we used these to spray contact cement. I'm sure contact cement is harder to spray than regular paint so take this info for what it is worth. We bought about a dozen of them. Three were perfect, shot well and laid down a good pattern. Some were ok, and others were garbage. That being said Harbor Frieght does allow you to exchange the tool if you are not happy. So my advice is buy one and if it doesn't work trade it for anohter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuntinDoug Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 I have a Central Pneumatic compressor. It seems to work just as well as my last compressor. It was a Craftsman that I paid 3 times as much for. Actually, I but a lot of "junk" at Harbor Freight. If you get the sale emails, and use the 10%, 15% & 20% off coupons that are available every now and then, you can get stuff really cheap. I bought this mill last year: It may be a "cheap" import...but it does me just fine. The store price was $999. I printed out the internet price of $899, and took it in the store. They had no problem honoring it, along with a "20% off any single purchase coupon". It ended up being $720 + tax. That is literally half what another local place wanted for the exact same mill painted a different color with thier sticker on it. My latest purchase was a 10" disc/48in belt sander combo. Store price was $209, but after all my coupons I got it for $143+ tax. I don't buy all of thier tools...some of them are pure junk. I would never buy something like a planer or jointer from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cole Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 the truth of it is, if your spraying a car they might not be as good as the guns running for 500, but for guitars they work just fine. I dont belive you need a high priced gun to spray nice finishes. If you dont know what your doing a 500$ gun wont help any either. I use all kinds of guns but none have ever totaled over 100. I just got the two pack for 60 bucks from harbor freight and I'll be using it soon. They work just fine dont waste your money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenspoke Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 I have enough HF stuff to qualify as a HF junky. Mostly secondary tools, metal working, air tools, gear pullers and the like even a few air nailers. Just got a HF pin nailer for only a few bucks. yes you do compromise on some quality but if you are not a professional and will only be using the tool for your hobby go for it. I also have a HF mini mill which I have converted to CNC for guitar parts and the like. I also see Central Pneumatic (CN) air tools selling for twice as much on other sites. I paid $14 for an air pencil die grinder, which sells for over $50 on another site, same HF CN branded tool; a good tool to convert to an inlay router. I have found Grizzly sells some of the same chinese HVLP guns cheaper than HF, but with less color (who cares). The difference is grizzly also sells filters and parts are in stock. Woodenspoke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyd Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 OOOhh I want one of those bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydrogeoman Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 I have one of these guns. I bought it on sale for $14. It's cheap and works fine...... I have this same gun and it never did work well enough to spray a guitar. I also have the HF "mini" version of this gun with a 4 or 6 oz cup on it (I think). Picked it up for about $12 and it sprays just fine. Like what was stated before, I think it is pretty much hit or miss on the quality control, but if you get one that works, they are servicable for shooting guitars. I have since upgraded to a CA Technologies mini HVLP gun: CAT mini jet but it has been too cold around these parts to spray, so I can't give any review notes yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl762 Posted April 3, 2007 Report Share Posted April 3, 2007 I have a 20-gallons HF compressor I bought a couple of years ago for around $150. It works great, doesn't use oil, had no problems. I've purchased many HF air tools and they're all working just fine. Just be sure to oil em when you use em. I have a HF gravity feed spray gun I haven't used yet. It appears people have used the same one for their projects with success. I'm happy. I'll use it on my guitar project. A lot of HF tools are cheap, but you can tell when you're thinking of buying them, holding them in your hands. Many of their handtools have a lifetime warranty, much like the Craftsman take-it-back-and-get-a-new-one policy. I always see my compressor on sale for $149. Carl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 I don't buy jack from from Harbor Freight unless it's at lest 50% off. But I use my little HF trimmer router quite often. The run-out is horrible, but that doesn't matter with how I use it. I think it was at least 60% off when I bought it. Anyway, it was about $12.00. I wanted to be able to mount it to various bases, but the plastic threads were not holding up to that very well. So, staying real cheap, I found an old set of spark-plugs, took the screw-on tips off, and used them for "threaded inserts". They're metric, so I was able to use metric screws pulled off some junk electronics device. Gotta keep it cheap ! http://usera.imagecave.com/soapbarstrat/ro...inserts3071.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarpartscentral Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 My experience with HF used to be that, at least for electric tools, there was a 50% chance of my purchase still functioning a week after. But in the last year or two, I think the quality has gone up. I'm sure it's Chinese reverse-engineering actual quality, but who knows. We do have one of their spray guns. I wouldn't call it 'crap', but I would classify it as 'temperamental'. We had to spend a week with it to get to the point where we could make it do what we wanted it to do. But $20, versus $400 for a Binx or whatever: no contest. I'll take the $380 I saved and buy something else with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick500 Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I haven't bought anything from them except a few cheap clamps and an angle grinder. The clamps are so-so, but I'm very happy with the angle grinder. It's worked perfectly so far and was only $16. Can't beat that. I would not risk buying anything from them that I expected to do any kind of precision job, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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