Need A Compressor Line Opinion

[gedlee]

Just bought a compressor and a gun and I'm looking for some opinions on setting up my line. I will probably be painting no more than 3-5 guitars or so a year. With that said, to keep moisture and dirt ect..out of my finish, do I have to have an elaborate set up in my line with piping, drains, filter ect.. between my compressor and my gun? Or would I be OK with just a filter/regulator in the line and a filter at the gun? Thanks for any and all help!

[Mattia]

I just have water traps (compressor's oilless) at the compressor and a fairly short line. Works for me. Heck, I finished my first few without any filters in-line, and that worked fine, although it is a bit of a risk.

[gedlee]

Thank you for the help. Does it matter if it's oil-less or not? Meaning, is oil-less "better" as opposed to an oil compressor for painting?

[ihocky2]

You don't want any oil getting into your spray gun or it will ruin the finish, same thing with water. I have a filter on my compressor, and a regulator at the gun. I haven't gone to the extent yet to set up a desicant canister in line, so I just by sections of desicant hose for now to keep the water out of the gun.

[syxxstring]

Latest news is deicant it out of date and there are new centrifugal filters that work better and much cheaper. I couldn't find them on their site but Dave the owner of Coast Airbrush was telling me about them. Try giving them a call.

That being said I would run a regulator and filter. Don't use a cheater valve or air restricting valve. They control a percent of available air versus a regulator maintains constant presure, as long as your compressor can keep up.