My question is Which of the three Air Assisted Airless set ups are the best for the money? At the IWF show I looked the top three brands, Kremlin EOS 10:1, the AAA brand and Graco which is more money. I am a small shop that would like to produce a really nice finish on my products. I am tired of the cheaper ways of spraying.
Thanks in advance for any input on this!
From contributor JM
Cant go wrong with any of the top brands......Binks, Graco, CAT, Kremlin, etc. They are all capable of a high quality finish.
Just get one that has support/parts stocked locally. Guns and pumps need to be rebuilt periodically and you want to be able to get the parts really fast unless you plan to stock a repair kit.
From contributor th
dennis,
i've got a cat pump and gun and two, 17a2 kremlin pumps for sale so please let me know if you are interested.
i've owned and used a cat 14:1, graco merkur 20:1, and kremlin 15:1 eos. all are more than capable of producing near-flawless results off the gun with much greater ease and speed vs. a cup gun (no experience with pressure pumps). i currently use the eos for clears and the graco for pigmented and prefer the graco pump and kremlin gun.
the graco pump is pretty quiet but the g15 gun (i purchased this set up used) was uncomfortable to use and mine recently broke. i switched it out with an extra excite gun i had and like this set up very much.
the eos was purchased new about six months ago and i'm not really a fan. my only problem with it is i get a half-a-wink at the top of the stroke no matter what material i'm shooting. i typically use a 12-134 tip so this can happen with bigger tips but i wasn't expecting this to be a reality given the cost and new condition. kremlin recommended a filter at the base of the pump to help mitigate this but i've yet to purchase it (the half-wink annoys me but i'm living with it).
i shot the cat as infrequently as our finish schedule allows for 3+ years (we could shoot ten gallons a week, or a gallon a week). it was a nice set up and i only switched because i liked the kremilin excite gun better. i definitely don't like the kremlin pump any better.
i struggled with cup guns for three years before making the switch and, like others have admitted before, i only wish i would have purchased an aaa set up sooner.
From contributor Bi
I took delivery of the Kremlin EOS 10:1 a few weeks ago. I've only had the opportunity to shoot one project since, but really liked it. I've used an older Kremlin 10:1 and didn't see much difference in the 2. We have a large project coming up in the next couple of weeks (this is the reason we bought the rig) that will involve several gallons of CV. I'll let you know how it goes.
