Spray and Pray

If you have read any of my blog posts you may have seen that I really like to try and do things myself.  Sometimes this really eats into my bank account and threatens my marital status.  There is an inherent problem in taking on projects that you have never done before on your own.  Almost always you will not have all or some of the tools you will need for the job.  That could be a huge problem if the tool you need would cost more than it would cost to pay someone to do the job for you.  Why would you buy a $400 welder if you only needed to do $200 worth of welding work?  You could only make that welder pay off if you are an ambitious bloke who's willing to take on a few more projects.  Many of us will only have to do some projects once or twice in our lives, so it may just make sense to hire the work out.  Me being youngish and unable to see even five minutes into the future, I always go and buy the tools, mess up the project and then hire someone for way more money to help clean up the mess.  That is why lately I have tried to put a little more thought into my projects.  I recently wanted to give my motorcycle a professional paintjob but for a not professional price.  To do this I would need a high volume low pressure spray gun to lay down a fine smooth paint job.  Now I didn’t want to shell out $150, $250 or even $350 for a spray gun that I would use only 2 or three times.  After scouring the net I found a link to some cool dudes web page that pointed me in the right direction.  This garage warrior had sprayed his 1948 GMC with a cheapo Harbor Freight HVLP gun and made that sucker look like pure American Graffiti awesomeness.  For $30-$40 bucks, lots of elbow grease and the price of materials he sprayed his beautiful hot rod truck!  Here is a link to his setup and instructions on how to get a show room shine out of a bargain basement gun. http://www.purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/techinfo/HVLPspraygun.html

It just goes to show you that if you research your project, take the time to bargain hunt, as well as put in the work you can do it like the pros even if you are just a broke Joe.  

Oh, and just since I am truly happy with the Harbor Freight gun, here is a link to it...I just checked and it is on sale!

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/paint/high-volume-low-pressure-gravity-feed-spray-gun-66222.html