Choosing an HVLP System! What You NEED to Know

hey this is Christie Idaho painter here on paint live TV today I'm here at AWFS in Las Vegas 2019 really cool it's an American woodworking and I'm not sure what AWFS stands for but what does it's do you know what it stands for American woodworking and Furniture Furniture Society so we're here at the AWFS tell it's funny kind of funny because it's amazing how many people don't know what a BFS stands for but it's it's one of the biggest woodworking shows and finishing shows in in America it's really cool so I'm here just cruising around and I came by the Apollo booth and I found Bill and so bill is from modern finishing product products so and you're here demonstrating the Apollo sprayers right here HVLP sprayer and I heard you had 35 years experience in this business and this true through it yeah and so I wanted to get some information and some insight from you to share with my followers and subscribers because they happy to do yeah there's a there's a lot of people there's a lot of HVLP systems out there available and there's a lot of guys that just don't know how to find a good quality unit and what is a good quality unit and so that we're trying to sift through this information of what's good what's bad so we know what to invest our money and so you've you've literally been around HVLP technology selling working with it spraying and I believe and I think what 37 35 years yeah about about 35 years selling but 37 years if you want to include the time that I've used use the equipment and yeah yeah we got somebody beeping around here and I'm going backwards in a car so we're insight about what's kind of interesting but so I'm in some of your back right now you're a private consultant I believe that's true because I I do have a background in education I love teaching and I learned so much about that not only the hvop technology but so important the coatings that are used with the technology and how to best pair the two together to get optimum results and selecting the right equipment for one's needs and so you do know the Apollo sprayers very well because you've worked for a paul you've worked for them for 35 years that's correct so for our audience out there and can you just talk a little bit about HVLP sprayer what what should if I'm in the market to buy one what should I look for to find we'll talk about this sprayer itself a good turbine sprayer well let me give you a very compact and closed understanding of the technology first the turbine sprays do not use compressed air it is an alternative way of atomizing paints and materials it's using a high impeller blower motor that come in many different sizes and this is where the understanding of the technology is very important one does not buy HVLP based upon consumption or hours of usage but rather what coatings you're looking to act them to access with the equipment right and that this is what makes selection important right and so when it comes to just the unit itself I mean wonder what are some of the features you know in a good quality unit I should be looking for sure well we'll talk about the unit the the turbine unit itself and then we'll talk about the guns up for the perfect okay well in a unit you want to consider what the unit is made of you want good solid construction it's going to hold up it's going to last you want critical is the size of the box that the unit is May and you can you look at turbines you see some of them are in small compact boxes you see others that are larger why is some smaller why is some logic ventilation it's the key to motor longevity right so that so those little boxes they're gonna get a lot hotter in cycles are not ventilated very well and the motor will burn out faster right so I can't see inside the box inside the motor how do I know when it comes to all these different HVLP sprayer they all got like a turbine unit how do I know I'm buying one with a good quality turbine that's a tough question to answer you don't know you don't you have to rely on who you're buying equipment from right is it a usa-made motor is it made specific for HVLP is it a stock motor of those are questions that can be asked right I notice in there's a lot of different HT opening units out there and it seems like every single one has different ventilation systems when it comes to air filters and what's the importance of an air filter and I noticed that some units only have one air filter and some units have multiple air filters what's better and in in paint spraying obviously you want the cleanest air possible you don't want any particles of dust or dirt filtering into the air that could mix with the paint and get onto your substrate and the work so the better the filtration system the less chance there is of having an accident or a problem so why does what is Apollo have two filters they have one on both sides of the unit what's that purpose actually Apollo has something that's called Quadra filters quad refills because there are two main filters one on either side of the unit right and a foam pre-filter around the unit so you get the ability to get a wave to get to filter out the dust sawdust the larger particles and then the finer micron filter inside gets you a finer part one thing I noticed was HVLP units is they all they all get pretty hot is that pretty typical and pretty natural for an HVLP unit that's a question that comes up a lot when I did have done trade shows it's relative to the manufacturer a poorly designed unit bad ventilation and other features will cause it to run hot if the the rotational friction of the motor is producing warm air that can have positive benefits when channeled correctly when not ventilated the warm air just recirculates itself and gets warmer and warmer and bright so when let's talk about guns now enjoy well I mean what am I looking for qualities in a good gun because I know there's when I can look at a gun and it looks really cheap to me and then I looking at a polygon and it looks really nice and expensive but you know nice and expensive doesn't mean it's gonna be the best gun for me what are some of the features I need to look for one of the things I point out immediately and I I did it here at this show and I would put the gun into someone's hand I'd say give me a one-word reaction they would I would get it feels so light because the gun looks large it feels light someone else would say it has no weight to it and this is something that we worked on for a long time in terms of getting balance and that's a key factor fatigue when if you're spraying and you start getting on fatigue you tend to either slow down or go faster and with a spray gun you want to move all the time and a gun that is well balanced and lightweight is going to give you that ability so that's one important factor other important factors of the materials internally that is spray gun is made especially today with water-based coatings water-based coatings require high grade stainless steel to avoid corrosion issues there's a another feature on the Apollo gun that's so important rather than have people buy many multiple guns we made our gun multifunctional right and so what does that mean it simply means you have the option of having a standard cup on the bottom of the gun right or you can have the cup on top right a gravity cup which many people like you can remove the cup all together feed in a fluid line and work off of a remote pot or pressure pot or cup system one other feature is that same gun because of its design can work not only on a turbine but as a backup will work on any air compressor as well just by changing the fitting at the handle of the gun Wow one of the features that I really liked about the unit is I always carried a remote pot and it would be hanging from my belt buckle or my belt loop and it always gave me I got bad back problems if you know I just six weeks ago I had another back surgery and so it always bugged me and then Apollo's the remote pot is actually setting on top of the unit with a thirty foot hose correct and is there any is is can you talk about any benefits or features to that well the main yeah well one of the things we did was make every one of our units modular so you can grow the painter can grow with the equipment so you have your basic turbine and suddenly you realize you want to do a little bit more production we have a fluid feed so that we start with a fluid feed system with a 2 quart remote pot mounts on top of the turbine and now you have a spray gun with two hoses you have lighter weight can turn in any direction you'd like and we even have given you the option of putting four wheels under the turbine so yeah that's around easily you now have small production yeah want to grow a little beyond that we have a cart yeah does the same thing except you could you set the turbine mounted to the cart you have a two and a half gallon pot and so I have a handful of HOH Bilqis sprayers different models and brands and and the only one I have is Apollo that has a digital readout on it and so what is the benefit to a digital readout all the other ones I have do not have a digital readout for pressure well first the digital readout is patented so no one can copy oh well there you know it's that's why nobody else has it so we actually started that concept of variable speed or variable power as turbines got more powerful because you wanted the ability to spray higher viscosity coatings that's great but what happens now when you turn around and you have the same unit and what you want to spray a low of viscosity material so we came up with the variable speed and more than just a dial where you might not remember where you set the dial we built in a PC board with a lot of information and a digital readout so now you know exactly the pressure once you determine what your pressure for particular coating you can duplicate that today tomorrow and the next day yeah and I found not a very very good benefits great that's some really good information you know you've given us some amazing information about HVLP sprayer I think this is going to help out our audience be able to choose you know what's good and you know and try to find what's gonna be best for them and sometimes it does come down to money and some people just don't have the money to spend for a quality unit but I think if you're willing to just spend the money for quality you know eventually pay for itself because it's probably gonna last a whole lot longer that's true what what say we got back here I have the Apollo precision five and what do you what would be the average life of that unit I think it's you're gonna be spending a couple thousand dollars how long is that gonna last me and I know a lot of this is well do you use it one day they use a five days but just the average painter that's using it maybe twice a week okay let me put it in terms of hours and I'll supplement that that answer the manufacturer of the motors rates it that I believe it's between five and six hundred hours however when you take care of your unit you clean the filters use it in the normal operating manner and even at an appropriate point change the brushes in the motor you'll find the longevity could go well beyond that I know people that go years and years with their equipment yeah and it's gonna be an investment that it could last you a lifetime but you're gonna make it you're gonna make the money back on the first set of cabinet jobs you do or one or two cabinet jobs you're gonna make the money back it's it's worth the investment to buy quality I love quality tools I got an Apollo sprayer absolutely love the thing it's just amazing from the gun to the unit itself bill I thank you very much for sharing this information taking out your time of the day here at AWFS to share with my audience out there and help them steer them in the right direction and buying what he'll they need and thank you for the opportunity to share and invite me back again and I know there's more things we could talk about yeah I know now that you're on the consulting side what the name of the consulting business again modern finishing products modern finishing products and maybe someday I can have you come up to my academy share some information yell with some of our students it would be amazing I'd love to have you come up there I would love to do it so very cool thank you Bill thank you it's been wonderful hopefully you guys enjoyed this video if you have please give bill a thumbs up you don't have to worry about me subscribe to our channel hit the notification bell hit it slam it bang it do whatever you need to do just don't break your computer screen alright hopefully you guys enjoyed this video and like we always say we'll see you sometime in the future maybe some other day