Iwata LPH80 vs HP-TH for small projects.

J

Juicegoose

Guest
So this is kinda a loaded question really. I already have both currently and love how they both spray but here is my drawbacks.
First some background. I spray small reel seats and fishing rods. The diameter of which you would think would lend itself well to the small pattern of airbrushes. Actually though a fan pattern has proven to be ideal for coverage, even at such a small scale. As I have gotten more and more busy I have upgraded components from simple badger 105's to a combo of the 105's and the HP-TH. Using the LPH80 with a .8 nozzle strickly for clear.

Although an airbrush like the 105 technically gets paint on the surface I find that I have to take more time spraying the part because of the smaller effective zone of coverage. This is especially true for painting a fishing rod. Even though your only spraying a very small area you are walking and spraying an 8' long object and trying to keep the airbrush cone in line with that small stick has proven fustrating. The HP-Th with it's fan pattern uses more paint obviously because of the overspray but allows me to walk the object and still get good coverage. Obviously in spraying candies and the like you have to watch for striping too.
The HP-TH with its fan pattern is great but I find I still have to over reduce the paint to get that great fan pattern/atomization to layout base etc. Most of what I do is more basecoat or single colors then with detailed artwork.

Lastly the lph80 is a beast and even at .8 it lays out clear very well. and fast. What would take me several passes back and forth even with the HP-TH I can make one pass with the LPH80. Drawback is I'm sure it uses more paint.

So here is my question. If i were going to buy another gun be it a HP-TH or a LPH80 which do you think would be better. Having a smaller paint use with the HP-TH but having to overreduce the paint more to get constant result or go with a second LPH80 and potentially use more paint but be done faster and get more even results.
If i got another HP-TH i would dedicate one to light colors and 1 to dark. It never fails a little black flake will pop in my white basecoat even if i strip down the gun and clean it good before hand.
 
What type/brand of paint are you using?

I have an HP-TH, and my own experience with it has been that it handles thicker paints very well. Stuff I have to reduce 2 to 1 with my Eclipse or 5 to 1 (or more) with my SOTAR I only have reduce 1 to 3 with my TH. It's one of the things I like about it, as it means I don't have to reduce primers.
 
I use House of kolor paints and ppg shopline clear. I use a cheaper minigun with a 1.2 tip for my primer and it serves its purpose and strictly use the lph80 for clear. It has a .8 tip. I was thinking of maybe going with another lph80 with a 1.0 tip for clear and using the .8 tip for color. I do like my hp-th but I do find i have to reduce the paint a fair amount. I love the fan pattern though. so nice.
 
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