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Anest Iwata Lph-80, I Love This Detail Spray Gun Already.

Discussion in 'The Tool Shed' started by teletech, Feb 5, 2020.

  1. Feb 5, 2020
    teletech

    teletech Member

    Santa Cruz, CA
    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2016
    Messages:
    236
    I've been getting a ton of use out of my HF detail gun and as a novice figured it was good enough for what it was but thought there might be something better out there.
    I bought an Anest Iwata W101 off Amazon. It might be old tech or it might be counterfeit, I don't know enough to say, but I wasn't that impressed. It was nicer build quality and nicer to use, but any improvement in the finished product might have been in my head or just my technique improving. Still, I was only out like $70 and with the swivel cup there are things it will surely do that I couldn't do before.

    So, based on some reviews and to satisfy myself and lay the matter to rest, I bought an LPH-80 from an authorized dealer.
    This thing is amazing! I'd actually seen a couple reviews from pros who considered it too precise but that precision feels like it's going to pay for the cost of the gun in masking tape pretty quickly! I'll save money on tape and also on solvent, the gun cleaned up SO FAST! I don't know if it's just small inside or if it's better polished so stuff doesn't stick, but it took about half the solvent I usually need to clean the HF. Turn off the fan and the paint travels in a tight enough pattern I can now get paint into deep recesses that were really challenging, open the spray up and the atomization is so fine and fast I can lay what feels like a much heavier coat of paint and not have it run because it's so even.
    I bought the 1.2 fluid tip as the best suited to my work, which I believe is the same as my HF mini-gun but this lays paint faster. The pattern is a little small, but for a detail gun I'm fine with that. They do offer a wide-pattern model in 1.0 and 1.2 that might be worth a look if one wanted to cover larger areas. I might see if I can buy an air-cap to get the extra coverage.
    I bought it from TOOLiD, just under $300 by the time I got it to my door, which is a taste to be sure but for the extra few bucks I got not only piece of mind buying through an authorized dealer, but they also included a tube of Anest gun lube AND a PPS adapter, 6OZ hard cup and lid/liner, something that I wanted and expected to spend another $40 or so on (but was putting off due to the gun cost) so they really made a friend with that bonus.

    No pics, I'm aware. Not really much to see at the end of the day since the job looks about the same at a glance, it's much more about how the trip was than the destination. I do plan to do a transfer-efficiency test over the weekend though, put a couple ounces through each of the three guns in the same conditions and see which gets the most paint on the surface and how long it takes to do that. My time is worth something to me and some of the paint products I use are $80/pint so getting more paint on the panel could really add up.
     
  2. Feb 5, 2020
    teletech

    teletech Member

    Santa Cruz, CA
    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2016
    Messages:
    236
    OK, so to be fair, I did look up the HF gun I have and it looks like it's a .8 orifice which explains a lot of the speed difference. Looking at specs I notice the HF gun uses about 4x the air to flow the same amount of paint though which might matter to folks with smaller compressors and suggests I'll see that in my transfer test.
     
  3. Feb 6, 2020
    47v6

    47v6 junk wrecker! 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    USA
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  4. Feb 6, 2020
    teletech

    teletech Member

    Santa Cruz, CA
    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2016
    Messages:
    236
    Not sure why mine was that much cheaper, perhaps because it was sold as the bare gun, but here's the one I got, $263.67 before tax and shipping:

    ASET IWATA® 4920 - LHP80 1.2 mm LPH80 HVLP Gravity Feed Spray Gun

    Also worth noting, they offer a 10% discount for first responders and such, might be worth snooping around.
    I went searching by part number from this site: https://www.asetusa.com/copy-of-our-products
    Since it seems to saved me $50 by going that route, there might be deals to be had on their other guns... or not... the large-pattern gun listed at $307.80: ASET IWATA® 4930 - LPH-80 1.2 mm HVLP Gravity Feed Spray Gun , they charge about $100 for the wide-fan (E4) air cap, so for the increased fan it might be worth the extra $40. Still, I might consider scoring the WF air cap for mine after I recover from the cost so-far.
    That's odd, the 1.0 gun is even more money at $324! Security Check
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2020
  5. Feb 13, 2020
    sterlclan

    sterlclan Member 2022 Sponsor

    exploring the...
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    Feb 21, 2009
    Messages:
    3,869
    Most of my guns are north of 300 per and some are twenty years old. The quality difference is apparent between a hf gun and a name brand. Glad you are liking the new addition keep em clean and oiled they will last a long time.
     
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