[Mountain Heritage]

Very good points being brought to the table here guys! Thank you.

One thing I would like to add.... again only my . No matter if your only wearing a mask or you have a fresh air system....if you have the means to use an exhaust fan - use it. When spraying my furniture with precatalist lacquer and sealer, the overspray can get pretty nasty if your spraying for an hour or so steady. Two reasons for this, lack of air flow in the shop to move the overspray out of the way, and my CRAP gun. I too know what you mean about the "budget" when buying guns. The one I have is about 14 years old and doesn't owe me a dime. Just other tools that could/would come in handy before a new gun. Someday I will work a new gun into the price of a dresser or bed - until now, I will kick my @$$ around the shop each time I spray and mubble sweet under my filter mask.
One thing I find handy and have always used it - get yourslef a lazy susan set up. Mine is just a cheap $10.00 ring that is about 12" around and full of ball bearings. I screw it to my low bench that I only use for spraying, and have a piece of plywood screwed to the top of the lazy susan. that way you can put stuff flat on the plywood and shoot it, or what I normally do is have two pieces of 1"x16" scrap wood screwed to the plywood and it will suspend the peice off the plywood. This allows you to grab underneath it when you need to pick it up and move it to another location to dry. I have seen other guys here hang stuff from the ceiling with wire - works great for larger things, but not everything is easy to paint hanging in mid air. I would imagine - but I have yet to do it - painting the hood of a Cub would be much easier laying flat on a bench and able to turn in which ever direction you want to shoot it. This also allows you to let the light hit it in a certain direction to see how the paint looks after shooting it to make sure you didn't miss anything. I use a couple of the cheap square work lights that have like a gazilion candle power rating to light things up in addition to my regular lights in the shop. In my opinion you can never have too much light while shooting stuff.

Remember, the above is just things that I have learned over the years and picked up from watching others. Many will likely shake their heads, which is fine - I don't claim to be a proffesional painter/finisher, and I never will be. I am happy with that too!