Best Paint Sprayers & Spray Guns for Cabinet Painting – A Complete Guide
Painting cabinets can be a great way to modernize the look of your older cabinets or as a painting contractor to offer a service that your customers will greatly value. To get great results painting cabinets you need a quality spray gun, familiarity with using a paint spray gun, and to choose the best paint for your cabinet painting project. You can review how to use a paint spray gun from our previous article. This guide will serve to help you select the best paint sprayer and paint spray guns for cabinet painting.
Factor 1 for Choosing a Paint Sprayer or Spray Gun for Cabinet Painting – Where you are painting
The first factor that will be important to know when deciding on the best paint sprayer or spray gun for cabinets is where your work is completed. For field painting you will typically want to choose between a HVLP turbine sprayer, an Air Assist Airless Spraying Outfit, or an Airless Sprayer with a fine finish tip. The HVLP Turbine sprayer and Air Assist Airless Outfit will provide slightly smoother finish appearance relative to the airless sprayer with a fine finish tip. The HVLP Turbine will provide the most precise control but can require a bit of getting use to as turbine sprayers often require thinning down paint to ensure good results, the air assist airless and airless sprayers will usually spray cabinet paints without the need for much thinner.
If you will be painting in a shop you can still use a turbine sprayer, making it a versatile option for those painting in the field and/or in a shop. However if you have a sufficient air compressor you can also consider a paint pressure pot outfit or gravity fed spray gun. Gravity fed spray guns will be fast to clean up while a paint pressure pot can provide greater control of your painting. Additionally compressor fed spray guns will tend to run longer without any potential overheating issues.
Factor 2 for Choosing a Paint Sprayer or Spray Gun for Cabinet Painting – Speed vs Control
The next factor that will be important is whether speed or control is more important. Airless and air assist airless sprayers will provide the greatest speed painting while HVLP turbines, paint pressure pot outfits, and gravity feed spray guns will provide the most control painting cabinets.
Popular Choices for Different Projects
Now that we have covered the basics we can provide popular equipment choices for each type of equipment.
HVLP Turbines for best control and minimal overspray
Popular HVLP Turbine options include Titan and Graco Turbine Sprayers. In general it is best to choose a 4 stage or higher HVLP turbine if you plan on using the unit daily, the higher the number of stages you can afford the better as stages help provide air volume and help prevent over working of your turbine sprayer.
Titan 4 , 5, and 6 stage HVLP Turbine
We like the 4 or more stages because it allows better paint atomization with thicker paints and better performance over longer periods of use.
Graco Finish Pro HVLP Turbine 7 Pro Contractor, 9, and 9.5
The differences between the 3 units, the 7 Pro Contractor comes with one tip set, the 9 Pro Contractor comes with 2 tip sets, and the 9.5 with 3 tips sets, the 9.5 Pro comp series there are other differences as well which we cover in our review. The Pro Contractor series feature auto off turbines which prevent over heating and other features.
Spray guns and Pressure Pots for use with an air compressor of 15 CFM or more for Cabinet Painting
If you have an air compressor you can use a lot of different spray guns to spray your paint. For wood finishes LVMP air caps can provide a fine break up with high transfer efficiency. For small projects a gravity feed spray gun is great, for larger more frequent work you can consider a pressure pot outfit or 2 quart cup outfit will provide options of each below. Compressor fed air spray guns can often provide the most control and least issues with overuse.
Gravity Spray Gun
For gravity feed we like the Devilbiss FLG-670 as it comes with 3 tips making it versatile, for ultimate performance we like the Binks Trophy Series with an LVMP cap. The Trophy series comes with 3 tips as well but can also switch to HVLP or Conventional Spraying with a change of the cap. Both guns have plenty of replacement parts.
Pressure Pot Outfits
With a pressure pot outfit you can get a 2.8 Gallon ASME pressure pot with two regulators to help control the fluid and air pressure plus you can select either the Binks Trophy Spray Gun, Devilbiss Compact Spray gun, or 2100 Spray gun as a complete kit. For wood finishes the Trophy pressure pot outfit is great while for medium to thick wood coatings including adhesives the 2100 Spray Gun will work well.
Binks Trophy Pressure Pot Outfit
This outfit includes a 2.8 Gallon ASME Pressure pot with Air and Fluid regulators, 25 feet of hose, and a Trophy Spray Gun
This outfit is similar to the Trophy outfit but has a 2100 spray gun in the kit.
Airless Sprayers with Fine Finish Tips
For airless sprayers it will depend on how often you plan to use the unit. If the plan is to use the airless only for painting wood and the frequency of painting is about 50 – 100 gallons a week, a Graco 395, Graco GX 19, or Titan Impact 440 are all great choices. You will have to add a fine finish tip to spray the material with fine atomization. For greater frequency painting you can consider a larger electric airless like a Graco 795. For a small one time project, a unit like a X5 and fine finish tip will be sufficient you can also consider a handheld airless for very small work.
Graco X5 – Great for small one time or occasional project!
Air Assist Airless Sprayers for Cabinet Painting
Finish Pro 395 & 595 Air Assist Airless Sprayer
The Finish Pro 395 & 595 Air Assist Airless sprayers offer portable air assist airless spraying .
Titan MultiFinish 440 Airless Sprayer
The Titan Multifinish is a portable electric air assist airless sprayer.
Binks MX 412 Air Assist Airless Sprayer
This pump outfit is an air assist airless outfit that requires an air compressor to supply air to it.
So there you have it, a complete list of common options that painters choose when painting cabinets depending on the frequency of painting and their individual priorities and goals.
