re: Low Cost Turbo Spray Painters

DonB,
In my opinion, I wouldn’t waste my money. I had a very similar experience to Ianwater. I bought an Earlex 3000 many moons ago ( they upgraded it 4 years ago to the 3500). I had an ok experience with it, not great, but ok. There are many ideas on how to make it run better, most of which I tried but none really helped. It just never seemed to get the “orange peel” out of the finish. I did get a good finish, but I ended up turning a side up and really wetting it until it would have run if it had been on it’s side. I got a good finish but I had to wait for it to dry all the time (which was quick maybe 1/2 hour) then turning it up to a side…..I could have brushed it on in half the time!! I talked with many people and ended up buying the 5500, which works well and I love. The finish is still a little “textured” but not much at all. I am a Professional Photographer during the day and I have taken home some old Photofloods to spray under, and it really shows all the flaws, but under normal room light, they really don’t show much, if at all. I also spray mostly water borne poly which is awesome to work with.

So…for my .02 worth I would wait and save a little longer and get the better model. I have a buddy that uses the Fuji….and it even has more power than the 5500 Earlex and he loves it. I just think it was quite a bit more, and after the experience I had with the first earlex, I was a little “shy”…
Mike