Electric spray guns for glazing

[KLBarone]

I realize most people use a compressor and spray gun for glazing.  However, I am wondering if anyone has switched to an electric spray gun to save on storage space (not having to store a compressor).  If you have any experience with an electric spray gun, can you let me know what you think?  Many thanks!

[neilestrick]

Way, way back when I was in grad school, one of my classmates used a Wagner paint sprayer for glazes and it worked well for him. Before buying one, I would look at what sort of adjustments you can make to the spray pattern- if it will focus small enough for spraying a pot, or if it just wants to spray a large area like for painting walls. Glazes are typically runnier/more watery than a paint, so see what you can find out about how well it can handle that, or if you're going to have to mix your glazes thicker. I was just at Home Depot yesterday buying paint, and happened to look at spray guns and saw that they had some that were made for stain, and others that were made for paints and stains. I would imagine that if it can handle paint and stain, it should be able to handle glaze okay, as that would be somewhere in-between in thickness.

[Dick White]

Another issue with sprayers of any type is that the powdered minerals and oxides in a glaze slurry are much more abrasive than paint, and so the tip of the sprayer will likely wear out. Be sure what ever you get has a ready source of replacement tips.

[Min]

Deb Schwartzkopf from Rat City Studios uses a Wagner electric spray gun. I don't know which model she uses but you could email her and ask. 

[BobMagnuson]

I used a Wagner spray gun may years ago.  It worked very well for a while, but died young.  Airless spray guns have the advantage that, without pumping all that air, the glaze arrives on the pot wetter than it does with standard compressed air sprayers.  The big disadvantage, as Dick White said, is the abrasiveness of glaze mixtures.  Remember that "airless" sprayers need to run the liquid through a pump, so it's not just the tip that wears out.  Mine quit quite suddenly and it wasn't merely nearly dead...it was completely and sincerely dead!