Fuji Spray2203G Semi-PRO 2 - Gravity HVLP Spray System

I recently purchased the Semi-Pro2 spray system with the gravity feed cup to spray the trim and doors on a house with latex paint. First, I'll mention that this spray gun is a work of art. The fit and finish are absolutely amazing. Second, the results are as good as the finish on the gun. I've only sprayed latex paint so far and am really looking forward to putting it to the test on polyurethane and lacquer. I listed a few cons, but I think considering everything this system does they aren't enough to make it less than five stars.SummaryPros:Spray Gun- Ergonomically comfortable for hours of use- Worked great for spraying latex paint. (I was using Behr premium plus paint without flow additive.)- Flow and fan pattern were easy to control and adjust- Easy to change tip size- Easy to clean and didn't waste hardly any paint when switching colors- Minimal to no over spray when setup correctly- Quality workmanship and machining on the surfaces and fittings, looks very well built- Beautiful exterior finish and easy to cleanTurbine- Small and very portable- Power cord is plug in type to machine and easily removed- Air filters are easy to get to if neededCons:Spray Gun- Inside of cup could benefit from a polished finish similar to the outside for easier cleanup- Very well built and has some weight to it when working overhead, but I wouldn't trade less weight for build quality and longevityTurbine- Gets a little hot after hours of use- Loud if you're in the same room, sounds like a full size shop vac runningViscosity Cup- Small handle should have a hook on it to make it easier to hang and drainRecommendations:- I highly recommend this spray system. I thought I would have to pay much more for this quality, ease of use, and resulting finish. I've only used it for latex paint so far and my understanding is latex paint is it's weakest performance. The listed cons are insignificant considering what you are getting and the amount of work it is doing.- Amazon recommended others had purchased the 6' flexible hose along with this sprayer. I am thankful that I did, it was more flexible and lighter to have at the gun than the normal hose.Additional Comments:There are so many things to say about this gun, I'll just ramble for awhile.It's called a gravity feed because the cup is on top, but it's a pressurized cup and really gets the paint in the gun to the very last drop.I have used the traditional air spray guns and the airless pressure spray guns. I haven't used a HVLP before but I have wanted one for a long time. This did not disappoint and I was very impressed. I read the manual, hard to believe, and followed the recommendations for latex paint. The manual was well written and even had a section specific to spraying latex. I followed the recommendations to the letter. I bought the #5 tip set and thinned the paint. The directions were thorough and called for a different viscosity for the primer and top coat. I mixed the tinned paint thoroughly with a spiral mixer attached to my drill being careful not to create a whirlpool and get too much air in the paint. I let the paint sit for a few minutes for the air to get to the top before using it. It was really nice they provided the viscosity cup, but the cup would be nicer if the handle was more of a hook so you could hang it and let it drain out as you are fine tuning the viscosity. As it is there is really nothing to do with it but lay it down.The manual recommended to turn the fan down almost all the way to get a round spray about 8 inches across. I couldn't get it that big at the recommended distance. I did some testing on a cardboard box starting with low fan and paint, and got a pattern worked out that was a little wider by adjusting the fan a very small amount and increasing the paint flow until I had something suitable.Painting the trim before it was installed with this gun was awesome. I showed it to someone after it was dry and the finish was flawless. They said it looked professional. I had set the fan to just a few inches and the over spray was very minimal and there wasn't any paint floating in the air to really speak of. Not what I have seen before, just a little bit. I didn't cover anything in my garage and didn't get anything on my "stuff" more than a small amount of dry dusting. Conversely, I sprayed two small shelves with a pressure sprayer and that was a different story.I also sprayed some crown molding and window sills after they were installed and it worked out just as well.The instruction manual states the gun is not intended to paint a whole house, and I had already planned to use an airless sprayer (Graco 390 PC) for the walls and ceilings anyway. I've done this before and you can really put the paint on with an airless sprayer. But, I needed to spray some gray on the walls in a large room and foyer where the ceiling had already been painted white. I decided to use the HVLP to cut-in along the ceiling while using a 36" handheld shield. This worked out well, the airless sprayer just throws too much paint to make it work effectively. The biggest downfall was the roughness of the finish on the walls allowed just a little bit of spray under the shield to get on the ceiling in a few places, rookie mistake. I later addressed this by turning the fan to be parallel with the corner, working toward the corner, and not spraying so much of the shield. I also put a very small bead of painters caulk in the corner prior to painting to give a better resting place for the shield. I then cut in around my windows, doors, and base boards. While I had the gun there I decided to give spraying portions of the wall a try. I increased the fan and the flow. It did a great job on the finish but is much slower going than the airless sprayer. The really good part was it had great coverage on my heavily textured wall compared to a roller and didn't use nearly as much paint. I couldn't believe how much I was able to cover with the small cup.The manual also recommended removing the air valve when spraying latex to allow more airflow. I did this and the only downfall is you have to turn off the turbine when you remove the gun from the hose. My plan is to use a remote power switch on the receptacle so I don't have to walk back to the turbine every time I put the gun down for a few minutes.So far I am very impressed by this spray gun and would highly recommend it. I was very successful on horizontal and vertical surfaces with semi-gloss and satin latex paint. I suspect my doors and shelves are going to come out great as well. I am going to have a hard time picking up a paint brush, or a roller for small jobs, now that I have this system.

Over the last two years, I wrote something of a book below, so I'll summarize up top. For spraying latex, this setup requires considerable thinning. You can get very nice results and I don't really mind the thinning, but spraying thin paint is pretty miserable, particularly on any vertical surface. For spraying lots of latex, I'd upgrade to the Mini-Mite 3 or 4 to spray with less thinning. For spraying clear finishes, particularly those designed to be sprayed (I've used a couple of products by Target Coatings), this little machine is spectacular and wholeheartedly recommended.Original Review:I am a weekend woodworker with lots of projects that involve painting (mostly with latex) and applying various clear finishes. I've been casually eyeing assorted HVLP systems for several years now and seriously considering for a few months. Because I wanted to be able to spray latex, it seemed like the Mini-Mite 4 was the right choice, but I just couldn't justify the $800 price for the amount of spraying I plan to do. The semi-pro 2 was at about the price I was willing to pay, but I was concerned that the two-stage turbine would be insufficient and that there were no reviews (hence this review).The prospect of rolling/brushing a big painting project finally forced the issue and I crossed my fingers and ordered the semi-pro 2 with the gravity cup. I now have a couple of hours of spraying under my belt (that's a lifetime total, it's worth noting that I'm new at this) and I couldn't be happier with my decision.In the last few days, I sprayed a couple of big bookshelves with latex primer and paint (Sherman Williams multi purpose latex primer and All-Surface Latex Enamel) and the whole system works better than I dared to hope. I was a little worried the "M" gun would be somehow low-end or lack features, but it's really, really nice. Again, I'm new at this and have little to compare to, but I'm not sure what else I could ask it to do. The spray pattern is adjustable from a wide fan to a tiny spot and you can rotate the pattern anywhere you like. Since I was spraying between shelves, I had the gun tipped over pretty far and it never hiccuped. The gravity cup holds 400 cc's, which isn't a whole lot. So far, that's been about one coat on a bookshelf. If you plan to paint big stuff, the 1 qt cup is probably better.As for the turbine, it's a little blue box. A noisy little blue box, but most of my tools are noisy, so I wear hearing protection and it's just fine. A quick update, I measure 92 db a few feet away, which is really very loud indeed. I measured a small, noisy shop vac at about the same distance and got 86 db, which is roughly 4X quieter. Still not a problem for me, but perhaps worth noting. I regularly use this in my basement with a baby sleeping on the second floor and she doesn't seem to mind.My concerns regarding the two-stage-ness of the turbine seem to be unfounded so far. Fuji includes and excellent instruction manual (also available in PDF in the FAQ section of their website) that recommends thinning paint and checking with the included viscosity cup. The manual also recommends a #4 (1.5 mm) tip for latex. I sprayed primer with the included 1.3 mm and paint with the 1.5 mm tip and while the 1.5 mm tip definitely sprayed faster, I think I could have managed with the 1.3 mm tip. I followed the thinning instructions with both the primer and the paint, thinned with roughly 20% to 25% water, added some Floetrol, and sprayed a nearly perfect painted finish. I would recommend practicing a fair amount on scrap wood, cardboard boxes, etc. Cleaning up after spraying is very easy and takes me maybe 10 minutes.One thing I'm confused about is how a four-stage turbine could possibly be better. Maybe you could spray faster or not thin, but this really isn't all that taxing for the way I plan to spray. I'm really looking forward to spraying some clear finishes next.Update: 11/17/2013I've now been spraying latex for a couple of weeks and I have produced results ranging from truly disastrous to nearly perfect and pretty much everything in between. For my best results so far, I spray a relatively thick, heavy coat of primer (I've tried up to about 50 seconds in the viscosity cup with great results) with the 1.5 mm tip. This does produce some texture, but I end up sanding the first coat of primer anyway. I found that thin coats of watery primer never actually cover spots, fill grain, block tannins, etc. I generally follow with a second relatively thick coat of primer. Then, I switch to the 1.3 mm tip, thin my paint to about 25 seconds in the viscosity cup, and spray very light coats of paint. Much of what I read suggests that the thinner your paint is the better it works, but I found that if the paint is too thin, it's almost impossible to get any coverage and not get runs (the source of my most disastrous results). I experimented with heavier coats of paint and got a bumpy surface (not as bad as runs, but pretty ugly). Two or three thin coats seem to give good results for me so far. The resulting surface isn't glassy smooth, but is very lightly textured. Far better than I've ever done with a brush or roller and good enough for me. Still looking forward to trying clear finishes when this project is over.This is still clearly a 5 star purchase for me. So far, the included 1.3 mm tip would have been fine for latex. I now think I see the benefit of the more powerful turbines if they allow you to spray less-thinned paint. Thinning isn't really a hassle, but spraying watery paint kind of is. Still, for half the price, I'm happy to thin some paint.Update 2/21/2015I finally got around to spraying some clear finishes. This summer, I sprayed some Zar Ultra Max waterborne oil-modified poly, which worked reasonably well. I sprayed a picture frame, I think, and it came out looking nice, but with a few small, pimple-like dots. I was able to sand these out, spray again lightly, and get a passable finish. The pimples may have been dust or dirt, as I was spraying outside. Zar doesn't appear to really market Ultra Max for HVLP spraying, so I recently ordered Target Coating's EM8000cv pre-catalyzed waterborne conversion varnish (targetcoatings.com), which is actually intended to be sprayed and includes specific instructions for HVLP (1.3mm to 1.5mm needle). I just sprayed a small cherry shelf with this stuff and my 1.3mm needle and it seems wonderful. I sprayed the first coat on a little thick by accident, sanded it lightly, and just applied a very thin second coat and the finish is absolutely flawless. It also dries to the touch in minutes, which should minimize dust and dirt.If your plan is to spray clear finishes, I can't imagine why you would look for any sprayer fancier than this one. Clear finishes are nice and thin and spray easily and beautifully. I also wholeheartedly recommend ordering some finish that's meant to be sprayed, since things get really easy (no thinning, etc). Finally, google conversion varnishes. Apparently, they dry too fast to be brushed, which is why home stores don't stock them, but they're tougher than polyurethanes and easy to spray. Newer waterborne conversion varnishes are (allegedly) just as tough and have startlingly little odor. Look at both Target Coatings and General Finishes. They both offer bewildering assortments of water based lacquers, waterborne oil-modified polyurethanes, waterborne conversion varnishes, etc, all specifically intended for spraying.If Amazon would give me six stars, that's how many I would give this sprayer. I'm amazed in retrospect that this sprayer is as inexpensive as it is.Update 12/20/2015I recently sprayed a large bookshelf project with the Target EM8000cv pre-catalyzed waterborne conversion varnish and I am really, really happy, both with the Fuji and the Target varnish. For about the first time, when I look at the finish I can't really find anything to complain about.