Bought a no-name HVLP gun off eBay 2 years ago for $300 because the reviews looked solid and I wanted to save cash. It worked okay for 3 jobs then started spitting and the fan pattern went all wild, cost me 6 hours of rework on a 2015 F-150. Anyone else get burned by cheap spray gear or am I just unlucky?
...that reminds me of the time I borrowed my buddy's plasma cutter to trim some brackets and ended up setting fire to a pile of cardboard boxes in his driveway. Took forever to put out and his wife was not happy about the smoke smell in the garage. Anyway, that F-150 story hurts just reading it... 6 hours of sanding and respraying because some cheap gun decided to go rogue. I've had a similar thing happen with a $50 sander that just ate through the clear coat on a quarter panel, had to start over from scratch. Sometimes saving money upfront costs you twice in time and materials.