5 Useful Paint Spraying Accessories You Can Get At Harbor Freight

Are you restoring a classic car or about to tackle a DIY project? You're more than likely going to need some specialized tools to help along the way. One of those tools may be a paint sprayer, which tends to leave a quality finished product compared to hand painting with brushes and rollers or using canned spray paint. To that end, home improvement retailer Harbor Freight makes a few different paint sprayers at various price points and from multiple in-house brands.

Sometimes, it's nice to have accessories to help with the process. Painting can be a messy business, and having helpful beginning-to-end products like a strainer to pull clumps out of the paint or brushes to clean the gun can be a huge help during the project. Based on the usefulness of an item and high ratings from users, we've found these five handy paint-spraying accessories you can buy at Harbor Freight before your next paint job. 

Painting can be a hassle of a job, and you use a paint sprayer to help make it as painless as possible. However, if you find that clumps are starting to form in the spray or your spray gun keeps getting clogged, you may need another barrier in the machine to help. Harbor Freight sells an Inlet Strainer made by Avanti for only $8. It doesn't have very many reviews, but its six reviews are all five stars. Users say that it works as it should and is easy to clean, as you only have to unscrew it.

The strainer is designed to filter out any paint debris, which will allow the paint to spray on and dry smoothly. This also helps to extend your paint sprayer's pump life. It's a fairly simple design with a screen-to-paint filter attached to a fitting of your choice — either a barbed fitting or a standard garden hose thread. However, according to Harbor Freight, it is meant to work on Avanti and Graco Magnum series airless paint sprayers. If those aren't sprayers that you own, you at least have an idea of what to look for to help those pesky paint clumps.

Paint is a messy job, so any way to make filling your paint sprayer easier is appreciated. One tool under $20 from Harbor Freight that actually has good reviews is the Gravity Feed Spray Gun Stand for $12. It has a prebuilt holder for your spray gun, so you can easily strain and fill the gun with both hands. It is made with durable welded steel and has pre-drilled holes to mount to a wall or your workbench.

This stand has a 4.4 rating from 675 users. Some thought it was a gimmick but decided to try it because of the price, and they actually enjoyed it. One user did mention that they screwed the stand to a portable board instead of a wall or workbench. It helped stabilize the stand while not permanently placing it somewhere or leaving behind unwanted holes. Another thing to keep in mind is the size; some users didn't like the stand because it can only fit a touch-up size paint gun.

If the thought of cleaning up after a painting project annoys you or you plan to switch out colors during the project, having some disposable paint cups can be a huge help. The Central Pneumatic Air Spray Gun Disposable Paint Cups come in a five-pack and cost $15. These disposable cups can hold 20 fluid ounces of paint. Additionally, according to Harbor Freight, they can fit most brands of air paint spray guns with the included adapters.

These disposable cups come with a 4.5 rating from over 380 users and a 91% recommendation score. Many were impressed with the cups and how they worked just as well as the standard cups that come with the paint gun. However, it seems the lids are a bit of a drawback for some users, who say they don't fit very well and may pop off if you squeeze the cup. 

Even if you're using disposable paint cups, you'll still need to clean your paint sprayer. Harbor Freight sells a couple of different sets of brushes to help with that. One is a Six Piece Tube Brush Set for $7 with a 4.7 rating. This set comes with three different sizes of brass brushes and three stainless steel brushes. The brushes are 4 inches long, which is plenty to get into the nooks and crannies of the paint gun.

There's also the Nine Piece Tube/Pipe Nylon Brush Set for $5.49, which has a 4.8 rating from over 800 users. These cleaners come with nylon bristles as opposed to the other set, but there are a few different shapes and sizes. One is larger and cone-shaped, while another has a brush at the end for brushing off debris. Keep in mind that both sets of these brushes can be used to clean more than just your paint sprayers.

Though not necessarily an accessory for your paint gun, the Central Pneumatic One Gallon Air Paint Shaker does help by eliminating the painstaking task of shaking and stirring paint by hand. The tool, which requires a reliable air compressor, uses air power to shake your paint cans like they do at the home improvement stores. According to Harbor Freight, it is more durable than electric paint shakers, as well as safer, due to it being non-sparking. It can shake can sizes from a quart to a gallon. Though not recommended by the company, a few commenters stated that they used this tool on spray paint cans as well.

This air tool is $150 and comes with a 4.3 rating from almost 400 users. Many are happy with the simplicity of the tool and how well it works. Others recommend bolting it down to something sturdy because it shakes so hard. Additionally, keep maintenance in mind; one user said that the key to making sure this paint shaker works for a long time is lubrication.

These products were selected based on what items would be most useful during a project that required the use of a paint sprayer. However, we also took user ratings and reviews into consideration. Each item has at least a 4.3 out of five stars rating from an appropriate number of buyers. The only exception is the inlet paint strainer, an accessory that only has reviews from six users. However, it has a five-star rating and a 100% recommendation rate. It's also an incredibly useful tool if you are doing a paint-sensitive project such as a DIY car paint job.

Everything on this list isn't considered necessary for a paint sprayer, but they could help make your painting experience easier. However, we do advise you to take into consideration what items would benefit you and the specific needs of your project when considering which paint sprayer accessories to purchase.