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You need to practice on the gun you have. Most guns will give good results with the proper mixture of paint and air settings. Having the gun perfectly clean inside (and out) is a good start and necessary. Seals should be replaced so there is no leakage. I spend as much time cleaning as I do spraying. One shop job I had was to spray over 10,000 frames like picture frames made of 3/4 by 3/4 material. No runs, no drips, no errors, almost. You need a fair amount of paint going on to wet the surface properly, and your technique is very important in getting just enough overlap between passes to avoid runs and sags. Expensive guns are a joy to use but they are pretty much useless in the hands of a novice. Start by painting a fence or barn where you have plenty of flat vertical surface. A good craftsman can do an excellent job with mediocre tools. If you practice with mediocre tools to the point you are good, you may not need the expensive tools. If you still want them, at that point you can appreciate them and use them well. If you try to finish paint a tractor as your first painting job you have no concept of how to avoid runs on curved surfaces and small pieces. It is extremely valuable to get some hours of spraying time under your belt on easy and unimportant jobs before you tackle the Mona Lisa. HVLP systems are fine if you have the money and don't want anything else more. The best one I used was a cheap model which had a built-in fan to supply the air. They take a LOT of air, but at low pressure so the fan provided it fine. I burned the motor up spraying stain and lacquer on the doors and trim for a church with several thousand feet of trim and over 50 doors. It got really foggy in the room we were spraying in and the air inlet plugged up with lacquer and starved the fan to the point it burned up. Try a 3M 6000 respirator with organic vapor cartridge. They are cheap and fit almost everyone. They are what are widely used in refineries around benzene and other carcinogens and will stop all the paint fumes.
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