To provide a method for improving startability of an arc spraying gun using a small power source or an inverter power source, both of which have problems of being difficult to start spraying, although the latter of which is advantageous for size reduction but unfavorable on account of its overcurrent protection characteristics, because they can not provide a current large enough to melt spray wires; and further to facilitate arc spraying to be started with thick spray wires capable of providing improved productivity even by an electric source of the same output.

Startability of the arc spraying gun is improved by adopting one of the followings or a combination thereof; (1) when a pair of spray wires are fed in start-up to generate short-circuiting therebetween, restart is delayed by stopping wire feed till melt/arc generation, (2) only during short-circuiting, the melting and arc generation of the spray wires are promoted by increasing the current to an open-circuit voltage, and (3) the two spray wires are separated from each other by backward sending after short-circuiting therebetween to thereby forcedly generate an arc. Then the heat of the arc generates the melt/sustained arc of the spray wires.