Paint gun

[Ken Higginbotham]

I was looking to buy a spray gun to paint my porch/deck, including the under side. Does anyone have experience with the all in one units you can get at Home Depot/Lowes? I'm seeing mixed reviews - - Any ideas or suggestions?

[Mike Ontko]

If it's just a one-time project, you might want to consider renting.

Also, on a similar but not directly related tangent, this month's edition of FWW has a review article on HVLP systems.

[Izzy Camire]

I recently bought a Graco airless sprayer (I think model X9 pro) and I am very happy with it. It works well and cleanup is decent.

[Erik Christensen]

it depends entirely what is the viscosity of the liquid you want to spray and the required finish quality. in general the thicker the liquid and/or the better finish quality desired the more the sprayer is going to cost.

[Ken Higginbotham]

Thanks for the replies - I'll look at the Graco, the reviews in FWW and see what the rental shops have -

[Tom Ewell]

If you have a compressor that will handle it, might look into a Wagner HVLP conversion gun.
I've sprayed latex, stains, Target coatings and the like with good results.

The cup is pressurized allowing heavier paints to flow with minimal thinning.
Dialing in the pattern size/shape/direction and flow is easy with this one.

Might be a pain for big jobs because of cup size but it's useful for many a job if you can get over that particular hump.
wagner-hvlp-conversion-gun-1.jpg

I've got two big airless, graco cordless fine finish and proshot, several gravity HVLPs, and a turbine.....seem to always go to this gun whenever I can.
The little gracos were being worked on and needed to shoot some door latex, picked up this gun with much skepticism but was quite surprised.

[Jason Roehl]

For exterior paint, you really need an airless. The whole point of spraying exterior paint is a quicker way of getting it on--on porous surfaces (such as wood), it still needs to be back-rolled or back-brushed for proper adhesion and coverage, so you need to factor in time spent masking of things you don't want painted as well. Any type of cup gun will simply slow you down on this (it would be faster to dip and brush), and you would probably end up compromising the quality of the paint with the amount you would have to thin it--it's more important to NOT thin exterior paints than interior finish paints.

I'm a painter by day...

[Tom Ewell]

I presumed that 'painting' his deck was more of a stain treatment rather than solid body exterior painting of the deck.
If he's actually painting the deck, then yeah, break out the airless if you got'em but not all of us have them and the little gun offers versatility beyond the one job.

[Tom M King]

If you end up renting an airless sprayer, find out what type of tip it uses, and buy a new tip. I used to rent them too, but the tips were always worn out so to the point that it sprayed some funky pattern. I ended up breaking down and buying one in 1995, and it's been well used since then, but still does a fine job. I figured out about the worn tips when I wore out the first one. The tips might last for 25 gallons of paint to do the highest quality job.

There are currently at least three different types of Graco tips that you might run into, and I don't know about the other manufacturers. If you end up renting a Graco, you need to know if it's a RAC IV, RAC V, or RAC X, as an example. You can buy the tips off ebay for about 2/3's or less than from a paint store.

The stain should have a tip size recommendation on the can, as an example 517. First number is half the fan width in inches, and second two numbers are orifice size in thousandths.

I just bought a new gun, and tips for my old pump, and have found a new love for airless.

Jason gives good advice on painting here.

[Terry Therneau]

I purchased a refurbished Wagner twin stroke many years ago for about $200; one of the better things I've done. I think that they may not be as robust as the Graco if you are doing this for a living, but great for painting my and my kids houses. I've put maybe 50+ gallons of paint through it over the last 10 years. A google search a minute ago found one for $206 from overstock.com

One hint: if the rig has been idle for 6+ months as mine often is, start by putting the intake into a 5gal pail of water first and make sure it will spray. Thrice I've had a stuck valve, likely due to imperfect clean up earlier. It's easy to disassemble and unstick, but the process is a lot nicer if the gun is full of water instead of paint.

[Tom M King]

I used to store mine with mineral spirits in it. Mine might sit for a year sometimes without use. Since I quick fooling with oil based paint long ago, I now leave Pump Armour in it. It's no fun sometimes to figure out what to do with the mineral spirits in it. It's never failed to go right to work.

[Sparky Paessler]

I just sprayed my picket fence with a white stain. I picked up the Harbor Freight version of the Graco airless sprayer and it seems to do a good job for someone who will just use it a few times a year. Uses Graco tips and with coupon you can get it around $165 or so. I was going to pay someone to paint the fence so it paid for itself with the one job. If you get one be sure to clean it well after use and store it with pump armor in it if you want it to work the next time.

[Ken Higginbotham]

Great advice - Thanks all!

[Scott Driemel]

Lots of good advice. I chose a Fuji HVLP mini mite-4 system as I wanted to buy only ONE in my life that could pretty much spray everything from car finish, to wood finishes to latex. But it's $650+. If I didn't want to spend that much, from all the reviews & forums I looked at as well as speaking to various rep's, I'd have chosen the wagner HVLP conversion gun. (Of course you'll need a decent compressor to supply the air). The true HVLP sysem (like my fuji) has the turbine which is only 15lbs or so and as big as a bread box to move with you. (of course it still needs to be plugged in as well).
Having just stained and painted 3 large decks complete with brutal spindles etc I'll offer this.
If you are a "buy a good one once" type of chap, really consider the HVLP turbine systems. They cost alot, but when I sprayed my 1000 feet of baseboards & crown molding prior to installation they looked like they'd been painted by a pro. Not a sag, run, or brush mark. Also did them in prob 1/10th the amount of time.
I bought the gravity gun for doing inside wood case work, so I had a smaller size to get into tight places.
If I was ONLY looking at primarily doing "house paint/fence" type stuff, I'd have opted for the larger 1 qt conventional style in a heartbeat.
The comment from Jason is right on too. If you are doing work where there is potential for the overspray (yes even on a HVLP system there is plenty), then the a roller & brush would be best. The job will always look better sprayed (IMO) but you can get bogged down in taping off area, putting plastic everywhere, etc.
With the fuji systems, they start cheaper than the mini-mite 4 but aren't as flexible for doing auto paint or the such. (so I was told). And of course this is not the system for a pro autobody shop which can afford much better equip & is doing $2000+ paint jobs.
The Earlex system (think it's the 6400?) is supposed to be able to shoot latex not too badly as well and is quite a bit cheaper.
Just a few extra thoughts to consider.

[Art Mann]

I am yet another Wagner HVLP conversion gun user and I like it very much for varnish and lacquer. It sort of works with latex paint but I prefer my Wagner airless sprayer for that. My air compressor isn't all that large (runs on 120V 15A) but it is more than adequate. I have even used my little Porter Cable nail gun compressor with it a time or two but you have to wait every now and then to let it catch up. Not recommended.