What kind of a sprayer should I get?

[keith micinski]

So, I bought a Graco x5 airless paint sprayer thinking that when I had cabinets or a lot of doors and trim it would be worth it. I couldn't have been more wrong. Here are my problems with this unit in the order I hate them.

1. I originally bought this hoping that I wouldn't be messing around with a bunch of setup time and cleanup time. I couldn't have been more wrong with this unit. You have to start with getting the storage oil out of the machine. This means you need to get an empty bucket and then a bucket full of water. Then you need to mess around with the settings on the pressure and turn the prime switch to prime. After doing this you have to take the main hose stick it in the paint and spray the nozzle into another bucket until the unit is primed. Then you have to take the primer hose that is covered in paint and stick it in the paint now. I hate this process and don't know how they could have made this any more difficult.
2. This unit is designed to be used with smaller gallons of paint or bigger ones but the suction hose has such a big screen on it that it will only suck a gallon of paint down to about a third or a little less and then you have to try and start messing around with tipping the gallon because if you suck air you lose your prime and you have to start back over with your priming procedure.
3. Finally with the priming procedure, the fact that you can't suck but two thirds of a gallon of paint up and then you have the machine and hose all full of paint you literally get about 90 square feet of coverage before your out of paint on a gallon that is supposed to do 400 square feet. <br>
4. Now you have to take the suction hose and stick it in water. You have to try and guess how much paint is in the hose so that you can salvage some of it by spraying it back into the paint bucket but not getting water in in with it.
5. Now that I look at this it should probably be number two but Ill leave it alone. Now you have to clean this thing up it involves more buckets of water and paint and making a mess everywhere. Then you have to buy storage oil and suck it through everything.
Out of everything I have ever bought in my life this has been the most epic failure ever and I couldn't hate the thing anymore if I wanted to. I was so mad the other day I considered throwing it in the driveway and just running it over repeatedly to make myself feel better.I would like to know if money is not an issue what kind of a sprayer should I get to do mainly small projects, not painting whole house's or even whole rooms. I would also like to know if money is an issue (because it kind of is) what would you guys get? By the way this is the project I am working on and wanted to spray.

[Mike Henderson]

Wow - I'm glad you posted that. I had been thinking of buying an Graco airless sprayer, and was looking at the X5.

Mike

[scott vroom]

I own a Fuji 4x HVLP and couldn't be happier. Our remodeling business requires occaisional on-site spraying; the HVLP is: 1) highly portable, and 2) can be adjusted for very minimal overspray.

I can't imagine going through all the b.s. you describe.

[Richard Wolf]

Airless painters are great for very large work, like fences, house painting, or painting walls. Look at the HVLP type of spray equipment for fine furniture and cabinet work.

[Mike Henderson]

I'm presently using an HVLP gun (Porter Cable PSH-1) with a large tip to spray latex paint. It's a conversion gun so I can run it off my regular air compressor. I have to thin the latex a bit to spray it but it works pretty well. A sprayed finish is much nicer than a rolled or brushed finish.

It's slower spraying latex than spraying lacquer. It may be that you apply a thicker coat with latex than with lacquer.

Mike

[Roger Jensen]

+1 on the Fuji. I have the Q4 Pro, which I believe is now the Q4 Gold. I started with their original under-gun cup, and now I'm on their second generation gravity gun and I think they have it figured out. The adjustable spray pattern is a nice feature.

Cleanup is great with a gravity gun, at least when you use WB finishes. I made several finish changes while doing my kitchen cabinets and swapping was quick and easy.

[Carroll Courtney]

Wow,I know a guy who uses the Graco 395 w/FF tip and a 25' hose and paints cabinets,doors,trim,etc in all sizes of houses.He told me that he gets a good finish using either latex or oil base paints.I have painted cabinets and crown moulding in my house using a 395 w/317 tip.I did not have a FF tip to use at the time.Only problem is where you over lap so extra caution is needed in these areas to prevent runs.Yep,using water to cleanup the equipment after spraying latex takes about 1/2hr but with the price of mineral spirits will continue to rise.I just don't think that there is any other sprayer that can spray latex without thinning to the consistency of water.But there is a new sprayer out there that will spray latex using a 1qt container and easy to clean,but after 50gals you throw it away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2MgADfGlIA -----Carroll

[keith micinski]

Thanks for the tips so far. I forgot to mention that the Graco does a great job of spraying latex without having to thin it which I really didn't want to mess with but if that was all I had to do and could eliminate a lot of these other steps I suppose I could live with it. I should have mentioned that on the 30 percent of the cabinets I got sprayed it looke really good after I did my test spray patterns.

[johnny means]

I have Titan and Capspray HVLP setups. The Titan is a 2 gl pressure pot setup. I like to use it for primer, as I'm usually going through 2-5 gl at a time. The capspray is a cup gun art up. I often have to change colors and nothing beats a cup gun for easy clean up and fast change over.

[keith micinski]

Also I imagine that for the most part I would being spraying latex, is a HVLP still the way to go for that and also I am assuming ( probably in error again) that the clean up involves running water in the container and then just blowing it out the gun or is it more involved then that?

[johnny means]

A little Floetrol allows me to spray latex with excellent results. Clean up is like washing dishes.

[fRED mCnEILL]

I have a number of sprayers including a Hero paint pump. It works somewhat like your except you pour the paint into a hopper rather than putting the feed hose into the gallon can. But it does take 1/3 gallon to prime the thing. I used it for painting my daughters house. I can't imagine using it for ANYTHING small.
I also have a top of the line Devilbiss sprayer that I have had for 30 years. It does a great job on most things but NOT good for the inside of cabinets as I get more overspray that paint applied. Good for painitng cars as well.
Recently I bought a inexpensive LPLV (Low pressure-low volume) gravity feed sprayer to use with my compressor and its is the cats' meow. Very little overspray so you can spray the inside of cabinets. Also less overspray means less paint(Laquer in my case)used. I probably get 4 times the coverage out of a gallon. Its great for things like cabinets, etc, but would'nt be good for a car, for example. Just too slow.

You need to get the "Proper" gun for the job. and the Graco isn't.

Regards

Fred

[fRED mCnEILL]

I have a number of sprayers including a Hero paint pump. It works somewhat like your except you pour the paint into a hopper rather than putting the feed hose into the gallon can. But it does take 1/3 gallon to prime the thing. I used it for painting my daughters house. I can't imagine using it for ANYTHING small.
I also have a top of the line Devilbiss sprayer that I have had for 30 years. It does a great job on most things but NOT good for the inside of cabinets as I get more overspray that paint applied. Good for painitng cars as well.
Recently I bought a inexpensive LPLV (Low pressure-low volume) gravity feed sprayer to use with my compressor and its is the cats' meow. Very little overspray so you can spray the inside of cabinets. Also less overspray means less paint(Laquer in my case)used. I probably get 4 times the coverage out of a gallon. Its great for things like cabinets, etc, but would'nt be good for a car, for example. Just too slow.

You need to get the "Proper" gun for the job. and the Graco isn't.

Regards

Fred

[keith micinski]

Boy I hope there other options out there besides the fuji because 700 or 800 bucks is probably never going to be an option for me as little as I would use it.

[keith micinski]

Also my air compressor is only a 10 gallon unit that isnt very powerful because it was designed to be used in a dental office so I am assuming that using it with some sort of another spray gun wouldn't be an option but I wouldn't be opposed to going that rout if there was a system that would work.