A paint sprayer, a good idea?

[Gaogier]

hello, just wondering some basic questions regarding paint spraying.

ease of use for an autistic person who can’t get hands dirty, I avoid all decorating, finishing staining etc, I normally get my mum to do it, but she has bad hands (medically). would this help me get stuff done or should I stick to a brush, or would it be better for my mum to use?
What are the different types of paint that can be used, wood stains, varnishes, outdoor fence paint, indoor wall paints etc…
something cheap better for us, it won’t get used that often, so something cheap?

I found this from Argos, what are your thought?

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8652326

 

[Mr Chibs]

I would imagine this is for fences/gates etc (thinner paint). You might have to muck around thinning paint down to get a good coverage.

I'd stick to brush and roller for house jobs... would imagine this to be a bit heavy when full of paint, not to mention having to mask areas from overspray.

 

[Gaogier]

Yeah, the 7th picture shows that it being used for an indoor wall.

how much overspray do theses provide then, more than a can spray? We do have a handle for can paints that made me think of using a paint sprayer

the only thing I need it for this year really that I have planned is to “veneer” my desk, my desk organiser, and my flooring, all being pre stained first, and my floor some sort of waterproofing stain coating, unsure how yet though. Btw, my “veneer” is ply 3mm hardwood, which needs to be mopped water cleaned (my cat is regularly sick, due to his medication when his leg hurts him).

 

[robinbanks]

At 25 quid why not give it a bash? Just remember: "fast, cheap, good, pick 2"

Bought a Wagner for painting my new build and it was great, but it's a lot of faffing to clean and keep clean. I filtered all my paint on the way into the hopper and still had to clean the in-gun filter regularly...

I'm not sure I'd expect wonders about staying clean; if you have OCD about getting paint on your hands, wear gloves rather than expect a sprayer to keep them clean where a roller won't. If you get covered in paint (dots) when rollering you're probably rolling too fast with not enough paint on the roller. Load it up more and roller slower

 

[Gaogier]

It’s not ocd regarding paint on my hands, it’s more of the fact that My hands are extremely sensitive, to the point I get a rash type thing on my hands, then my hands rip open and take weeks to heal. This happens with gloves too, but not as extreme. not only that my autism makes my hands… well I am not sure how to explain, but I have no grip strength

 

[Wayners]

It’s not ocd regarding paint on my hands, it’s more of the fact that My hands are extremely sensitive, to the point I get a rash type thing on my hands, then my hands rip open and take weeks to heal. This happens with gloves too, but not as extreme. not only that my autism makes my hands… well I am not sure how to explain, but I have no grip strength

You have MI allergy like me I'd guess. Was very common but less now.
It's a preserver in paint and some cleanings products..
MI = Methylisothiazolinone
It was banned in EU made products but I got caught with soap made in china in November.

Re sprayer.
Don't bother.

Could do fence with it just about (lash it on)but will struggle with general paints inside plus paint will become airborne. That will play you up.
You will need a load of masking.
Vapour mask
Some type off extraction or open up.room.
Thin paint way too much and will be patchy on doors.
Be ok on skirtings and spindles if you can get it to spray.

Better with gloves and 150mm roller and brush but for £25 if your interested give it ago. Just my opinion

 

[foxhole]

Yeah, the 7th picture shows that it being used for an indoor wall.

how much overspray do theses provide then, more than a can spray? We do have a handle for can paints that made me think of using a paint sprayer

the only thing I need it for this year really that I have planned is to “veneer” my desk, my desk organiser, and my flooring, all being pre stained first, and my floor some sort of waterproofing stain coating, unsure how yet though. Btw, my “veneer” is ply 3mm hardwood, which needs to be mopped water cleaned (my cat is regularly sick, due to his medication when his leg hurts him).

Just wipe the desk top over with danish oil.

 

[opps]

At 25 quid why not give it a bash? Just remember: "fast, cheap, good, pick 2"

Bought a Wagner for painting my new build and it was great, but it's a lot of faffing to clean and keep clean. I filtered all my paint on the way into the hopper and still had to clean the in-gun filter regularly...

I'm not sure I'd expect wonders about staying clean; if you have OCD about getting paint on your hands, wear gloves rather than expect a sprayer to keep them clean where a roller won't. If you get covered in paint (dots) when rollering you're probably rolling too fast with not enough paint on the roller. Load it up more and roller slower

Apropos rolling, I completely agree.

I wear my work clothes to the pub after work. Most people that I meet for the first time in the pub don't believe me when I say I have just finished rolling a wall given that I don't have any paint on my clothes.

I once got pulled over by an undercover policemen. I had just left a customer's house and whilst walking past another customer's home, I noticed that they had got someone else to paint the exterior. I stopped, on the pavement, for about 20 seconds to look at it and then walked off. The car pulled up and the officer asked me why I had stopped outside their home. I explained that I am a decorator that has worked for them and only stopped out of professional curiosity. I gave him the names of the home owner and the address and names of the people I had been working for a few minutes ago. I noticed the policeman looking me up and down in disbelief- he presumably believed that decorators should be covered paint.

I pointed to my steel toecap boots which had some minor splattering. He said OK and drove off.

Getting back to your point, in addition to your sage points, splatter is also a function of the roller sleeve and "thinness" of the paint.


BTW, what did you use to strain your (emulsion?) paint.

I am guessing that you have an airless sprayer. I only have a turbine HVLP (not suitable for neat emulsion).

 

[Gaogier]

Looked it up on my phone‘s open tab, as I often have to explain (especially since covid-19) why I can’t use the hand sanitisers and many other things as I am often in the hospital, anyway it’s called Dyshidrosis, where anything other than my body wash soap will set off another “episode“ the strange thing is, let’s say I am using soap A, but run out, I then use soap B, my hands will get extremely bad, but will heal after 6-7 weeks, as I keep using soap B, however if I run out of soap B and use soap A again, my hands will get bad again, with 6-7 weeks healing. It’s as if my body gets used to one soap, but forgets that the old soap was good.

I don’t do any decorating, no staining woods, nothing, I get my mum to do all this for me as she is good at all manual working.

every so often, I think about getting a paint sprayer, but having no experience with decorating or staining woods, i have never really looked into it.

 

[opps]

When it comes down to spraying, at one stage most was done using spray guns and compressors. The paint was atomised at very high pressures. The result was that a very significant amount of atomised paint would bounce back off the surface. There are some people that suggest that only 30% of the paint landed on the intended surface.

I am slightly sceptical about those figures but it is undeniable that a LOT of the paint floated around in the air. The figures for aerosol cans of paint will probably be the same.

When I decided that I needed the option to spray, I went down the HVLP path. These were High Volume of paint sprayed at Low Power (hence HVLP). The manufacturers claimed that 70% of the paint would land on the surface, with 30% floating off in to the air. My set up is a 30cm cubed box which houses the turbine (think of turbine as hoover that works in reverse- blowing rather than sucking).

Roll forward to today, we now have airless sprayers, such as the one that you are looking at. They do not need an air supply to atomise the paint. I have never used one. I get the impression that they use high pressure to "literally" throw the paint at the surface.

They are vastly superior when dealing with thicker water bases paint. The impression that I get is that they "splatter" the paint rather than atomising it. My description is not intended as a criticism of them, it does however mean that you have to move the "gun" (read: nozzle) much faster.

I might be wrong, but I believe that over spray doesn't result in a fine mist all over the room.

In your price range you are looking at units with a cup of paint below. The higher end units will use pipes that suck paint in from a reservoir, those set ups are less tiring than both the cheap units, or my set up, because you don't have the weight of the paint in your hand.

A downside to the reservoir set up is that the pipes hold a half pint(?) of paint and you have to flush them out at the end of each day.

Hopefully, someone with more experience of airless sprayers will be able to help you.

As an aside, I don't understand how you handling products becomes an issue if you are wearing gloves. Please do not take umbrage, but you are aware that there are different types of gloves? I use the red thick PVC gloves for acids/etc, vinyl, latex and nitrile depending on what I am working with.

 

[robinbanks]

BTW, what did you use to strain your (emulsion?) paint.

I am guessing that you have an airless sprayer. I only have a turbine HVLP (not suitable for neat emulsion).

Testing memory now, it's been a good few years that the Wagner has sat in the garage waiting for me to get time to drag it out to paint the exterior. I don't even know if sandtex smooth will go through it

I think it's a Wagner control 150, or something similar from ~5 years ago. For filtering the paint, some relative had just finished recovering from a hip op so they gifted me their "toilet seat on a raisable frame" and it worked out pretty well to screw 4 screws up through the seat (not really usable for original purposes now!) and hang something on them, suspended over the paint hopper. I think the hanging thing was some sort of fleece cover for a motorcycle helmet but really not sure now. Don't think it was as finely knit as a pillowcase.. The filter in the gun handle did still end up fairly well clogged but it definitely improved to pre-filter the paint

The airless sprayer I have does still generate dust; I liken it to a jet wash that fires paint. Like a jet wash being a little misty at the edges some of the paint stream is very fine droplets that seem to dry quickly and float round. I seem to recall that for the most part it wipes off..

You also get a very different finish to rollers; depending on how much you load up a roller (and what it's made of, plus a load of paint related factors) you get more or less stipple, and the texture can be handy for hiding minor surface imperfections. None of that with a sprayer; if the surface has blemishes you can see every one. This might be a consideration or not

 

[opps]

Testing memory now, it's been a good few years that the Wagner has sat in the garage waiting for me to get time to drag it out to paint the exterior. I don't even know if sandtex smooth will go through it

I think it's a Wagner control 150, or something similar from ~5 years ago. For filtering the paint, some relative had just finished recovering from a hip op so they gifted me their "toilet seat on a raisable frame" and it worked out pretty well to screw 4 screws up through the seat (not really usable for original purposes now!) and hang something on them, suspended over the paint hopper. I think the hanging thing was some sort of fleece cover for a motorcycle helmet but really not sure now. Don't think it was as finely knit as a pillowcase.. The filter in the gun handle did still end up fairly well clogged but it definitely improved to pre-filter the paint

The airless sprayer I have does still generate dust; I liken it to a jet wash that fires paint. Like a jet wash being a little misty at the edges some of the paint stream is very fine droplets that seem to dry quickly and float round. I seem to recall that for the most part it wipes off..

You also get a very different finish to rollers; depending on how much you load up a roller (and what it's made of, plus a load of paint related factors) you get more or less stipple, and the texture can be handy for hiding minor surface imperfections. None of that with a sprayer; if the surface has blemishes you can see every one. This might be a consideration or not

I use tights/pop socks to strain oil based paint. You can use them with emulsion but because the emulsion is thicker, it takes longer for the paint to pass through. The following allows the emulsion through faster

Nylon Mesh Paint Strainer Elastic Top 1 Gallon

Shop Nylon Mesh Paint Strainer Elastic Top 1 Gallon online or visit us in-store at Leyland SDM. Next day delivery available.

leylandsdm.co.uk

When working with 2K paint, I use the disposable paper strainers.

Paint Strainers

www.mypaintbrush.co.uk