Thread: Help with spraying house paint!!!

it'll do the job ok, and save ya refilling all the time as 10lts goes a fair way ....the basic air spraying outfit would do, just change the gun head to a larger nozzle ... spray at around 30-35psi and see how it flows, most air outfits work well because air is what drives them ....using an airless outfit creates heat , from the small piston going back and forth pumping out the product....which in turn dries out the paint and clogs up the nozzle and is a real pain .....

That "system" is not a complete spray system, it is a pressure pot that requires a compressor to supply pressure to the pot to deliver paint up to the spray gun. It also needs the compressor to deliver air to the gun. THIS IS NOT AN AIRLESS SPRAY UNIT.
The pressure pot holds the paint and needs air to send the paint through the paint hose to the gun and at the same time the compressor delivers air through a secondary air hose to the gun.
When you squeeze the trigger, both the air and paint deliver at the same time to the nozzle and the air atomizes the paint creating your spray pattern.
So if you intend to buy something like this, you also need a compressor suitable for use with this type of paint pot.
Painting a house with this method is limiting in as much as it will NOT spray acrylic or plastic paints successfully. It is suited to spraying oil based paints not acrylics.
To spray acrylics, plastics or PVC type materials, you need an Airless spray painting system (they will also spray oil paints beautifully too) If I was going to spray-paint my house, I would opt to hire a heavy duty airless system from my local hire place. These will do the job easily and you wont need to thin your paint. The smaller machines need to have the paint diluted to spray properly.

btw spraying houses is interesting
sometimes over spray travels a long way
do you fancy a spotted car if so park downwind of the work area.

Thanks Guys,
Munruben I'm not planning on painting my house with this unit, I manufacture cubby houses, Garden sheds and cabins and want to use this unit to paint them in my factory, I have a large compressor so this unit will be good for me by the sounds of things.
I only need it to spray standard water based primer and solarguard paints through it so sounds like it will do the job.
The airless system I have is good but I need to thin the paints to much to get through the gun and you need to do about 3 coats with gun and then a finish coat with a brush and this takes to much time and with the paint being so thin to get through gun we seem to get runs quite easy, so I was hoping to find a gun that will run straight paint no thining to help reduce these problems.

www.customcubbies.com.au

Thanks Pricey

Thanks Guys,
Munruben I'm not planning on painting my house with this unit, I manufacture cubby houses, Garden sheds and cabins and want to use this unit to paint them in my factory, I have a large compressor so this unit will be good for me by the sounds of things.
I only need it to spray standard water based primer and solarguard paints through it so sounds like it will do the job.
The airless system I have is good but I need to thin the paints to much to get through the gun and you need to do about 3 coats with gun and then a finish coat with a brush and this takes to much time and with the paint being so thin to get through gun we seem to get runs quite easy, so I was hoping to find a gun that will run straight paint no thining to help reduce these problems.

www.customcubbies.com.au

Thanks Pricey

I'm with Munruben on this one. Water based paints don't spray well in a pressure feed gun.

The gun on ebay is designed to spray large jobs like a truck with oil based or lacquer paints. They are basically a supercharged normal spray gun, the fan is far wider than a normal spraygun as you are forcing the paint out under pressure you then have to increase the pressure of the air to a far greater one to atomise the paint. The paint will have to be watered down LOTS.You will also only get about 50% or less paint onto the job, you will create loads of overspray and the coating will be thin and watery and lible to run easily.

Unless you are an experienced painter you will make one hell of a mess using this gun.

Again as suggested by Munruben, do a test run by hiring a REAL airless spray gun try it out on the paints you intend using and then go and buy one if it is satisfactory for you. The makers of the proper airless units would probably give you a demo and free advice so I would give them phone call. most have salesman on the road to sell to industry.

Proper Airless works well especially on rough surfaces as you are spraying the paint on just like a garden hose, a normal air spray gun blows air onto the surface first so if there is any roughness or small holes in the surface ( like timber or brick) the paint won't go into them as the air is blowing back out and you will have to brush or roll anyway to get them filled.

Originally Posted by pricey74

Thanks Guys,
I only need it to spray standard water based primer and solarguard paints through it so sounds like it will do the job.

This type of equipment will not spray water based paints with satisfaction.

Originally Posted by pricey

The airless system I have is good but I need to thin the paints to much to get through the gun

With all due respect, if your equipment will not spray undiluted water based paints then it is not a good system.

Originally Posted by pricey

so I was hoping to find a gun that will run straight paint no thining to help reduce these problems.

Airless equipment is the way you will achieve this but you need a machine capable of around 3000lbs psi pressure plus. When I was spraypainting with this type of machine I work on 3000lbs psi plus pressure depending how far the head was from the machine.Sometimes needing 5000lbs psi pressure.
Sounds like you have already made your mind up but if it was me I wouldn't consider the paint pot and compressor combination but its your choice. I think you will be very disapointed with the results and you will be no better off. I was a spraypainter for 40 years and I painted with both these systems and for your application purposes, you wont beat a GOOD airless spray unit.

look up this link http://melspray.com.au/ and look at the paintcrew airless spray unit. it's more for the home handy man but doesn't do to bad a job, i would preffer a larger professional unit but that would depend on your budget.
there is a few other company's that put out spray units like these and most are pretty good.

i have nothing to do with the company it's just the first i googled up


simon

dumb question perhaps, but whats the difference between a HVLP and an airless sprayer, in terms of what work it does as well?

got a house and a roof to do, so might consider that paint crew above and resell on ebay.

Originally Posted by pharmaboy2

dumb question perhaps, but whats the difference between a HVLP and an airless sprayer, in terms of what work it does as well?

got a house and a roof to do, so might consider that paint crew above and resell on ebay.

HVLP means high volume low pressure whereas Airless spray-painting is High pressure and depending on the tip used in the gun, low or high volume. The cost of an airless spray unit capable of painting a roof is quite costly, last one I purchased a few years ago now cost over $7000.00 but that was with a petrol driven motor, Electric motor driven units are a bit cheaper. The smaller units will do the job but not at a commercial level. For a one off job it would, in my opinion, be better and cheaper to hire a good unit.

Pharmaboy2
More to add to Murubens post in case you would like more info.

HVLP (high volume low pressure) is a system using compressed air to apply the paint. A large volume of air from a compressor is taken to the gun via a large diameter hose. The actual pressure is only small but the air has to pass through a small set of orifes in the gun this increases the speed of them so they exit the gun and are now travelling as fast as air would if it was highly pressurised. This allows the paint to get atomised (broken up into fine particles) but the air has little energy having been produces from a small pressure to start with so it quickly looses energy.

When you spray you get a nice fine atomised paint but a lot less overspray, this is why they have become popular _ less pollution/overspray/fumes etc.

Airless only used pressure placed on the paint by a pump and as Munruben explained it very high (thousands of psi) the force of the paint going through a tiny slot in the tip of the gun makes it atomise ( same as happens when you use a water hose and turn the nozzle to allow only a small amount out.) This pressure is very high at the tip and can easily cause you terrible damage.

I saw a demonstration where the airless paint punched a hole through a gal iron bucket when it was put up against it. These guns have safety catches on them and special guards to prevent accidental triggering as you can get a punture wound real easy. There have been several people badly hurt trying to wash the gun out and putting the paint stream through the palm of their hand using the old reverse flush with a rag system.

If the gun is held back from the surface to a normal distance for spraying the pressure drop decreases dramatically and it appears to be like any other spray gun but the gun not having any air present offers a great way to put on paint directly onto the surface with virtually no blow back/overspray making them ideal to paint indoors.

THe cheap guns are airless but the tiny piston is so small the holes in the gun have to be small and the paint needs to be thin to get a result.

Same with the cheap HVLP guns they have a small electric motor supplying a small amount of air. It sprays but compared to a top end HVLP gun designed to spray a car etc its a toy. Some of the expensive HVLP guns were $1000 when they first came out and even today the gun sonly will cost you several hundred dollars. Some of the cheap ones are so bad you can get better results with a brush or roller.

Before you buy any of these guns check out the people who use these guns every day such as auto spray painters (HVLP) and house painters (airless).

If I was Pricey74 I would be ringing up the paint companies whose paint I used and ask for a paint rep to go to his factory and offer a couple of solutions to his problem. They would give him contacts with trade reps from airless or other systems who could offer him a cost effective solution. He could see before he buys and get the result he is looking for. Normally companies employ labourers to do the work Pricey74 is looking at what you need is good easy fool proof way any person could handle.

That type of information won't come from Bunnings/ ebay/ or very easily off the net and certainly won't show him a on the spot demo on his cubby houses.

Thanks guys I will take all advice and contact paint supplier to get a rep out to give me some demos on systems they sell. I think the airless system will be the best option for me, I have a wagner airless gun now but as explained I still have to thin down paint so I think I will need to get a better airless system and spend a little money to get excactly what I want. Thanks heaps for the advice I am glad I asked this question before purchasing system on ebay as I would have just bought a new system and still had the same problem with thining down the paint to get threw that gun.

Thanks again

Any ideas on what a decent airless system that will cost me? (must be able to run straight paint threw it)

Thanks Pricey

Not quite sure of current prices but you will probably not need one as heavy duty as I used in roof painting, the paint hose in that instance was overt a hundred feet in length whereas you will be working on a shorter hose so will not experience the drop in pressure you get when working on a long hose. You, can therefore, opt for a smaller machine and it will maintain constant pressure on a short hose to enable you to spray the kind of materials you need. Bigger is always better of course .

Originally Posted by durwood

If I was Pricey74 I would be ringing up the paint companies whose paint I used and ask for a paint rep to go to his factory and offer a couple of solutions to his problem. They would give him contacts with trade reps from airless or other systems who could offer him a cost effective solution. He could see before he buys and get the result he is looking for. Normally companies employ labourers to do the work Pricey74 is looking at what you need is good easy fool proof way any person could handle.

Thats excellent advice.

Did some ringing around today and the wagner rep was telling me that the paint crew will do all I need it to do in regards to running straight house paint and so on.
I have also found some info in regards to another airless systems I have posted links below to some on ebay would you mind having a look and letting me know what you think would work best as they are all around the $500 - $800 mark and not sure what would be better of buying.

Thanks again for all your help guys very much appreiciated.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-AIR...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-1-2HP-UPD...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-7-8hp-ELE...QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks again.