School me on sprayers please

[drzaius]

I'm going to be repainting the entire interior of my house this winter & think this might be a good time to get a sprayer. This project will be with latex paint, but I'd like to get something that could be used for wood finishes as well; dyes, polyurethane, water and oil based, maybe lacquer. I know nothing about this subject, other than having used an airless sprayer about 15 years ago to do inside of my shop & it worked great.

So are my wishes compatible with any one type of sprayer? Which will work better; HVLP or airless? Thanks in advance.

[Tom King]

For painting a house, inside or out, airless is the tool for the job.  For the other stuff, on small projects, airless is not on the top of the list.

If you already have a big compressor, get a conversion gun.    Some people get, or claim to get, good results using cheap HF guns.  I never have been able to.  Good quality guns atomize the finish finer, and coat evenly.  My favorite gun for small projects is an Iwata LPH80.   Whatever gun you get, if you go this way, get setup with the 3M PPS system.

If you don't have a compressor setup, get a good HVLP setup.  The HVLP can be used for house painting, but it is painfully slow for large surfaces.  There again, for me, the cheap ones aren't worth a damn.  I do keep a cheap, single stage HVLP, only for spraying well thinned down oil based primer, but that setup does nothing else, and I don't expect it to.

For the airless, get a gun that you can use FFLP tips in.  That's FIne Finish Low Pressure.  They were a MAJOR advance in airless spraying.  You won't need it for wall paint, but they work great for trimwork, and cabinets.  You could spray all the other stuff on your list with FFLP, but it doesn't make sense for a piece of furniture, since you need so much material just in the hose.  Even a 1/4" x 15' hose holds a fair amount of material, and even in best case cleanup, you end up wasting some of it.

If you get an airless rig, get at least one tip extension for it, so you don't have to climb ladders, or squat down, to paint a room.   Find the Idaho Painter youtube channel, and you can learn all you need to know about airless spraying.  

[Coop]

All I can offer is that I know my Fuji Mini-Mite 3 can’t spray latex. If it’s a one time deal, I would probably go to HD and rent theirs and save your bucks for a Fuji for the good stuff. 

[drzaius]

I have a 2 HP compressor with a 60 gallon tank. Would that run a gun Tom?

I've rented an airless from HD to do the shop, but this project is going to drag out over many weekends & the rental adds up. If I can get a gun that does the job, I think I may try that.

Thanks.

[Tom King]

It will run one for a little while, as in a piece of furniture.  I'm not sure about a set of cabinets.  The air needs to be dry too.

You can often find airless rigs on CL.  If you can find one cheap, and then buy a good gun, it shouldn't be too bad.  The pump is not as important as the gun, for personal use.  The gun needs to accept FFLP tips.  They have a standard thread for the tip guard, so you could probably just get a new end for about any gun.  Cheap spray anything doesn't play well with me.  There are multiple reasons that pro painters use high end equipment.

[drzaius]

As I suspected, one sprayer is not going to serve well for all purposes. I'll check out the airless sprayers to see what that'll cost me. 

And thanks for the 'tip' on the tips  

[Tom King]

If you end up going the route of FFLP tips, get a pressure gauge for the pump, if it doesn't have one.  The LP tips use WAY less pressure than regular tips.  You always have to make test sprays, on cardboard, or wall drape, to find the right pressure.  You want the minimum pressure it takes to not have hard lines on the edge of the fan.  With a pressure gauge, once you find the right pressure for a given tip, and coating, written record of the correct pressure will let you go right back where you need to be with any setup, without having to spray a quart of paint to find the sweet spot.

[pkinneb]

22 minutes ago, drzaius said:

As I suspected, one sprayer is not going to serve well for all purposes. I'll check out the airless sprayers to see what that'll cost me. 

And thanks for the 'tip' on the tips  

This is what I learned on my recent project. For walls etc (large area's) my Graco True Coat 360VSP Airless ($135 on ebay) worked well but for trim I was not impressed. So I switched to my Fuji Mini Mite 3 for that. I was able to spray the water based enamel and get, what I thought, was a great finish but...I had to thin with water approx 30% and add a Dry Time extender I used GF Extender, this worked but meant it took about 5/6 coats to get the finish I wanted. If I was staring new I would roll the walls and ceiling and get a Fuji MM4 or equivalent for everything else. FWIW I have had my MM3 for many years and never planned on spraying enamel with it but love it for most WW projects I have used it on and honestly it worked on the trim and doors but a higher output unit would have required less thinning. One final foot note I used Sherwin Williams enamel trim paint not all paint can be thinned 30% for example HD's Behr gets really bad reviews if you start thinning it.

[Chestnut]

I'd get a 4 stage of possibly 5 stage setup and do what Paul said above. I'm always afraid of over spray ect getting on everything in the house. I think the only way I'd spray is if the whole house was completely empty of everything and there was no flooring. Even then i painted a whole house with a roller and it doesn't take that long. It sucks and I hate painting but it's easy and mindless.

I have the MM4 and it's a great unit but I haven't tried paint through it.

Interestingly enough i just snagged 3 dewalt 20v batteries from a person who works in returns for a major airless sprayer company. I guess they get a TON of random stuff in returns notably cordless drill batteries that they have to "dispose" of. I guess it's far cheaper to let your employees have the stuff than it is to pay to recycle 20 lithium battery packs every year.

 

[drzaius]

As far as the house painting goes, it will be mostly rolled & brushed, but there are some closets that would take a fraction of the time to spray and some of the larger rooms where it's easy to put down drop cloths I would have my wife or one of the kids spray while I follow with a roller. For the walls, it doesn't have to go on nicely, it just has to go on quickly. The trim is all brushed because I like a brushed finish.

[Chestnut]

I'd get both sprayers than. A mid range HVLP and a low to mid range airless. In my opinion It'll probably be less expensive than getting a really high end of one or the other and fit your needs better in the end.

[Tom King]

If you're just going to use the airless for walls, you don't need to worry about the FFLP tips.  A standard tip, probably the one that comes with the rig will be all you need.

[Bill C]

For the most part you are talking about two different tools for two different jobs. I have a Graco 4 stage hvlp which can Spray thinned latex, but no way would I spray anything more than some trim or maybe cabinet doors. I would rent an airless to do the house spraying you need and put the money towards a good hvlp unit, such as a Fuji mini mite or platium. The Fuji guns are outstanding.

[drzaius]

Thanks Bill. It doesn't sound like I'd be happy trying to both jobs with one spayer.

[BillyJack]

You need an airless sprayer. Trying to get one to do everything will be the trick. Changing  tips is one thing but keeping it clean is another between paints, poly and lacquer. You need to look into heavy residential / light commercial sprayers for most but with other equipment. You really need to keep poly or any other finishes out of an airless unless you like to do a lot of cleaning..

Airless and an hvlp would be a better combo than an all in one...

[drzaius]

Ya, I'm just going to rent an airless for the house painting. I have used them before & they are great with latex.

[BillyJack]

I was told years ago by a good painter to pick up a good Graco 395. Heavy residential and light commercial. I would find them in pawn shops or good deals on Craigslist. Wish I pulled the trigger years ago so I would have it now. I would  rather paint a house with brush and roller but hey come in handy. Live killed my compressor with a hvlp. Don't let anyone full ya. They can wear a compressor down or out...