Paint sprayer recommendation

[Tobykanobe]

I’m going to be painting about 10 solid core interior doors, they are primed. With that many to do and wanting the best possible outcome, I need a recommendation for a paint sprayer. What have you used, how did it turn out?  Advice on prep and the right machine would be greatly appreciated. I’ve looked at Lowes and Home Depot but thought I would ask before I purchase. 

[legenddc]

Check out Tom King's door paint setup: 

There's another post somewhere where we talked about it more in detail that I can't seem to find right now. It lets you paint both sides at once.

I just picked up the Graco Magnum Project Plus Paint Sprayer from Home Depot recently to paint new baseboard before I installed it. Worked great! I don't think I'll use it too often so I didn't get a pro version. Took me longer to set it up and clean it then it did to paint 220 linear feet of baseboard. I think it took about 30-40 minutes to clean but I could do it again in 10-15 I think.

Besides the sprayer I bought a couple extra buckets, a paint can, filter/strainer for the paint and some rags.

 

[Tom King]

Look through my threads on the first page still in this Finishing forum.   In particular go through the "kind of day I like for spraying" thread.  If airless interests you after that, I can recommend equipment, but need to know a budget.

With airless, no thinning is needed, so it's much more forgiving against sags and runs.

[Chestnut]

If running latex or waterborne paint an airless sprayer really is your best bet. For 10 doors, if you can get everything set up just rent one. Other wise i bought mine, used it for what I needed, and sold it for about $50 less than what I paid for it. I bought the Graco X5 and really liked it.

[Tobykanobe]

Good input. Thank you!

[legenddc]

If you have enough space to do all 10 at once you could totally rent one. I bought it thinking it would take me longer and renting it wasn't worth it. I believe I sprayed 10 pieces of baseboard in under 5 minutes and it dried so quickly I think I was doing a 2nd coat within 30-45 minutes.

[Tom King]

You can rent them.  I used to until I finally got tired of the condition, and bought the one I have now in the early 1990's.

If you rent one, I'd still strongly suggest buying a tip adapter that will take Fine Finish Low Pressure tips.  Graco and Titan tip adapters will fit both brands, but you will need the brand of tip for the tip adapter.  The LP tips spray at about half the pressure of regular tips, and the FF can give a factory type perfect finish, even with latex paint.

Since you are new to spraying, I would strongly suggest spraying them laying horizontally.  It's very forgiving, and almost impossible to get a run or sag.

A rental will likely not have a pressure gauge, so there will be a lot of testing, and guesswork without one.  Watch the video of me testing onto cardboard.  That was with a gauge, but without one there is likely to be a lot more testing and adjusting to do.  I wear the glove on my left hand so I can feel it to see how thick it is.  Even if it doesn't run, it can still be put on too thickly.

[Tobykanobe]

Sounds like buying one may be the way to go. Can you link the tip you are referring to?  Give me a buy list?  It’s a good investment. Besides the doors, I have tons of baseboard to do also. 

[Tom King]

If I was going to buy one right now, this is the one I would get:   https://www.graco.com/us/en/contractor/product/17e844-ultra-395-pc.html  Note that it comes with the good gun to start with.

But for someone who does not get paid to paint, and will just do stuff around the house, I'd get this one: https://www.graco.com/us/en/contractor/product/262800-magnum-x5.html

But you will still need some other stuff to be able to do the best work.  Personally, I don't like the cheap gun that comes with that Magnum pump.  The pump will be fine, but I'd want a better gun that has a lighter trigger pull, and best cutoff of paint when you let go of the trigger.  I have a ten year old version of this gun: https://www.graco.com/us/en/contractor/product/17y043-contractor-pc.html

The trigger pull is Much lighter than the stock one that has a four finger trigger.  The four fingers are because your hand will tire slower using all fingers for the heavy trigger pull.  The light two fingered trigger allows you to more easily handle the gun in odd positions, and still be in full control of the trigger.

It also comes with the RAC X tip guard, that takes the Fine Finish Low Pressure tips.  I'd keep the tip guard and tip that comes with the pump rig for painting the outside of buildings.  For everything else, I'd use a FFLP tip.

I need to know what paints, and finishes you will use, but look at what's written on the outside of the bin I keep my rig in to see what my most used tips are.  A 308 will do most of what you want short of painting walls.

https://www.graco.com/us/en/contractor/product/fflp308-rac-x-ff-lp-switchtip.html

One thing that will pay for itself pretty quickly is a gauge.  I have it on the pump right before the hose.   Once you find a pressure that does what you want, you can go right to it next time, and go right to work.  Without it, every time you use something different, there will be paint/finish wasted, not to mention time and extra effort. Put the needle in the green zone with an FFLP and it will work, but it allows you to fine tune, as I showed in that video, to dial in exactly how you want it to work.

https://www.amazon.com/Titan-0580495-580495-Line-Assembly/dp/B073SH3N7Z/ref=asc_df_B073SH3N7Z/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241974915965&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13101469201357900642&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009793&hvtargid=pla-437221555842&psc=1

You can find cheaper ways to rig up a gauge.  When I bought that one, it was about half that price.

 

[legenddc]

Just a heads up, Home Depot has some of the Graco paint sprayers on sale today. You can get the X5 Tom linked for $313.

[Tom King]

That is a cheap setup.  If it's in the budget, I'd add a Rac X tip guard, and a FFLP tip.  changed as noted in edit below

I would still want a gauge on it though.  They can be easily added.

Be careful to let the pressure off first before taking the hose off.  The pressure that airless rigs work at has to be respected.  With the power off, pull the trigger until it stops spraying, and it will bleed the pressure off pretty quickly.

Find the Idaho Painter on youtube, and you can learn what there is to know about airless spraying.

edited to add:   questions reveal that an X5 pump does not have enough pressure to run FFLP tips larger than a  __10   but those will still spray paint fine.  I have zero experience with this grade of pump though.