Anyone got some advice on airless paint sprayers

[s410man]

Up till now I've been making mainly box section frames which don't really lend themselves to being sprayed due to the amount of overseas etc but I have got a few jobs to do now with large sheets-7ft square mild steel so thinking a airless sprayer will speed the painting up considerably

They're all for agricultural use so a good thick long lasting coat is more important than absolutely zero runs

I see Grace seems to be a common name but they're £1000+ and then theres also ones on ebay for £150? Anyone ever used a cheap one? No problem spending the money if needed. Will be red oxide primer then topcoat say 5 to 10 litres a week usage I would anticipate

Any input appreciated!

Cheers

 

[ajlelectronics]

They're all for agricultural use so a good thick long lasting coat is more important than absolutely zero runs

In which case, epoxy primer followed by colour coats of choice. Red oxide is purely a red coloured Acrylic and no different to white or grey primers, all of which are poor performers.

 

[charliecambs]

Up till now I've been making mainly box section frames which don't really lend themselves to being sprayed due to the amount of overseas etc but I have got a few jobs to do now with large sheets-7ft square mild steel so thinking a airless sprayer will speed the painting up considerably

They're all for agricultural use so a good thick long lasting coat is more important than absolutely zero runs

I see Grace seems to be a common name but they're £1000+ and then theres also ones on ebay for £150? Anyone ever used a cheap one? No problem spending the money if needed. Will be red oxide primer then topcoat say 5 to 10 litres a week usage I would anticipate

Any input appreciated!

Cheers

I have recently bought the screwfix £200 one. Comes with 3 year warranty ( amazon and eBay are one year.)
I added some assorted spray tips from ebay (£13?).
I've been spraying ducksback waterbased on fencing I diluted about 10% with water but sprayed and atomised fine on lowest pressure setting.
Also used water based garden paint again bit of water.
I've just done garden room and decking with solvent based using turps.
I found a narrower spray fan width and smaller tip size gave more controlled spray and slower gun movement without drips. Kept brush in spare hand to spread the odd run as I went.
I'd suggest get filter bags for paint and you really must flush through well and clean the filter in the gun handle well after use or the crusty bits block spray tip!

 

[jsf55]

I used a wagner one many many years ago, kept blocking as i was spraying metallic paint, once i'd cleared it, it worked fine, and i just checked and they still do them !

 

[sako243]

Is there any need for an airless sprayer? Fairly sure you've got a compressor from what I remember.

A HVLP spray gun was quite happy spraying the epoxy primer on this chassis neat with no thinners. I'd have to double check but think it was possibly a 2.5mm nozzle on it. There's not a horrendous amount of overspray either.

If you really want it on thick a plasterers spray gun would work as well. Or a cheapo pressure pot from Vevor, I did 600m2 of our house walls with one albeit limewash but it had no trouble chucking the particles of that out.

 

[s410man]

Is there any need for an airless sprayer? Fairly sure you've got a compressor from what I remember.

A HVLP spray gun was quite happy spraying the epoxy primer on this chassis neat with no thinners. I'd have to double check but think it was possibly a 2.5mm nozzle on it. There's not a horrendous amount of overspray either.
View attachment 504847
If you really want it on thick a plasterers spray gun would work as well. Or a cheapo pressure pot from Vevor, I did 600m2 of our house walls with one albeit limewash but it had no trouble chucking the particles of that out.

I've got a nice gun for bodywork etc but was led to believe a airless can handle thicker paints? Thats what im after ideally for the sort of stuff I do mainly a good thick hard wearing coat is more important to me than absolutely no runs

 

[s410man]

In which case, epoxy primer followed by colour coats of choice. Red oxide is purely a red coloured Acrylic and no different to white or grey primers, all of which are poor performers.

Thank you very helpful! I've just been using ordinary red oxide or grey primer from brundles up till now but I have put it on the to do list for tomorrow to ring a paint specialist and see what they reccomend for my type of work

 

[Turbo]

I would suggest a pressure pot type sprayer. I used one previously for spraying steelwork and they are really handy.
You fill the paint into the pot and screw on the sealed lid. Connect up the air and it pressurises the pot and forces the paint down the paint hose to a gun at the end.
The gun is similar to a std spray gun only fed from a hose and not a pot.

The handy part is that you only need to clean the gun part. The paint will keep for weeks in the pot and hose without going hard.

We used one to spray grey agri oxide onto steel beams.

Downside is if you need to change paint colours it would be a torture to clean it.

 

[Turbo]

Can't recommend a graco type airless for your job. Ok for putting water based paint on a house but not for solvent based paints.
Very hard to control where the paint goes and it applies it very thickly. It will also leave a poor orange peel finish.
You do need the paint well thinned down.
It will also use a lot of thinners cleaning it out every day.
And unless you buy an expensive one the paint hose is quite stiff. The one I used had a reinforced pvc hose and it was like wrestling a snake.

 

[sako243]

I've got a nice gun for bodywork etc but was led to believe a airless can handle thicker paints? Thats what im after ideally for the sort of stuff I do mainly a good thick hard wearing coat is more important to me than absolutely no runs

I know I tried a Wagner airless sprayer with Dulux weathershield and it couldn't handle it even severely watered down due to the small particles in it. Emulsion thinned it was fine.

A neighbour builds sheds and has borrowed a friend of his pressure pots to spray the steels with a red oxide that has large particles in it and that handled it okay. Would still plug but they had a smaller nozzle on it.

I bought one of these Vevor pressure pots for the limewash and for the price point you can't go wrong. The limewash has some quite large particles (much bigger than you'd typically get in a paint) and it handled it no problem at all.

The chassis primer I used was PPG's SigmaFast 205 which has visible particles of zinc in it and that was done neat as the thinner hadn't arrived, very thick when mixed so I don't think you'll have an issue if you've got an appropriately sized nozzle.

 

[Munkul]

I bought a Wagner 350m for doing steel beams a few years ago. I know, it's a DIY spec setup. It's a royal PITA. It has a piston pump and it's technically capable of spraying heavy oil based paints, but in reality the pump just isn't up to snuff. Could do with an extra 50 bar pressure. It's crap to clean out, crap to get going, overall it's just a pain. Seals aren't acetone resistant so can't even clean with acetone, have to use xylene instead. Only good thing about it is the lines and gun, the gun and nozzles are great.

I'd go pressure pot and air spray instead. You might not get the volume flow of an airless, but it's much less faff, and universal for all paints apart from some of the heaviest industrial coatings.

 

[8ob]

I bought a Wagner 350m for doing steel beams a few years ago. I know, it's a DIY spec setup. It's a royal PITA. It has a piston pump and it's technically capable of spraying heavy oil based paints, but in reality the pump just isn't up to snuff. Could do with an extra 50 bar pressure. It's crap to clean out, crap to get going, overall it's just a pain. Seals aren't acetone resistant so can't even clean with acetone, have to use xylene instead. Only good thing about it is the lines and gun, the gun and nozzles are great.

I'd go pressure pot and air spray instead. You might not get the volume flow of an airless, but it's much less faff, and universal for all paints apart from some of the heaviest industrial coatings.

As above unless you are chucking £2k at an airless set up I would go with a pressure pot. From what I have seen most airless setups end up as ornaments.

Bob

 

[s410man]

I would suggest a pressure pot type sprayer. I used one previously for spraying steelwork and they are really handy.
You fill the paint into the pot and screw on the sealed lid. Connect up the air and it pressurises the pot and forces the paint down the paint hose to a gun at the end.
The gun is similar to a std spray gun only fed from a hose and not a pot.

The handy part is that you only need to clean the gun part. The paint will keep for weeks in the pot and hose without going hard.

We used one to spray grey agri oxide onto steel beams.

Downside is if you need to change paint colours it would be a torture to clean it.

I was under the impression a airless would spray thicker paints which is what im after but maybe not the case by the looks

For the price of a pressure pot I might just buy 2 and keep 1 for primer and 1 for topcoat as its only ever 1 colour of topcoat we use 98% of the time and a roller will do for the other 2%

So....
Any pressure pot reccomendations

 

[Dev]

I’ve an Earlex HVLP sprayer which wasn’t too dear and I’m happy with. Gun and pot are easy to clean. Ignore the garage dust. Sounds like a vacuum cleaner when it’s going, which I suppose it is, only on blow not suck.

Edit: i remember I was using straight to metal paint and you do need to thin it to the right consistency - it comes with a funnel cut with a small aperture and you thin it till it takes the right number of seconds to empty. I don’t know if all spray paint systems are the same or that’s too much of a faff for you. I think I remember thinning the whole tin of paint at once so it was no issue for me, you might not want to do that.

 

[sako243]

So....
Any pressure pot reccomendations

I've been happy with the Vevor pressure pot I used for the limewash - linked above in my last post (particularly at <£70). Only used it on limewash though, haven't had a need for that much paint on something else.

Before starting its worth stripping down as I had a tiny bit of cylastic in the gun when I started which jammed the nozzle but at £70 for a complete pressure pot system what do you expect. The neighbour who builds sheds used a £3k one from another friend of his and honestly we can't really tell the difference.

 

[Munkul]

I was under the impression a airless would spray thicker paints which is what im after but maybe not the case by the looks

A good airless system will spray anything up to pretty much bitumen, but as Bob says they are like £2k+.

Pressure pot, sub-10bar lines and decent spray gun with a few different fluid tips will spray 99% of everything. A pot is a pot, there's nothing much to them, as long as it'll run around 8bar it's fine.
You can use a pressure pot to spray anything that can be sprayed in a gravity gun. It might not have the flowrate of airless, but realistically how often do you need sheer volume? I remember painting a trailer with a gravity gun, was quite tedious refilling the pot, but it was only like 5-6 times lol.
Only thing I've struggled to spray with a gravity gun is some very heavy industrial epoxy, it just doesn't atomise properly, and that was because i made a mistake with my paint selection.
One thing I'm loving right now is my 3M performance spraygun, it has completely throwaway heads at less than £5 each, and you can either use disposable gravity cups or use a pressure line, it's absolutely fantastic for spraying different products.

 

[knighty]

I bought one of these Vevor pressure pots for the limewash and for the price point you can't go wrong. The limewash has some quite large particles (much bigger than you'd typically get in a paint) and it handled it no problem at all.

Think it would be up to the job of creasoating a fence?

I have about 180m to do :-(

 

[sako243]

Think it would be up to the job of creasoating a fence?

I have about 180m to do :-(

I'd have thought so, similar consistency to the limewash I was spraying

 

[Turbo]

Think it would be up to the job of creasoating a fence?

I have about 180m to do :-(

Depends on what type of fence.

Would work well on fence panels. But post and rail - most of the paint ends up in the air. Not a good idea to be spraying creosote everywhere. Apart from being hazardous and messy it could kill any plant it lands on.