Airless Paint Sprayer

[KennyG]

I have a project I've been putting off - painting about 8 closet doors. They are solid wood six panel doors. Painting with a brush is going to take a long time and I'm not that great of a painter anyway.

I'm looking at something like a Wagner Flexio 590 that is supposed to spray unthinned latex. Does anyone have experience with this type of sprayer, and is it worth for this kind of project?

(I know a Grayco or something would be a better tool, but I may not have another use for this for years and don't want to spend that kind of money.)

 

[joefromga]

Didn't you post this a few weeks ago? If not someone else is also painting a bunch of doors. A search will give you his findings but you can rent a sprayer of a rental place is close by.

8 doors isn't out of the question to use rollers and brushes but spraying is way faster and easier.

The smaller sprayers usually work well the first time. If you don't clean them they never seem to work well after.

 

[dickfoster]

I have a project I've been putting off - painting about 8 closet doors. They are solid wood six panel doors. Painting with a brush is going to take a long time and I'm not that great of a painter anyway.

I'm looking at something like a Wagner Flexio 590 that is supposed to spray unthinned latex. Does anyone have experience with this type of sprayer, and is it worth for this kind of project?

(I know a Grayco or something would be a better tool, but I may not have another use for this for years and don't want to spend that kind of money.)

I keep looking at these things and wonder if they ever got them to work right. I know they had a bad start.
How about a roller or perhaps the Tom Sawyer method?

 

[teejk]

If you insist on paint, I'd suggest the cheapest Wagner you can find and plan on getting them all done as fast as you can. Clean-up takes longer than spraying. With that said you are going to hide the beauty of solid wood doors with paint?

 

[KennyG]

If you insist on paint, I'd suggest the cheapest Wagner you can find and plan on getting them all done as fast as you can. Clean-up takes longer than spraying. With that said you are going to hide the beauty of solid wood doors with paint?

1. 40 years old and kind of beat up.
2. Solid wood but cheap pine and stain badly applied in the past.
3. Wife wants them white (trumps everything else.)

 

[SirReal63]

I have the Flexio system, it will do the job, but I would suggest using Floetrol to help the paint smooth out and not spraying straight latex without it. It will slightly thin and help the paint not come out blotchy. I have shot many gallons through mine, with mixed results until I started using the Floetrol.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I have a Wagner sprayer, I've only used it to paint some of my trucks/vans years ago when I had an electrical contracting company. I used rust oleum enamel, and agree that clean up is more work than the painting. For 8 doors, I would roller the big stuff, touch up corners/edges/etc with a brush. Clean up of my sprayer not worth the hassle. Your results may varry.

 

[Budweiser John]

Ditto on Floetrol. An experienced hand can make quick work painting a bunch of raised panel doors with an airless sprayer. That being stated, an inexperienced hand however, can make a colossal mess.
Despite the advertising hype most home owner self contained cup type guns are worthless. A decent Graco pump, hose, gun and tip will put a significant dent in the credit card. If painting not your thing, i'de suggest painting 8 doors with a good chisel point brush and a quality roller.
The total elapsed project time will end up being about the same when you factor in the set up/clean up spray rig time and the necessity to drape everything in the painting area when spraying.

 

[teejk]

1. 40 years old and kind of beat up.
2. Solid wood but cheap pine and stain badly applied in the past.
3. Wife wants them white (trumps everything else.)

Got it on all points (although until the election ends I don't think you can use "trump" for such things). But back to my earlier post with the caveat to rub them down before painting (I do a lot of wood working and am a cheapskate at the same time)...a roll or two of paper towels and a few bottles of Walmart rubbing alcohol should be enough. I think a cheap Wagner sprayer will work once you get the hang of it. Just plan on "staging" it so you can do a side with a light coat, then rotate and do that on the other side...then repeat...I have owned a few and have had good luck if stuff is set-up properly to get it done without having to clean the tool.

 

[Alien]

I have the Flexio and I am not rapt in it as I had hoped. I have had smaller Wagners that just seem to work better. I haven't tried Floetrol but I got caught using cheap Aldis paint. After several coats I gave up and threw 15 litres of paint to the tip and bought some quality paint that worked a lot better. They claim hardly any overspray but that is bulldust. More overspray than my cheap Wagner and my compressed air gun.