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.

 

[EddieWalker]

My experience with the Wagner sprayers is all second hand. I have clients that have bought them with the results being all over the place. I've seen very nice results on some cabinets that I would have expected from a pro using a high quality spray gun, to a total mess that I was asked to bid on fixing. I have two spray guns that both use air. A small one for oil, and bigger one for 5 gallon buckets of latex. I've thought about the battery powered Graco sprayers that are similar to cordless tools.

Graco Cordless Handheld Airless Paint Sprayer Piston - Power Paint Sprayers - Amazon.com

Looking at the reviews just now, maybe it's not such a good idea

 

[Bird]

It's been 30 years since I used a Wagner power painter with latex paint and floetrol to paint a mobile home. I went all the way around it twice in one day with the primary white color, then all the way around it twice the next day with the blue trim. The results were great, but the vibration and noise of using that Wagner left a lot to be desired. I much preferred my air powered paint gun when I had a compressor available. But I'm sure the newer Wagners are a bit different from the one I had 30 years ago.:laughing:

 

[KennyG]

Certainly a lot of good input to think about. I've got an old siphon/pressure gun I haven't used in years, but I did use it for latex once with so-so results. However, that was before I knew what Flo-trol was. When I get a chance, I think I will give it a try with some left over paint and scrap wood and see how it goes.

Thanks to all.

 

[teejk]

Certainly a lot of good input to think about. I've got an old siphon/pressure gun I haven't used in years, but I did use it for latex once with so-so results. However, that was before I knew what Flo-trol was. When I get a chance, I think I will give it a try with some left over paint and scrap wood and see how it goes.

Thanks to all.

I built the house here and bought the big Wagner stationary unit for priming the drywall. My son figured it out and made quick work of it. Probably 3 days worth (the house size kinda got away from me) so it did have to get cleaned a few times. That is a PITA. I built the cabinets and used the smaller hand held Wagner for the paint (primer was BullsEye and would be impossible to do I think). Didn't take long to figure out how to work it but staging was critical to avoid that clean-up process. As for testing, scraps and old paint might work but your new paint may go on different. I "tested" on a few cabinets that wouldn't show (kept a brush handy) until I got the pressure to where I wanted it. Key to any of them I think is REALLY light coats. They'll dry quickly and then just hit them again.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Some years ago I bought a $120 Harbor Freight cheapie airless. It painted all the doors in the house, a couple of popcorn ceilings that had never been painted, and the exterior of the house and barn. It was a little tricky to maintain, but once I figured out to fill the pump with air tool oil between paint jobs it ran for about 5 years. The internal valves had a tendency to stick during storage, but I could free them up with an air compressor and after that they worked fine. It's still sitting around, but I haven't used it for years so don't know if it can be salvaged or not.

 

[Opti-Mist]

I have the Flexio 590. I got it to paint a number of smallish metal structures scattered over an acre or so with Sherwin Williams safety orange acrylic latex. Powered it with a small generator. It did a good job for me and I'd use it if I were going to paint a number of doors, outside. I'm thinking about using it to repaint some extruded metal patio furniture in the near future.

 

[kenmac]

that's kinda like the 1 I have.. Mine just states wagner paint ready sprayer..I sprayed my house with it..Mine will spray latex paint without thinning.
Wally world $99.00 I believe

 

[Looking4new]

I have had 2 Wagners. Both did the job brilliantly! The second one I used for spraying whitewash and it handled that good too. I made the stupid mistake of lending it to someone and that is the last I saw it work. They promised they would clean it thoroughly, they didn't. They didn't offer to replace it either. I figure when I have a need for another one, I will go buy one and it will not leave the property without my hand on it.

 

[k0ua]

I have an old Craftsman, I think it is just a rebadged Wagner. it is about 30 years old, I have painted hundreds of things with it including 2 whole houses. It works, it is a pain to clean up. It can be finicky to get set up right, but once you do, it will paint.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I had a Wagnor "Pro-Gold" that I bought new at HD around 98'. Somewhat similar to a Graco in design, the motor was horizontally mounted on a wheeled frame high enough to pump out of a 5 gallion bucket.

The first time I used it was on plain old flat interior core doors and it was a disaster even with the correct tip. To much paint coming out and I had to wipe down the door and start over. I had the doors standing vertically and they did come out great once I learned to move faster.

Next I started on a room. I had to foresite to tape and cover everything that I did not want to paint. I had stripped the carpet so I did some testing on the plywood subfloor then had at it. Moving very fast, I blew through that room and more and through a five gallon bucket in about five minutes. I did some barns with it too.

Like mentioned though, cleaning was not much fun. Even with pump oil, I had problems with it.

I would not buy one, rent one first. Also as mentioned, use Flotrol. Also, for doors I would use acylic paint. Even brushed on you will get a smoother finish.