painting with compressors

[farmerpsv]

Hey gang.
well, i'm discovering the wonders of owning a compressor. i tell you, sometimes i'm way to penny wise and pound foolish /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. i restored two and a half victorian houses before i finally got a power miter saw...how do you spell dum? anyway, i'm now of course realizing all the amazing things you can do with a compressor. sunday i primed the house with a pressurized spray gun...very quick, easy to get the hang of. when i went to spray the paint, it came out like cottage cheese. paint is thicker, so i followed the instructions and thinned it a bit with water, still didn't work. i know this is the cheapo cambell/hausfeld bottom of the line sprayer, is there just some paints you can't spray with this thing? are there other sprayers anyone has used with their compressor that worked really well?
thanks for any info, this is really a time saver if i can learn the tricks.
paul

 

[Bird]

Paul, I've had two relatively cheap spray guns; just the one quart can on them. With most latex paints, I thinned them at the ratio of 3 to 1; i.e., 1 quart of water to 3 quarts of paint and applied two thin coats rather than one thick one. Other than that, it's just been a matter of getting the gun adjusted right, and the air pressure adjusted right, although there are different nozzles and I guess you could have had the wrong nozzle for the job. I've forgotten the brand name of the first gun I had, but it cost less than $30 and a neighbor had one that cost about 3 times as much. His would spray a wider pattern, but otherwise was no better than mine. The last one I had was a Craftsman that cost just under $60. I'm strictly an amateur, but did have good results painting a dune buggy with automotive enamel, one house with oil based Sherwin-Williams paint, and 5 houses and two little trailers with latex.

 

[RSKY]

I used a Craftsman pressurized sprayer to paint my house last month. I added four cups of water to each gallon of the Sears Weatherbeater paint that I used. It took several tries to arrive at that formula. Keep playing with the controls and keep adding water until it works properly. Also each time you stop, for lunch or a break, you must clean it. Mine did a great job, and wasted less paint, than the Wagner Power Painters that I have used before.

I have had several clerks at Home Depot, Lowes, and Tru-Value Stores tell me that the Campbell Hausfeld line has been cheapened to the point that they do not carry it any more. It once was a cheap but good brand, now it is just cheap. I only have one of their products, a power washer, and it is junk.

 

[TonyC]

As Bird pointed out it's quite possible you have a nozzle that's too small. On the better guns you can buy different nozzles. I'm not sure if they're available for yours but you may want to check it out.

 

[farmerpsv]

Thanks to all of you.
Bird, you seem to have lots of experience...think you've gone beyond amateur status (which means you need to start charging). I did check the nozzel and figured it was paint thickness. the instructions on my paint said one pint/gallon for thinning, which was not good enough. is there a point where you are concerned about thinning to much? how has the paint you all thinned held up? i'm using latex so would thin with water.
paul

 

[Bird]

Paul, I had read that you could thin latex with 1 quart per gallon. That would actually be a 4 to 1 ratio and I actually thinned it a little more than that by putting a quart of water in a gallon container, then filling it with paint; i.e., the 3 to 1 ratio. I had good luck with that and the paint jobs held up very well, but personally, I don't think I'd thin it any more than that. Just my personal opinion and experience is all, though; someone else may know better than I.

 

[slowrev]

I use a Wagner wide nozzle power painter gun. Works very good, do not even have to thin the thick latex paints.

 

[farmerpsv]

Thanks Bird, I'll give it a shot.

Slowrev, isn't the Wagner product self powered? can it be used with my compressor?
paul

 

[Bird]

Slowrev, my memory fails me at times. It's been about 17 years ago when I painted an aluminum sided mobile home for my parents, using a Wagner Power Painter. I've mentioned using it before; worked well if you can stand the vibration and noise, so I much preferred my air powered one. The only reason we used that Wagner was because I had to go 400 miles down there on a motorcycle to do the job and couldn't very well carry my compressor along (didn't have the trailer for the bike that I later bought). /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Dad had already bought the Wagner Power Painter and the paint when I got there. I still used the same 3 to 1 thinning ratio with that, but we also added a little something else the paint salesman had sold Dad. I can't remember just what it was called, but it just looked like white paint and we only added something like a cup of it to each gallon of paint. It was supposed to be a "lubricant" to keep from wearing out the nozzle on the spray gun. And I don't remember the brand name of the paint, but it was a latex paint specifically for painting aluminum. Maybe you know what the stuff was.

 

[slowrev]

Bird,
The paint for aluminium was probably 100% acrylic latex, works pretty well on metal siding and just about anything. I had one of the older wagner guns and painted 2.5 houses with it before it blew up. I got one of the newer ones about 2 years ago. My oh my what a difference. The newer guns spray a much wider/better coverage pattern and do not require much if any thinning of paint. I agree the vibration and noise is a pain, but so is dragging out the compressor, hose, etc. I use the buzz gun for painting barns, etc. And my HVLP /air setup for the good stuff.