Airless paint sprayers..

[Roy25101]

Living just a mile from the Atlantic I am settling on AKZO primer for my build. I would like to avoid having a large compressor in my limited shop. Has anyone had any experience with airless sprayers in this application?

Thanks in advance...

[rockwoodrv9]

I have sent hundreds of gallons through airless systems, including lacquers on doors and cabinets. They work great for what they are designed to do. Their best use is latex paint on walls and ceilings. They do OK for cabinets and doors, but very tricky to use and not get buildup and uneven coverage. The paint comes out very fast. It can be adjusted, but then the finish quality goes down. Having a 25' hose takes quite a bit of paint and that gets wasteful and expensive.

If you are talking about one of those Wagner type $100 units with the paint container attached to the gun, I have no idea how they work other than a friend who works at HD said they get a high percentage returned. You could always buy one, try it, and HD will take it back so no risk.

For priming, the HF HVLP guns work so well and are so cheap, I used them for priming and got the 3M with disposable tips for the finish paint.

[unitink72]

First I don't think you'll get a good spray quality out of an airless sprayer with such a thin material. Akzo really doesn't seem much thicker than water. Those airless sprayers are meant to push heavy latex.

Further, remember you really have to clean out airless sprayers well. I can't imagine what it would take to clean out the pump and 25' of hose of akzo. Maybe running a gallon of acetone through it would help, but i bet you wouldn't get everything.

Remember these HVLP guns only take 20psi or so. Just buy whatever small compressor you can fit, and once in a while take a break if you spray so much it can't keep up. I usually only shoot for 5 minutes or so at a time anyway. Then you take a break, let it cure a bit, then flip parts over. Plenty of time for the compressor to catch up.

[Canadian_JOY]

If you don't want to buy a big compressor, give consideration to a turbine HVLP for priming. The turbine guns will spray "thin" paints pretty well, and the overspray is very minimal. There was one for sale here on VAF not very long ago, a complete system.

I purchased a Fuji 4-stage system and found it worked just fine for priming. I LOVED not having a big compressor pounding away in the background - the turbine is more like having a vacuum cleaner running.

[rv7charlie]

And then there's self-etching primer in spay cans. For small parts & faying surfaces, it's so much faster (no cleanup except wiping the nozzle on a rag), you need so little in total, and no wasted paint every time you need to clean a canister, that it's a pretty inexpensive and effective method.

A little more trouble is to alodine the small stuff. Just as effective as epoxy, very cheap relative to epoxy, and weighs nothing.

Charlie