Airless paint sprayer problem

[RogerS]

Just tried to fire up a replacement airless sprayer. Not priming at all and no suction up the inlet pipe. I'll be calling the supplier tomorrow but in the meantime been doing the various checks that we did last time on the first faulty unit and when I remove the outlet dooberry it looks to my untutored eyes to be manky as hell and if the insides are the same then no wonder it's not working. It's been used but never cleaned is my guess but I'm not an expert on these things.

 

[RogerS]

I'm now in a position to answer this !

I bought the first airless sprayer from Local Tool Supplies or LTS in Blackburn. On delivery, unable to prime it. Some excellent support from their engineer over the phone still failed to get it to prime and so they arranged to collect it from me and send a replacement.

Replacement arrived - the one in the photo - and ditto. Unable to prime it despite telephone support. But this time the response was 'Send it back to us. The last one worked OK'. How much will that cost ? £5 using Parcel2Go. Yeah, right. 15kg..insurance value £350. £5 ? I don't think so. So bit the bullet and drove it down to Blackburn. Engineer tried in vain to get it to work. He commented that it was unusual for two to fail. Two ? Ah, OK, so the owner was a lying turnip when he told me that the first one 'worked OK when we got it'.

I knew judging by the owners' demeanor that the chances of me getting my fuel refunded for the wasted journey was zero so I didn't even bother to ask.

Third one ..."Let's unpack and test it" says I. Which we did and it worked.

Will I go back to LTS ? Not a chance.

The crud in the photo?

'Left over from when they tested it in the factory'. Yeah, right. BS.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Airless paint sprayer?

I've always used a brush. Never had a problem with one of those priming. Darn sight cheaper, too.

 

[Lazurus]

A call to trading standards to flag them up may make you feel better.

 

[RogerS]

Airless paint sprayer?

I've always used a brush. Never had a problem with one of those priming. Darn sight cheaper, too.

Arthritic hands preclude the use of a brush. Plus looking at the Youtube videos for paint spraying I can't see why anyone would ever use a brush again !

I'll eBay it when I've finished with it.

 

[stuartpaul]

It'll be interesting to hear how you get on Roger. On the face of it it certainly looks quicker but then people who know what they're doing always have that effect!

Any chance you can keep an eye on how much time it takes for masking, cleanup etc? It might then give an indication of the overall time saving versus brush & roller.

 

[RogerS]

It'll be interesting to hear how you get on Roger. On the face of it it certainly looks quicker but then people who know what they're doing always have that effect!

Any chance you can keep an eye on how much time it takes for masking, cleanup etc? It might then give an indication of the overall time saving versus brush & roller.

I'll try but it's a bit of a cheat in my case because the first room is the bathroom and that is empty. I've already got floor protector down so all I have to do is put some window protector on and job done !

Cleaning I'm hoping simply to swap the paint kettle for a bucket of water and spray it through.

One of the areas where I'm hoping it will score is in the hall.







or before we trashed it !

 

[rafezetter]

It'll be interesting to hear how you get on Roger. On the face of it it certainly looks quicker but then people who know what they're doing always have that effect!

Any chance you can keep an eye on how much time it takes for masking, cleanup etc? It might then give an indication of the overall time saving versus brush & roller.

Spraying isn't just about how much time might be saved over a roller, it's also the reapplication time bonus. Because of the nature of spraying, the paint on the wall dries that much faster because it contains less solvent - for waterbased paint thats sprayed this is magnified even more.

With correct application of thinner coats you can respray a wall within an hour. If you use good quality high pigment paint (a little trickier to apply) the thinner coats won't mean loss of coverage either, so when using colours you can get a deeper colour finish in much less time - and that's one of the real advantages of spraying vs rolling. (as well as no "orange peel" effect)

Obviously spraying has limitions and only really comes into its own when a room is new, and totally empty without any floor covering, and can be left alone for a day to let the overspray settle.

 

[RogerS]

.....
Obviously spraying has limitions and only really comes into its own when a room is new, and totally empty without any floor covering, and can be left alone for a day to let the overspray settle.

That's a good point. I might bring in my Jet recirculating air filter to suck it up....as they say.

 

[rafezetter]

If you are using water based Roger - one tip I can recommend for cleaning is adding some thoroughly dissolved laundry detergent into the cleaning water - or adding soda crystals to a quantity of it, just make sure they are fully dissolved before shooting, or mix it strong in a bucket and decant into the chamber - the strong degreasing action cuts through water based paint like **** through a goose - it'll be clean in no time. You can also cycle that water at least once - open the nozzle right up and spray into a bucket, and reuse the mixture. Once clean shoot some water to rid of the soda so that any rubber inside doesn't perish.

I'd also recommend disassembling the gun nozzle, needle etc and making sure all those gubbins are clean - I use spray oven cleaner, spray it inside the mixing chamber, let it sit for a bit and rinse, it'll be good as new and you'll never have to worry about old paint drying and clogging.

Fully cleaning a spray gun (or system) is worth a bit of extra time - because nothing screws your day more than a clogged gun, been there done that, several times....

 

[Droogs]

I can't see why anyone would ever use a brush again !

Cause it's neigh impossibole to paint a smile on the face of a 1/35th scale Tamiya soldier's face wth an air gun :lol:

 

[stuartpaul]

.......
I'd also recommend disassembling the gun nozzle, needle etc and making sure all those gubbins are clean - I use spray oven cleaner, spray it inside the mixing chamber, let it sit for a bit and rinse, it'll be good as new and you'll never have to worry about old paint drying and clogging.

Fully cleaning a spray gun (or system) is worth a bit of extra time - because nothing screws your day more than a clogged gun, been there done that, several times....

Whereas the roller (cling filmed between coats) goes straight in the bin!

Be interesting to hear the highs and lows from Roger as a novice sprayer to see how he progresses.

 

[RogerS]

I find with a roller that there is an awful lot of paint left on the roller at the end.

 

[Bigdanny]

A few years ago borrowed rented a friends graco airless spayer to spray a clients house exterior. Pebbledash finish and new dark colour. But did the whole house and walls in 2-3 days. As was dark red over old yellow colour had to do severel coats from different directions to penetrate the pebbledash. I reckon if was doing it by hand (roller not really effective) I would have been there 2-3 weeks and used twice as much paint. I now to a respray every 2-3 years with my HVLP which is normally about 3-4 days.
Any overspray is normally dry before it hits the ground I found. They are very efficient machines. Only a small amount of brush work is required to do borders edges etc say with a 2" brush. You can do pretty good masking just with a piece of board to protect where you dont want to spray.

Danny