Airless Painter's Poll, Please Vote :)

PowerPaintingUK

hey guys, (& gals) I am trying to gain as much helpful info from you as I can because there are not too many airless users here in the UK. I hope you dont mind me "pickin' your brains"
I want to ask you what you put through your rig and how often. Do you use mostly acrylic or waterborn paints, mostly oil or a mix of the 2? I have just bough a used rig so I can use it only for oilbased and keep my other for only latex and acrylic paints. Thanks in advance for your answers,
Phil

Workaholic

Good to meet ya Phil,
I have a couple 695's that i use and then a little 390 i use for oil. I used to only run oil trim paint, but you have to evolve in this biz.

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Sean

firemike

Hi Phil, and welcome!

I used two spray rigs, sometimes one for latex and one for oil, or sometimes when I'm doing a whole house I used one for the wall paint and one for the trim paint. That way I don't have to keep cleaning the sprayers out.

Having two sprayers also gives you a backup sprayer in case the first one fails, which, according to Murphy's law, will always happen late at night or on a weekend when parts are unavailable.

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-Mike-

DeanV

I have three airless

1. smaller (mustang 3800) for trim work, and I spray oil or latex through it, since it is stored with paint thinner, it is not a big deal to switch between the two, but it mostly seems waterbornes by far.

2. Big, older airlessco 4100 SL (i think). I use this for priming out houses.

3. Graco 495 is for lacquer, when I need it which is hopefully almost never.

Then I have an assortment of HVLP guns as well.

PowerPaintingUK

hey Sean,
over here airless rigs are REALLY expensive. However, I've realised that they allow me to work a lot faster so I've bought my second unit. I bought my first one brand new; it's an ST Max II 495 (I think that's the same as an Ultra Max II 495) but it cost about £2115, that's $4,287.78 USD. The latest one I just bought cost me £500 ($1017 US) second hand but it's only done 17 hours run time from new so I'm happy. I used to use only oil for trim too but now I try to use acrylic instead because it drys really quickly and of course it cleans up easier. There are always people here who insist on oil though and so that's why I've bough the 2nd rig; it's an ST Max II 490. having looked at a lot of US websites I can see that you guys have a much better choice of tools, materials etc and your prices are fantastic. Now I try and buy from US sites because even with import tax I can save a fortune. Anyway thanks for voting in the poll.
I'll be around suckin' up the info.
Phil

PowerPaintingUK

I'm with ya there!

PowerPaintingUK

Saving the Graco 495 eh? Which unit do you like the most Dean? (by the way, I think you qualify for the last option, "one for each".., well it's close enough )

Workaholic

...

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Sean

DeanV

My mustang is more of a bare bones unit, it is made by the same company that makes Graco and matches up the best with a graco 190, I think.

The airlessco, I bought used this summer and is older. I am not yet decided on it because it was giving me a lot of clogging issues with fine finish size tips, and I am not sure if the problem is fixed yet or not (I do not think this reflects on airlessco but on the condition I bought the pump in and its age). I think the airlessco's are up there with the graco's though, maybe not as many bells and whistles but they seem to be work horses.

The graco, so far has been nice. I hope I can avoid spraying lacquer enough that I can justify switching this one to my main trimwork pump.

If I had to pick one company to buy from, it would be graco though. Most painters I work with use graco's.

If I did it again, I would probably buy something like a graco 695 (or an airlessco) for latex and oil and keep the dedicated lacquer pump since mixing lacquer solvent with other paint residues in the hose is a bad idea.

Workaholic

Did you ever buy a manifold for that airlessco?

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Sean

DeanV

Yeah, I did add a manifold filter, but I have not had to break out an airless since then. My current new construction job is running about 1.5 months behind schedule so hopefully I can try it out in the next couple weeks.

Workaholic

Cool, i was just wondering if it helped since you just mentioned plug ups. It should greatly reduce the problem.

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Sean

PowerPaintingUK

Thanks for voting

PowerPaintingUK

any more votes?

Dave Mac

One thing that you also need to take in consideration is how much your spraying, back in my heavy new work days, I would spray 100 galls a day with a pump only for latex, the trime would be sprayed with a pump for oil, now we do repaints, done need a monster pump, and just have one we use for everything,

Speed flow 5500 i think it was, gas engine for production, eun a couple of lines at one time. was my choice back then for latex.

Graco 495 or 395 for trim

PowerPaintingUK

I'm a one-man outfit who works by himself and I use a 495 St Max II for latex and a 490 ST Max II for oil. I bought the second rig (490)to make life easier when switching base's and also because it was extremely cheap, it was less than a 1/4 of retail price and had only been run for 17 hours total from new.

PowerPaintingUK

thanks to everyone who took part and voted in this poll. This is very useful information and it all helps.
thanks again and merry christmas if thats your thing

KJLinden2002

I don't see why you would have to spend so much for a sprayer. You can look on Ebay and get one shipped or get one off the internet for normal price if not better.

PowerPaintingUK

You can't buy one new here for less I'm afraid. Sure you can buy used but they are not easy to find here in the UK. UK models are NOT the same as US ones & even if they were you would get screwed by import tax as it comes into the country. I have now bought a used rig on ebay but trust me, that is a very rare thing on UK ebay and even then it cost me a total of(including diesel going to collect) £565.00 ($1122.00US); for a used 495 rig..

KJLinden2002

O, I completely forgot about the difference in electricity. I bought a brand new Graco 395 Air Assisted Fine finish for $1700. I also bought my 600 for $1000. That is all I have spent on sprayers.