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Conventional spray gun – Help!

Senna | Posted in General Discussion on July 29, 2003 11:00am

I have a conventional spray gun, siphon fed, powered by a compressor. I bought it originally for spraying my car. I was wondering how useful it would be for interior painting.

Has anybody used one of these for interior work and do you have any suggestions? I am still playing around with it. It creates lots of overspray and would require considerable taping and masking but I would think it could produce a superior result than brushes or rollers.

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  1. ccal | Jul 30, 2003 12:39am | #1

    Depends on what you want to spray. I sprayed cabinets for years with the setup you have and got great results with laquer, but it is slow for painting anything larger and you already know about the overspray.

  2. User avater
    Wayfarer | Jul 30, 2003 02:12am | #2

    I just got a new spray rig for eaves and most of the exterior and may try it out on trim and interior work.  One thing you need to get, if you didn't consider it already, is another spray tip.  I probably would not really have thought about till the guy at HD pointed that at to me.  So with another tip (narrower spray) and turning down the compression on your rig, I would think trim and interior work would be inline with what you got goin'.

  3. User avater
    goldhiller | Jul 30, 2003 04:21am | #3

    I presuming you're meaning to spray walls and ceilings.

    My suggestions would be, since your gun is siphon fed, that you purchase a pressurized paint tank (various sizes available, but something like three gallon if you intend to spray rooms)……… and the necessary material hose to connect that tank to the gun. Dump the entire cup assembly from the gun and hook up to the tank. Now you have pressure feed which is MUCH better for spraying latex and you won't spend all that time refilling a cup.

    Be sure to buy a viscosity cup and thin your paint to recommended viscosity for spraying. If latex, toss in a bit of Floetrol too.Make sure you filter the paint. (women's nylons work great for this)

    Oh…….and buy a cartridge respirator if you don't already own one and a cloth hood for your head.

    The big downside of spraying is what you've already mentioned. Unless the room is empty or emptied of all its contents and you intend to repaint the woodwork, you're in for a lot of tape and time spent masking…….and you'll spend some time cleaning up the tank, hoses and gun at the end of the job or whenever you change colors.

    If your ceiling color is different from your walls, spraying becomes problematic.

    I have high-pressure spray equipment, airless spray equipment and HVLP spray equipment. I grab a roller and a brush to repaint walls, ceilings and woodwork in an inhabited house…….95% of the time.

    Repainting cabinets is another matter. I'll mask and use the HVLP.

    Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
  4. Mooney | Jul 30, 2003 06:59am | #4

    I used to make a living using what you are talking about in part any way. Things have changed with advanced equipment already mentioned. I still shoot out side on small jobs with the same thing . Things like stuff that goes back indoors. I do a lot of remodel and I often have a rack holding five or more sprayers holding different things such as sealer , primer and clear finish, just to mention a few. Multible cups out side on a rack is very hard to beat . Still a pro move. Who could afford 5 low pressure guns, or five airless sprayers ? Then you would have to look at their clean up time and cost of material cleaning.

    They still have their place which is first, in get in and get  out doing just a little.

    Tim Mooney 

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