Spraying beats brushing

[grampahol]

99 out of 100 times for speed .. We have 5 sheets (4x8) of latice that all needed paint front and back. A brush would take all freaking day,  but the sprayer? All done in a few hours.. We're doing them all in the shop and installing in the sunshine for a customer with a huge backyard deck. We've also gotten a bunch of gigs repainting mail boxes in millionaire acres where every house has a $600 mailbox with their own brass nameplates and numbers. We take em apart, sand, paint and reassemble. Makes em look like the nicest mailboxes in the neighborhood until the birds crap on them. Lol
We're building some business since the lazy dopes just want money without actually working or when they do work they do shoddy workmanship. 
It helps that we're just about the only shop around here with an actual shop with equipment.  

[fredtoast]

Painting lattice with a brush is a huge pain in the ass.  It either takes forever or half the paint drips off.

How do you advertise?  My dad did all these little jobs around my parents house until he died.  After that my mom had a hard time finding anyone to do just simple jobs like that.

Instead of just refurbishing mailboxes you should design and build mailboxes with flower planters around the base.

[Benton]

It's easier but I tend to go through so much more material. I'm staining my deck and I used half a can with a roller and got more coverage than the whole can with the sprayer. Of course, I've got a cheap sprayer so that may be part of it.

[jfkbengals]

(05-22-2020, 11:41 AM)Benton Wrote: It's easier but I tend to go through so much more material. I'm staining my deck and I used half a can with a roller and got more coverage than the whole can with the sprayer. Of course, I've got a cheap sprayer so that may be part of it.

No, sprayers are less efficient in material consumption.  Especially airless sprayers.  They throw paint at the object.

[grampahol]

(05-23-2020, 10:27 AM)jfkbengals Wrote: No, sprayers are less efficient in material consumption.  Especially airless sprayers.  They throw paint at the object.

Highly depends on the type of equipment used. I did spraying for a living for several years. Airless sprayers are really meant for speed and coverage as quickly as possible whereas a conventional pnumatic sprayer is for finer finishing. The technology has moved quite a bit in spraying. The last job I worked in for a corporate job they purchased a high dollar HVLP system.  The amount of overspray was drastically reduced. I went from spraying over 70 gallons per week to under 10 overnight with almost zero paint loss with a really nice finish. .  You can still buy the conventional systems and a lot of people still do including myself, but if I were doing a high volume of spraying I'd definitely invest in a good quality HVLP sprayer. The cheap HVLP guns are really no better than the older conventional guns. In fact some are merely relabled as HVLP when they're just cheap conventionals.  I own 2, both Harbor Freight models. 1 is allegedly an HVLP gun and the other just a conventional with a large bored spray cap for shooting thicker paint. I'd never think of painting a car finish with either one. At least I'd go find an old DeBelvis in a pawn shop. I owned a few really good DeBelvis models when I painted cars and trucks. 

[*bfine32*]

(05-22-2020, 09:45 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Painting lattice with a brush is a huge pain in the ass.  It either takes forever or half the paint drips off.

How do you advertise?  My dad did all these little jobs around my parents house until he died.  After that my mom had a hard time finding anyone to do just simple jobs like that.

Instead of just refurbishing mailboxes you should design and build mailboxes with flower planters around the base.

Maybe her son could help out.

[jfkbengals]

(05-30-2020, 03:43 PM)grampahol Wrote: Highly depends on the type of equipment used. I did spraying for a living for several years. Airless sprayers are really meant for speed and coverage as quickly as possible whereas a conventional pnumatic sprayer is for finer finishing. The technology has moved quite a bit in spraying. The last job I worked in for a corporate job they purchased a high dollar HVLP system.  The amount of overspray was drastically reduced. I went from spraying over 70 gallons per week to under 10 overnight with almost zero paint loss with a really nice finish. .  You can still buy the conventional systems and a lot of people still do including myself, but if I were doing a high volume of spraying I'd definitely invest in a good quality HVLP sprayer. The cheap HVLP guns are really no better than the older conventional guns. In fact some are merely relabled as HVLP when they're just cheap conventionals.  I own 2, both Harbor Freight models. 1 is allegedly an HVLP gun and the other just a conventional with a large bored spray cap for shooting thicker paint. I'd never think of painting a car finish with either one. At least I'd go find an old DeBelvis in a pawn shop. I owned a few really good DeBelvis models when I painted cars and trucks. 

I have that same one.  Used it to do 3/4 of the fence around our pool and the back deck in about the time that 4 people took for the last 1/4 and a small wooden retaining wall by hand.  But they proportionately used about 50-60% of the amount of product I used per square foot.

[SunsetBengal]

(05-30-2020, 07:27 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: I have that same one.  Used it to do 3/4 of the fence around our pool and the back deck in about the time that 4 people took for the last 1/4 and a small wooden retaining wall by hand.  But they proportionately used about 50-60% of the amount of product I used per square foot.

One of the most important lessons that I've learned in life is;  You can always make more money, but you can never create more time.

[jfkbengals]

(05-30-2020, 07:43 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: One of the most important lessons that I've learned in life is;  You can always make more money, but you can never create more time.

I guess the biggest question has always been, do you have enough time to make more money?

[grampahol]

(05-30-2020, 07:27 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: I have that same one.  Used it to do 3/4 of the fence around our pool and the back deck in about the time that 4 people took for the last 1/4 and a small wooden retaining wall by hand.  But they proportionately used about 50-60% of the amount of product I used per square foot.

Pssst..you gotta learn how to thin the paint down. It'll probably clog shooting straight exterior latex and if it doesn't you'll go through too much paint. I know..they tell you to never thin it, but I do and it works out pretty well.. Those HF guns are finicky as hell..and use line filters so you're not mixing compressor oil  and water with latex paint.  I use two inexpensive filters. One on the compressor side of the air line and one connected to the paint gun itself.. And don't forget to drain the compressor regularly. An exploding compressor tank is just no fun at least when it explodes at you..
I use the plastic HF filters, but they're cheap so don't try to reuse them when they start to clog up. Just toss em out and use new filters.. 
Thinking about filters mine are pretty much trash already. Time to go HFing.. Remember "Let's go Krogering?" Let's go Harbor Freighting... Yeah..doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it? Lol

[UKWhoDey]

I can attest to that OP. Bought my house in 2015, stripped and repainted the whole deck. Decided to add some lattice around the outside for both privacy and aesthetics. Didnt have extra $ for sprayer did stain all by hand. Humongous pain in the ass.

Early May this year I redid it since it was time. Used a paint sprayer. I will never redo it again without one. SOOOOO much easier and faster. Zero drips/runs along lattice too where excess paint collects on edges when using a brush too. Total win all around

[jfkbengals]

(06-05-2020, 06:51 PM)grampahol Wrote:
Pssst..you gotta learn how to thin the paint down. It'll probably clog shooting straight exterior latex and if it doesn't you'll go through too much paint. I know..they tell you to never thin it, but I do and it works out pretty well.. Those HF guns are finicky as hell..and use line filters so you're not mixing compressor oil  and water with latex paint.  I use two inexpensive filters. One on the compressor side of the air line and one connected to the paint gun itself.. And don't forget to drain the compressor regularly. An exploding compressor tank is just no fun at least when it explodes at you..
I use the plastic HF filters, but they're cheap so don't try to reuse them when they start to clog up. Just toss em out and use new filters.. 
Thinking about filters mine are pretty much trash already. Time to go HFing.. Remember "Let's go Krogering?" Let's go Harbor Freighting... Yeah..doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it? Lol

I do thin it.  It won't spray until you thin it about 5%, although I prefer to go about 10%.