Awl --
Well, not bad for a home-moaner..... :)
My buddy picked up the HF pressurized paint pot
Here's what was inneresting: I used old otherwise unusable HF black airhose (3/8" id) -- do not buy this stuff for regular compressor air, it springs more leaks than a sieve -- as the paint hose and thought all I would need would be a piddling 5-10 lbs of "pot pressure", but what a surprise when I blew out the hose at the end of the job, with straight compressor air, which had to "work" a little bit!! So it became clear that 40# is more realistic, for about 15 ft worth of hose. I could see this being much higher if working off, say, 24' ladder, but then you can hang this pot, so you don't wind up with unmanageable lengths of paint hose.
I didn't thin the paint, had about 30-40# of gun air while spraying. Yet, it kind of rapid-sputtered after a while, after being smooth-continuous. Still, it was rapid enough that it did not seem to affect the paint job -- which turned out great, and FAST.... the wife, who brush-painted the prime coat a few days before (and is STILL cryin over that job) was hilariously aggressive with this thing, seemed to be going for speed records. If there were no experimentation/marevelling at this new method, I think those gates would have taken about 2-3 minutes, for one person, vs. about an hour for two people.
But I am curious as to what that sputtering was about. Not enough paint pressure? Hmmm, it may have been much higher in the beginning, before I made it too low? Maybe I'll try thinning the paint as well, on the second coat.
The HF paint pot itself is OK.... you really have to torque down the clamp screws, I can see this being a problem later. But, the pot is heavy, sturdy, so if the top doesn't warp, I'll hopefully be OK. Nowhere near the quality of the old Sears unit I used in 1980, tho. The pressure regulator is so-so, certainly not precision, but it pressurized the paint. Seems to be a generic design for a bunch of labels. Grizzly has a wild one, with a stirrer and wheels!
The job went so quick I really didn't have much time to experiment! Very economical with paint, less than 1/2 gal on almost 100 sq ft of .T1-11, which has to be THE thirstiest surface on the planet, short of cloth!
What can one use as quick disconnects for the paint line? I doubt whether air quick disconnects would work.... for long! I'm thinking of just putting two 3/8 threaded unions at each end of the paint hose??
Pretty easy clean up, altho coordination is a bit of an issue, what with all the hose, parts, etc. Blew out the hose back into the paint can, cleaned the system with about a gallon of water, in place of paint.
Oh, the plumbing for this can be a bit of a handful, if you are not familiar with air and plumbing fittings. The paint hose fittings, on both the gun and the pot, seem to be some kind of hose/compression whatsit, which my hardware guy didn't recognize, but fortunately the thread seems to be a perfect match for 3/8 threads, so an assortment of reducing couplings (to1/4), hose barbs, quick disonnects for the air, etc, and the unit was running. A bit easier said than done, could have been pretty pricey if I didn't have most of that stuff laying around. I used brass so as not to screw up the threads too much, if the fit wasn't exact.
My buddy did some research into this, and whole-package units will spare anyone all the diy puttering. Still, a bit hard to find, it seems to me. But, my contraption-esque creation is less dependent on oem stuff, so I can mix/match as needed.
Anyway, appreciate all the previous advice, really helped the setup and the job. A lot of stuff is going to go a lot faster around here!