I'm thinking about buying a paint sprayer for DIY work around the house. Most immediate use would be to spray 7 doors with latex semi-gloss. Future use might include using it to spray exterior wood house siding with solid stain. A friend has a house where there is a chance he might use it to spray kitchen cabinets too.
Doing a bit of searching I thought this Graco one might be a good choice:
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It looked to me like you need to spend $120 or so to get anything decent. The above Graco goes for $239 at Lowes and I found where I can buy a refurbished one with a factory guarantee for $150. The above one feeds the paint right out of the can, so it can be used for the possible bigger projects.
Conventional spray guns don't handle latex paints very well, besides being hard to clean, etc. Graco has a good reputation in the airless field, so the unit you are considering will probably be a good choice. Let us know how you like it...I may buy one myself.
I bought the Graco but not airless 10 yr ago while doing the barn restoration. Sprayed 40 gal oil-based primer and >100gal latex topcoat w/ no problems.
After that, we did the house (2-story farm) as well.
Don't recall the exact model; it was $300 at HD then and imo well worth every penny. Interestingly, I didn't see anything except airless at the site now--I've no info on them.
I know I detested the Wagner airless of almost the same cost to the point of forcing them to take it back...the noise plus quality of finish was terrible. Maybe they got 'em working now, but certainly the difficulty of spraying latex was much higher w/ the airless (I know, apples/oranges) and had to thin _much,much_ more to keep from clogging entirely and even then it spat.
Airless are great. I have a Graco XR7, which I got on ebay for $250. It may be somewhat overkill on the doors, but maybe not with a choked down smaller tip. It is an animal, and will spray paint evenly at a rapid rate, but backrolling is always good on walls, etc. For the doors, you would not want to backroll.
Doors are a different animal. Preparation, masking, handling during painting, setting up, and drying has a lot to do with results.
Having them clean to start and having a place to dry where the bugs don't land on it makes a big difference. They seem to like fresh latex paint, or any paint, for that matter.
One of the biggies when doing doors is to use Floetrol, which will make the latex lay down right after contact. Be sure to spray lightly to avoid sag. Use good tape that will peel off and leave a good line. Graco makes a strainer for the foot of their suction hose, but I like to use a cloth bag over that, too. Cheap. Floetrol also lets you paint with a good brush, and not leave brush marks.
If it was me, I'd just use a regular compressor and paint pot holding about a quart. Add a little Floetrol. Nails or drywall screws in the ends of the doors so they can be put on sawhorses, mask well, clean good, wipe with a rag or maybe a TackyCloth (trademark), and keep them somewhere warm and bug free to dry for long enough to be reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeely dry before handling. Vertical may be a good position to spray them in, too.
Of course, remove all hardware, AND DO NOT JUST MASK IT. Final results will vary greatly if you mask it only, and it will look like a pure D amateurish job.
Wagner's are good if you don't care what the final results look like. Like lawn furniture and picket fences where you want that globby bloppy thick paint layer look.
For the Project Painter Plus will be good for you, But I would not used for the bigger projects.
For it would be to show for that, but a for work around the house it do the job, and it will give you time to get the know how, before you move on to a bigger, and faster Airless Paint Sprayer...
But spray kitchen cabinets, whit a Airless Paint Sprayer would look good with latex, for oil base Paint, is not ease to do with a Airless..
but it all do the job...
I been painting over 30 years.. like you I started with a paint brash..
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