Cheap 'airless' spray guns, any experience anyone?

None personally, but over my 61 years, I have learned that you get what you pay for.

--=20 Davey.

Hmm. I've learnt that you generally get *no more* than you pay for.

I was given one of those a while ago (Silverline?) - it couldn't even paint a fence with thinned, water-based paint.

No, they are the invention of the devil. You get a pulsing action on them as the tiny piston pulls back to suck in more paint to compress and eject. Only thing I ever sprayed with it was a watery emulsion.

I'd say you generally get *less* than you pay for.

Buy halfords spray cans

In message , Ericp writes

Seconded.

I bought one many years ago. Can't remember the make but it's still here somewhere. I used it once and never again. It was noisy, clogged easily, was erratic in coverage and generally wasted my time. The vibration was such that the screw on paint reservoir fell off however tight I fitted it.

I seem to remember driving for miles halfway through the job trying to buy a replacement nozzle. I can't remember why. We found one. I fitted it, but I think I gave up at that stage.

I'd have thirded but for finding one useful to spray wood treatment (spirit based that is - not the stuff sold for fences etc).

I'd had a cheap airless sprayer for ~25 years without finding a use for it until a couple of years ago. Then I wanted to apply wood treatment to rafters and joists and was faced with bits in a low-pitch extension where I couldn't reach with a brush (and even a brush on a stick was tocuh and go and painfully slow). The cheap airless sprayer did the job as Cuprinol 5 Star and the like are so thin they could be sprayed a fair distance - especially with the long nozzle which came with mine.

-- Robin reply to address is (meant to be) valid--

That's essentially my problem, I can reach most of what I want to paint with a brush but there are bits that are well nigh impossible to reach with a brush rather like your low pitch extension.

So, while they're not wonderful devices, they might just manage to do what I need to do.

Following method could be adapted? Just add a firework ...

Mr Bean - Painting his house

If you can pick it up pour some paint into it and swill it around. Then drain out the excess paint.

Paul Mc Cann

Hardly, it's a box section making up the bathing platform of our boat, the boat as a whole probably weighs ten tons or more. :-)

I've tried a couple of airless over the years and using them has always been a deeply depressing experience. For oil based paints they were next to useless. Spray cans would be better by far. You can also get a basic High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) kit for about 4 times the price - but at least you end up with something that works and can be used for other jobs.

Might a Waxoyl sprayer might reach with the Waxoyl diluted a bit if need be? But I've no idea if Waxoyl would protect what you've got where you've got it.

I'd second that. I've tried an airless and found it near useless - although pro versions do exist which work well. But far too big for DIY - more something you'd spray factory walls with.

My Apollo HVLP set is actually very good. Much better than a similarly priced conventional high pressure compressor and gun. And the turbine is useful for drying out pipes before soldering. ;-)

(I don't have space for a decent sized ordinary compressor.)