Airless Paint Sprayer Tips – 7 Key Secrets

Below I’ve outlined some airless paint sprayer tips to help you deliver a glass-smooth and elegant finish within budget and a short time.

This includes excellent painting techniques, and how the machine works – how to set-up, avoiding clogging, and clean the airless sprayers after work. 

Having the right spray tip for your airless paint sprayer creates a professional and beautiful finish as your surfaces and job required. The right tip will eject enough fluid from the sprayer once you pull its trigger – it also influences the width of the spray fan.

Airless Paint Sprayer Tips – 7 Key Secrets

First, for residential and commercial painting projects, renting a team with airless sprayers will be up to 4 times as fast compared to using brushes and rollers. A sprayer team with an airless sprayer will take one week to do a job that a traditional team would undertake in 4 weeks. But the sprayer would pay for itself in a month.

Buying: However, on owning the airless paint sprayer, it would take more than just owning the machine, but you’ll also require to have the necessary skills to deliver an excellent finish. Thus, renting the airless sprayer will do more for the same time, including painting the trim, walls, and ceilings.

Airless sprayers will cost anywhere from $250, and you must know that a costly one of the machines would guarantee that you get superior features. However, it could come with a bigger and better pump, motor – allowing the device to last longer. Thus, owning the airless sprayer enables you to spray at any time, but you must work to keep it adequately maintained – including cleaning.

Renting: Renting the airless sprayer will be a great option when you are not using the machine very often, or you don’t want to incur the maintenance cost and time. It’s possible to hire the wireless paint sprayer at around $50 for 24 hours.

However, as you rent the machine, ensure that the pump and hose are clean, plus the filters are replaced or cleaned. Further, as an expert on the correct spray tip to undertake the painting excellently. Also, check where the renting store allows using products such as oil paint, oil stain, or lacquer.

2. Choose the right Spray Tip

Next, you must decide on the right sprayer tip for your painting job. These tips will be sliding into the hole at the front of the paint spray gun. Spray tips marked using three-digit numbers (like 515)  – match the numbers with the job at hand. 

The last two digits denote the hole size while the 1st number denotes the spray fan width. For example, a tip marked 515 would give out a 10-inches paint fan pattern (this implies you double the 1st number). 

However, the basic rule is that you’ll need to use smaller tips (like 0.009 inches or 0.011 inches) for materials that have low viscosity or are thin like lacquers and deck stains. 

Choose a medium-sized sprayer tip (like 0.015 inches or 0.017 inches) suitable for primers, emulsions, enamel, or acrylic latex (check these latex paint sprayers). Get large-sized sprayer tips (like 0.021 inches or 0.023 inches) for materials with high viscosity. 

However, if you’re painting weighty materials including fireproofing, bitumen, plaster, drywall mud, and putty; you’ll need to acquire a bigger sprayer tip for your airless sprayer – which I would recommend to be anywhere above 0.031 inches plus a larger sprayer pumping over 4 Litres/ minute. 

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3. Prime your Pump 

For your airless sprayer set-up, you’ll need to prime its pump for an effective painting job adequately. So, position a smaller-sized prime tube inside some waste pail while placing a suction tube inside the bucket of your stained material like stain or paint.

Next, you’ll require turning to “prime” the spray or prime valve. Turn up the pressure valve – this will switch on the pump. As the paint flows via the prime tube, make it get into the paint pail. Check and clean the screen at the point sprayer’s intake point.

Further, the airless sprayers will have some removable filter around the location of the handle of the spray gun and near its pump. Ensure that these are also clean – and ensure you strain the paint or stain via the mesh filter bag as this will eliminate any lumps that lead to filter clogging.

Further, remember to repeat the pump-priming process when your paint runs out as you are continuing with the spraying process.

4. Fill the Gun and Hose

Next, you’ll now need to fill your gun and hose. Simply hold the gun (after removing the spray tip and the guard) lover your waste pail and then pull the sprayer’s trigger.

Now tun the gun valve to its “spray” mode. Next, release the trigger once the paint starts flowing smoothly from the sprayer. Finally, lock this trigger and finally relieve its pressure.

After priming the pump, it’s now time to fill the hose using paint. Next, lock the gun’s trigger and also relieve its pressure plus install the sprayer tip and its guard.

Adjust Sprayer’s Pressure – Next, you’ll now switch on the sprayer’s pump and engage the spray/ prime lever to its “spray” mode. Now check the current spray pattern by pointing and spraying a little on some cardboard. 

See Also: How to Remove Paint from Metal Door 

Conclusion

Increase the gun’s pressure when the spray pattern has some tailing tendencies. However, very high pressure could lead to overspray or even undue spray tip wear. 

Further, when the spray pattern is sen to be round, you’ll need to replace the spray top because it’s highly likely that the tip is worn out.