Power Painter Experiences?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, here’s the story. Mrs. Oak and I have a den that was paneled with tongue and groove wooden panelling (real 3/4" boards, not the 1/8" pressed stuff). When we bought the house, it was stained a VERY dark brown. Consequently, the room felt very claustrophobic.

So, Mrs. Oak suggested that we (read I) paint the panelling.

No problem. Tell me what color. She chose almost a khaki color - it looked good on the paint chip. So, off I went with brush and roller in hand. Put on one coat of primer, two of the finish paint.

Then, I heard the words I dread: “I don’t think that’s the right color.”

So, we (read she) chose another color, more of a butter yellow. More brushing and rolling. I now have two more coats on, and will need at least 1 more.

Frankly, brushing and rolling this panelling is a real pain in the patookis. All the grooves and mouldings make painting even more of a chore than normal.

So, I had the bright idea to use a power sprayer (like a Wagner Power Painter) to put on the next coat. Seems like it would be much easier. Anyone have any experiences with one of these contraptions? Do they work as advertised, or will I be stuck with one more POS that doesn’t work as the manufacturer swore it would?

Thanks for your help. I need to go rest now. The paint fumes have given me a headache.

Oakie:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:

2

Yes, I realize that smacking my head that many times probably contributed to my headache.

Oakie

3

Well, I’ve never used a sprayer but it seems like their very nature would necessitate much masking off of “unpaintable” surfaces. Can you get one with a small enough spray to have much small-space control?
When I moved I had to paint every room in my house–I bought a power roller–which is basically a roller with a tube going into the handle. The paint oozes out of the roller and you can just roll roll roll to your hearts content. No wetting the roller, no dripping all over the place, no bending and squatting and up and down the ladder–very satisfying. The cleanup for it was a bit extreme–you had to flush out the tubing pretty extensively–and this had to be repeated whenever you wanted to switch colors. Other than that I was very happy with it, and had no problems with its operation.
Is the wife liking this color better, I hope? :slight_smile:

bella

4

The lovely and charming Mrs. Oak hasn’t seen the new color yet. She and the saplings have been out of town for the last couple of days . . . hence the painting project.

There’s nothing like trying to paint while simultaneously trying to keep a toddler’s hand out of the paint can.

I’ll let y’all know

Oakie

5

I have a Power Painter, and I’ll probably never use it again. It’s a pain in the patoot to clean, and it gets very heavy to hold up if you are going to use it for more than a few minutes. I ended up with a seriously sore arm. It also will only hold 1 quart of paint in its paint cup, so if you want to do something larger without refilling a bunch of times, you need to use the suction tubing that comes with it and stick that into the can of paint. This means that you get to hold both the painter and the can, which is another pain in the patoot.

My husband used it to put oil stain on our wood fence a couple weeks ago, and found the tubing so difficult to clean that he threw it out instead. And he hated the fact that the tubing wasn’t long enough for him to just leave the can on the ground while he sprayed. He had had one of these sprayers 20 years ago, and he told me they haven’t done anything to improve them since.

If you could rent one or borrow one, that would give you an idea if it would work for your purposes or not, but I sure wouldn’t buy one!

6

I’ve done a bit of painting with power painters for work, the Wagner in particular.

Yes, there is quite a bit of overspray. You’ll need to cover all the furniture, carpets, etc… And cleanup is a right bitch. Lots of little parts that you have to clean if you want to be able to use the thing again. But then again, they’re not that expensive, so you might just want to use it once, toss it, and get a new one the next time you need one. Of course, that’s not being very friendly to the environment…

One major annoying thing I found, if you use the one with the little plastic can that attaches to the bottom, you have to refill it a lot. It doesn’t hold that much paint, so you end up having to stop and refill it pretty often. You can get around this by using a feeder hose and running it to a larger bucket.

Also, you heve to thin the paint a lot in order to get it to spray. This means you’ll probably have to do several coats.

Personally, I’d stick with rollers and brushes.

7

I tried the power roller thingy. The roller was flat on one side due to the way it was packaged and so would not roll correctly. This resulted in an experience that I would only describe as “unpleasant” in my most charitable of moods (read: after three screwdrivers).

I took the thing back and insisted Home Depot allow me to exchange it for traditional tools of the job.

8

My father swears by his paint sprayer. It’s a very low overspray model that requires an aircompressor (or in his case, a turbine pump). But they are correct in that no matter how much they claim there is no overspray, you will get paint in the air, and thus must mask everything off well, and dropcloths dropcloths, dropcloths over everything you don’t want to get speckled.

9

I think I speckled half the neighborhood with mine…try getting the fan tip. Its about $18,
it should do a much better job. You also have to get the material to the right thickness for
spraying.

10

Along the lines of Narile’s post-- Dump the Wagner route and rent a good quality air sprayer.

About a year ago I undertook a pretty massive painting project. Not complicated, but a lot of area. I first tried the Wagner route because a) It was cheap, and b) Because a neighbor had a Wagner he’d let me use.

Talk about suck-a-tude big-time. The thing was unwieldy and cumbersome, and like the others have said, clean up is a bitch. I would have been better off with a roller and a brush when it was all said and done.

If it wasn’t for a friend who suggested I use a different friends air powered sprayer, I would have forever felt that using power sprayers as a whole stunk.

Boy was that nice. The air sprayer was (relatively) easy to lug around and use, and with the appropriate nozzle, over-spray wasn’t much of an issue (In fact, in spots I’d simply use a piece of cardboard to limit where the spray went). Bottom line? The amount of time and energy used to paint the area was reduced considerably, and the unit itself (An expensive assed thing) worked like a charm. I really can’t say enough positive things about the experience.

The problem, however, is the expense of the sprayer (I think the friend said it costs something like fifteen hundred bucks or so). But renting one is relatively cheap, something like twenty or thirty bucks a day. When time came for my brother to paint his living room, I was the first to suggest he try renting a sprayer because it made the process ten times easier. Once he finished his project, he was convinced, ‘Damn that’s cool! Thanks Chris. (Psst, Don’t tell Judy. She’d have me painting everything if she thought I enjoyed it)’.

In a way, the professional sprayers are what Wagner would like to be-- convenient, fast, and simple-- but can’t because it’s cheaply made and cheaply constructed, it can’t even come close. They suck.

Do yourself a favor and drop the Wagner and get yourself a nice, professional, air sprayer. You’ll see the advantages to this approach immediately, and the quality of the work will be noticeable for years to come (Assuming your wife (Err, the two of you) ever makes up your minds on a color).

11

Thanks to everyone who replied.

I get the distinct impression that Power Painters aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. I’m gonna look into renting a decent sprayer.

And, over time, I’d bet that we’ll repaint that damned den so many times that the grooves will eventually be filled in with paint and we’ll simply have flat walls.

Thanks again!

Oakie

12

Well, you are doing it INside. Thats easier. Also you can get a longer cheap piece of tubing so
you can just use the gun part & not have to hold the tank too on that PP. You do have
to cover your windows but you have to do that with a professional kit too.