There was a thread here some months back about the Graco airless
sprayers from the borg.
I've been working on my long-neglected deck. It really needs a
backhoe, but i'm trying to buy a few more years. It's 700 sq ft of
2x6 pressure treated. It was in rough shape when we bought the place
3 years ago and it hasn't gotten any better.
I've replaced all the soft boards, rebuilt the steps, scraped any
loose finish (not that there's much finish left to scrape), set all
the protruding nail heads, and cleaned it well with oxi-bleach, which
did a good job of removing all the grime and any mildew. The framing
itself seems solid.
Plan is to coat with Olympic Max solid deck stain. I've done some of
the cutting in, and I've realized it will take me forever using a
brush and pad or roller. For one thing, the boards are nearly 1/2
inch apart, which is far enough that the edges have to be coated or it
will look like crap, but not so far as to make them easy to stain.
Second, the wood is rough enough and dry enough that it really sucks
up the stain, and even with a good brush I get about 8" per brush
load.
So, for those of you with airless sprayer experience: Will the X5 or
X7 handle this job? I'm sure it will spray the stain; it's not that
thick, but if I spray straight down, will I be able to get at least a
light coat of stain on the sides of the planks without overspraying
the tops? Should I make a first pass down the crack with the fan
spray lined up with the crack, and then coat the tops in the normal
fashion?
Any advice on this appreciated!
Paul F.
[email protected]
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:f843e851-395e-4676-a0ad-2728f74e957c@j19g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
> On Aug 8, 9:10 am, "Mike Marlow" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hey Robert - long time...
>
> Yeah, no kidding!
>
> You doin' OK?
>
Yeah - doing fine. Absolutely swamped. Too many things going on all of the
time, let alone at one time. Who says life gets easier/slower as you get
older? I'm almost at the point of resigning myself that the really
important things to me just aren't going to get done before the snow flies.
Sometimes...
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
On Aug 7, 9:30=A0pm, Paul Franklin <[email protected]>
wrote:
> So, for those of you with airless sprayer experience: Will the X5 or
> X7 handle =A0this job? =A0I'm sure it will spray the stain; it's not that
> thick, but if I spray straight down, will I be able to get at least a
> light coat of stain on the sides of the planks without overspraying
> the tops? =A0Should I make a first pass down the crack with the fan
> spray lined up with the crack, and then coat the tops in the normal
> fashion? =A0
Either machine will easily spray the stain.
You will have to practice though, to get an even coat on the upper
edges and then the tops of the boards.
I would stack a few old 2X6s together to mimic the pattern of your
deck and try shooting the edges and tops to see what works.
These machines come with 515 tip on the gun, so that puts out a 10"
wide swath of material when held at the proper distance from the
target. You could almost coat 2 of your boards at one time with a 10"
patterned pass.
So shooting the edges only or controlling the overspray will be quite
the challenge if you don't have a lot of experience with an air rig.
I think I would spray at about 45 degrees to the surface from one
direction and figure that the top of the boards would get the
overspray from the edge coating it at the same time. Then I would
change directions and spray from the other side of the board to catch
the other edge.
With a 10" fan you could cover two edges and one and half boards at
one pass and clean your spray lines up when you make the pass from the
other direction.
Another solution would be to get a smaller tip when you purchase the
sprayer and use that instead of the stock tip.
Robert
Paul,
Any of the Gracos with a metal gun are a good choice.
cm
"Paul Franklin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> There was a thread here some months back about the Graco airless
> sprayers from the borg.
>
> I've been working on my long-neglected deck. It really needs a
> backhoe, but i'm trying to buy a few more years. It's 700 sq ft of
> 2x6 pressure treated. It was in rough shape when we bought the place
> 3 years ago and it hasn't gotten any better.
>
> I've replaced all the soft boards, rebuilt the steps, scraped any
> loose finish (not that there's much finish left to scrape), set all
> the protruding nail heads, and cleaned it well with oxi-bleach, which
> did a good job of removing all the grime and any mildew. The framing
> itself seems solid.
>
> Plan is to coat with Olympic Max solid deck stain. I've done some of
> the cutting in, and I've realized it will take me forever using a
> brush and pad or roller. For one thing, the boards are nearly 1/2
> inch apart, which is far enough that the edges have to be coated or it
> will look like crap, but not so far as to make them easy to stain.
> Second, the wood is rough enough and dry enough that it really sucks
> up the stain, and even with a good brush I get about 8" per brush
> load.
>
> So, for those of you with airless sprayer experience: Will the X5 or
> X7 handle this job? I'm sure it will spray the stain; it's not that
> thick, but if I spray straight down, will I be able to get at least a
> light coat of stain on the sides of the planks without overspraying
> the tops? Should I make a first pass down the crack with the fan
> spray lined up with the crack, and then coat the tops in the normal
> fashion?
>
> Any advice on this appreciated!
>
> Paul F.
>
> [email protected]
>
>
>
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:9dc46e5a-5d9c-4696-9b9d-eba537457b09@p15g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
These machines come with 515 tip on the gun, so that puts out a 10"
wide swath of material when held at the proper distance from the
target. You could almost coat 2 of your boards at one time with a 10"
patterned pass.
***************************************************************************************
Hey Robert - long time...
don't those guns have adjustable patterns? He can't just close it down to
hit the edges and minimize the overspray on the tops?
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
>
>"Paul Franklin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> There was a thread here some months back about the Graco airless
<snip>
>> Plan is to coat with Olympic Max solid deck stain. I've done some of
>> the cutting in, and I've realized it will take me forever using a
>> brush and pad or roller. For one thing, the boards are nearly 1/2
>> inch apart, which is far enough that the edges have to be coated or it
>> will look like crap, but not so far as to make them easy to stain.
>> Second, the wood is rough enough and dry enough that it really sucks
>> up the stain, and even with a good brush I get about 8" per brush
>> load.
>>
>> So, for those of you with airless sprayer experience: Will the X5 or
>> X7 handle this job? I'm sure it will spray the stain; it's not that
>> thick, but if I spray straight down, will I be able to get at least a
>> light coat of stain on the sides of the planks without overspraying
>> the tops? Should I make a first pass down the crack with the fan
>> spray lined up with the crack, and then coat the tops in the normal
>> fashion?
>>
>> Any advice on this appreciated!
>>
>> Paul F.
>>
>> [email protected]
>>
Thanks to all for good advice (especially Robert). Went with the
Graco X5 and it worked like a champ. Not counting prep and cleanup it
only took me about 3 hours to do railing and deck, and probably half
of that was moving drop cloths around to cover the plantings. (I think
drop cloths must be like clamps...every time you think you have
enough, a project comes along that needs more)
I ended up using a 413 tip and shot straight down right along each gap
between boards. This did a decent job of getting the edges of the
boards and the overlap on the faces was just right. The 413 let me
move a little slower than the 515 and that seemed to coat the edges
better.
Huge improvement, the deck looks pretty good now.
Thanks again,
Paul F.
On Aug 14, 7:53 pm, Paul Franklin <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Thanks to all for good advice (especially Robert). Went with the
> Graco X5 and it worked like a champ.
My pleasure, Paul. I like helping people that are trying to help
themselves. And like most here, I really get a kick out of it when I
hear things worked out well. Thanks for the follow up post.
(I think
> drop cloths must be like clamps...every time you think you have
> enough, a project comes along that needs more)
Too true. For me, I have a about 5 large drop cloths, and have
resigned myself to buying a large roll of plastic and a sleeve of tape
for most jobs.
> Huge improvement, the deck looks pretty good now.
Excellent!
Now, just one more thing. Get back to the box store and by the
airless equipment they should have something like "Pump Armor" or
similar to put into the airless when not in use. Many of the
internals are stainless and made from corrosive resistant materials,
but storing your airless properly is an important part of its long
life.
The internals will corrode and oxidize inside the pump while in
storage. If I keep mine in storage for more than two weeks, I put in
a pump protector. They sell one at Home Depot by Titan, and it's
about $10.
Mix it according to instructions, suck it in until you shoot green
liquid and turn the pump off. Let the siphon tube dribble out any
liquids that are in it. I take a piece of plastic sheet or a plastic
grocery bag and wrap the end of the siphon tube to keep dirt, dust,
etc, out of it, and then tape it to hold it in place before use.
Shoot a little water through your machine when you bring it out of
storage to get the liquid clear, then you are in business with a pump
that works as good as new since it has been stored properly.
Now go paint the house!!
Robert.
On Aug 8, 9:10 am, "Mike Marlow" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hey Robert - long time...
Yeah, no kidding!
You doin' OK?
> don't those guns have adjustable patterns? He can't just close it down to
> hit the edges and minimize the overspray on the tops?
No, none of the airless guns have adjustable tips. Almost all of them
have adjustable flow, but that is only to tailor the correct amount of
material dispensed to your spray ability and to minimize drift.
Personally, I ditched the 515 tip on mine and went with a new carbide
inserted 419. It will throw out paint so fast no one will use it with
that tip in there but me. The smaller fan size is much better for use
under eaves, on soffits, for cutting in, etc. And since it throws out
so much material, I usually shoot a 10" pattern anyway. I keep the
sprayer flow turned down so low there is almost no drift at all.
I can literally spray out 3 - 4 mil a coat as fast as I can move my
arms. If you use thin or cheap paint, it simply won't work, nor will
it work with stains. Sso much goes on so fast thinner materials sag
like crazy. But man alive can you apply the material!
In the old order of things, the tips were easy to identify and decide
on when purchasing. There is a push from a couple of manufacturers to
muddy the waters with new terminology to make it seem like they are
selling something new, but it is the same old stuff.
This is a fair link to deciding which one to use and understanding the
numbers:
http://tinyurl.com/kqnk8s
BTW, working on anything fun?
Robert
On Sat, 8 Aug 2009 11:09:23 -0700 (PDT), "[email protected]"
<[email protected]> wrote:
<snip of good info on airless spraying>
Thaniks all for the info and advice!
Paul F.