How do you like your graco sprayer?

Scott, VT is the nicest state in the country. Ive been skiing there and visiting in the summers for 25 years. My wife and i got married at the Woodstock Inn. But lets get down to business. I have the 395 and have used it with the fine tip to redo kitchen cabs before, but i mostly use it to spray popcorn ceilings, so im not a pro with it. I would like to use it for built ins which we are doing more of. I keep it real clean and try to spray light coats, like a robotic arm. Any sugestions to make me more confident? I currently brush and mini roll my built ins, thanks Eric

I've had a couple of questions come in via personal message, which I wanted to add to this thread.

- tip size in the video was 315
- material unreduced

Which tips do you use to spray clear and tinted lacquer?

Ben,

I'm not into lacquers so much lately, so do not have them calibrated for air assisted whatsoever. But for clears in general, I prefer a much smaller orifice than the 315 used here. 311 is nice for lower viscosities.

Eric,

Yes, follow up when you are able to. Happy to help you maximize the machine.

Starksboro is nice country. I lived out that way for a couple of years back in the 90s.

Hey Tim

Thanks for your kind words.

I used the 046/314 product combo primarily because it is the same combo we are using throughout the house - its a large new build.

Heres why I chose the combo for the project:


046:
- 046 is good by brush and sprayer
- dries fast
- provides solid base for paint color and seals grain well
- sands to powder
- can power sand without breaking through
- low odor and water cleanup

314:
- perfect satin sheen
- brushes and sprays well
- all the trim is a shade of white, which this product excels in
- coating is hard when cured but still feels soft
- good open time, but tacks up in a reasonable amount of time
- low odor
- integrates nicely between trim package and built in cabinetry for continuity
- easy on equipment and water cleanup

These are all critical considerations in my work.

As to mil thickness, BM recommends 3.8 wet with 314. Anytime we check it we are a bit in excess of that, which I prefer, because I know its capabilities. Like most of us, having learned in oil, the rule of the thumb that I follow is to keep putting it on until it doesnt want anymore. That is completely determined in the verticals. We push it right to the edge where it just about wants to bust loose. Which is why inside the carcasses with the gun, there is alot of layering going on. Tack coat on top of tack coat and it all levels together, as long as everything is in a similar stage of "wet" while being layered. Of course its complicated by the beaded back panels. Not too hard to end up with puddles at the bottoms of those. That was the tricky part about this whole unit. The tops on the base units and the tops on the window bench. I want considerably more material on those than on the verts. That is the beauty of aaa...nice balance of piston pump pressure with hvlp gun refinement and with a smaller piece in your hand.

I still love hvlp, but it would have been much more difficult to do cabinet grade of this scale with.

Eric

The 390 is a very good machine. It is a straight airless rig, which means it is not air assisted (does not have onboard compressor), so it isnt quite capable of the same level of fine finish as an air assisted machine. A fine finish tip helps, but the gun is a standard contractor gun that is most comfortable in the higher end of the pressure range. Because of this it excels at spraying larger more wide open surfaces like drywall. Prior to purchasing our 395, I used to use our airless with a fine finish tip for spraying trim paint on doors and cabinet parts and pieces. You can definitely do it, but its more practical if you can do it with the pieces laying horizontally. It is easy to overload verticals with an airless because it just isnt as comfortable in the lower pressure ranges. This causes you to want to back off from the surface, and not be able to get as close or go inside for detail work, which leads to more overspray and airborne mist settling on surfaces that are already wet. You have to boogie with it to make it work. So, its not ideal for a project like the cabinet unit in my video. It would be really hard to go inside cabinet boxes with airless. There would be alot of blowback and bounce, and the corners would be inclined to get very heavy and likely curtain.

I would continue to use it exactly as you have been. If you find yourself doing enough cabinet work to justify the cost of air assisted, then air assisted would definitely pay for itself. If not, it is difficult to justify the fact that it costs about 3 times as much. The gun alone on a 395 costs about as much as the entire 390 system. The 390 is a good all around machine. We have a 395 straight airless on a skid as well, which would be almost identical to yours, but with just a bit more power, and it is great for production spraying, like walls and ceilings.

I do know alot of painters who get really good at doing trim finishes with an airless/ff tip configuration. You have to be a really skilled sprayer to excel in that area. Ultimately, the 395 air assisted makes it more effortless and efficient. The 390 is a classiic, and very popular machine though.

Eric,

Great looking project!

Hey Kevin

Thanks for the kind words.

Now...that would be like me saying: "as a painter, it would be difficult to justify the cost of a Kapex or a TS, when I already have a decent compound slide and a benchsaw with a good blade..."

Like alot of carpenters who crossover into spraying and painting, I am a painter who crosses over into some carpentry and woodworking. So, I think its important when one trade wanders over to the other, to see where the bar is and what the range of possibilities are. Also, you may be surprised at how much festool the diy is able to afford and justify even in comparison to the pro crowd.

To answer your question, I show alot with air assisted because, while it is an expensive machine, it is the most versatile across the board. The technology itself has been around for decades, not sure when the 395 was launche, but pretty sure its been a bit more than a couple of years.

I purchased mine at SW in fall 2010 because I had a very, very large custom cabinet project and there was no way I was going to do it a quart at a time. The aaa paid for itself on that first job. Just by way of comparison, there is no way I would look at the cabinet in the video with a ps fine finish. Just not refined or efficient enough.

To your question about product, I was an early adaptor to the ultra premium waterbornes back in '07. As a paint contractor who paints the whole house, and mostly in custom work, I really think its important to have one finish that can do the entire trim package as well as the cabinets and builtins, because they are so often integrated...crown, base and shoe run through them. It gets a little choppy if there is not continuity in finish. I am in the fortunate position of being able to specify materials on our projects, and have found for the past few years that this approach is best for the work we do. Other contractors mileage may vary on all of this, but I still enjoy sharing and being involved in discussions like this.

You're welcome, Tim.

Yes, awareness of vertical vs horizontal is something to keep in mind for sure. The horizontals have a much harder life than their vertical counterparts, so I try to make sure they have more protection. Plus, they need tactile appeal because they are the pieces that people touch when admiring the craftsmanship and finish.

Thinning to 20% is a bad deal, because it sacrifices some 'tooth' and really adversely affects sheen. The fundamental problem with hvlp in waterborne is that warm air is inevitable, and its murder on tips and guns full of waterborne. With aaa, the air is cool because the compressors are rather sophisticated. We even dunk the aaa gun in room temperature water and toothbrush the tip assembly down when we see drying starting to occur around the tip. Wetter is better.

As to the Graco brand, we haven't had any problems. One gun repack, which is to be expected. However, we did bring in a Titan equivalent in December. We shoved the Graco out of the shop and into the field and have been running the Titan MultiFinish 440 in the shop. Its more efficient to master the machine idiosyncracies in the shop before relying on it to produce flawlessly in the field. So far so good, although the Graco G40 gun has a slight edge at this point. The pumps, compressors, hose systems are extremely equivalent, and there are some aesthetic differences between their control panels and cart designs. Ultimately, a matter of personal preference, and that is subjective. These are the two most commercially available aaa, and they fall in the same price range, which is considerably less than the K fleet over in France. I think I have posted some Titan aaa footage that you have probably seen.