I primarily use a brush and roller and do 80% interior.
Not real nuts about exteriors, it's fine when weather is nice.
So I don't have a sprayer. I hate to rent. But would hate
to spend alot on a sprayer I may have needed twice this summer.
Does anyone have a sprayer they recommend for small occasional
outside jobs / for occasional small inside spraying. I just
hate to spend alot on something I don't normally do!

Input is appreciated.

I am a drywal finisher and i offer spraying primer and ceiling white. I do 10 to 20 gallons a month. i use a Magnum DX by Graco. Got it at Home Depot after speaking with a rep at a trade demo one morning. It is small, simple to use and cheap... 300 bucks. i got the 50' hose and the long tip extension, xtra tip and preservatives. $400 and i sprayed thousands since February/march 2004. I offer primer and ceiling white, especially to high ceiling jobs. no color hassles. I use a pitch to home owners and builders that: "I do the heavy lifting and overhead work." They jump on it because do-it-yourself homeowners only want to apply pretty colors. primer and ceilings are too much workfor them. I am spraying my own house exterior now with great results.

I appreciate your input as it is quite helpful.
I do hope others will give their input too.
But I will definetly check into this product.

There is quite a bit of info in the graco forum. It depends on how much paint you will be using with it. My recommendation would be a near new titan 440i from Ebay (5-6 hundred), they will spray all you want, everyday, if you rebuild it. If you are going to shoot 200-500 gal/yr. a wagner 3/4hp twinstroke DIY pump (@$500 new) will shoot as well as anything but you wont get the same totall output (lifetime). If you are going to be doing wherehouses a pump @1 gpm. will last longer, shoot with 2 guns at once or a large tip size, and go through more paint between rebuilds. I think getting a basic unit and learning to use it works best, then after you're making good money with it get the rig of your dreams.

IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU WANT TO SPRAY AND ONCE YOU KNOW THAT THEN YOU WILL KNOW WHETHER YOU NEED A DIAPHRAGM PUMP OR A PISTON PUMP SPRAY.

IF YOU CONSIDER A PISTON PUMP YOU HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT DEADBAND WHICH IS SOMETHING THAT DIAPHRAGM USERS CAN IGNORE.

Dead band is the pressure range between which a pump stops and starts supplying paint to the gun. It is a characteristic of all PISTON PUMP paint sprayers.
Take the example of a piston pump operating at 3,000 PSI designed to have a 500 PSI dead band. At one point, the pump will turn on and pump material into the line until line pressure reaches 3,000 PSI; then the pump will turn off. Even though the pump is now off, the line remains charged and ready to spray material. When the gun is triggered, the line pressure drops to the spraying pressure of, say, 2,000 PSI. The line pressure will then drop further to 1,500 PSI, the pump will turn on again until line pressure once more reaches 2,000 PSI. The process will repeat itself, cycling between 1,500 PSI and 2,000 PSI while the gun is triggered. This 500 PSI is the dead band.

What about diaphragm pumps?Because diaphragm pumps run continuously, they supply material at an almost constant pressure. There is virtually no noticeable dead band with diaphragm pumps. You set the pressure you need to atomize your coating and that's the pressure you get.

If the dead band is too large, it causes thephenomenon known as winking. The line pressure drops too far before the pump turns on to compensate, and the result is that the sprayed fan width fluctuates--or winks.

Sometimes dead band is just there and doesn't really make a difference; at other times, especially when spraying thin coatings, dead band can be a real problem causing tails, winking, and poor atomization.

In the piston pump example above, a painter could spray standard latex paint without any problem. At full pressure (2,000 PSI), latex will atomize well; at 1,500 PSI, the other end of the dead band, latex will still atomize satisfactorily.
But if that painter switches to a thin coating such as a lacquer, he is dealing with a different situation. Lacquers typically atomize at around 800 PSI. To spray it at 2,000 PSI is somewhat equivalent to cracking a peanut with a 20-pound hammer; it's simply too much force. In addition to potentially being applied too heavily, the lacquer will bounce back, contaminate the air, and waste a lot of material.

The solution to this problem is to reduce the atomizing pressure of the sprayer. As the painter dials down to optimum pressure for atomizing lacquer (around 800 PSI), he encounters another problem. The system is now fully pressurized at 800 PSI, so the pump turns off. But because the dead band is 500 PSI, the pump doesn't turn on again until the line pressure is down to 300 PSI. The result, again, is tails, spitting, and unacceptable atomization.

At this point, the painter needs to reduce the dead band, which he cannot do because it is part of the pump design. In essence, he has to live with the situation.

He can, however, switch to a diaphragm pump. Remember, diaphragm pumps run continuously and have practically no dead band. They can, therefore, atomize coatings at lower pressures, reduce bounce back and increase transfer efficiency. In the end, the job will go faster and the painter will save material.

Bottom line: if a painter sprays a lot of thin coatings, he needs a sprayer that will atomize coatings at a lower PSI--typically, a diaphragm pump. If he chooses a piston pump for this service, he needs to make sure that the manufacturer somehow compensates for the pump's dead band. The better solution is a diaphragm pump. On average, a diaphragm pump will spray thin coatings more evenly and consistently than any piston pump

SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SPRAY?

WALT D

If you are only doing this twice a year, it is probably better to rent.

If you are determined to buy a machine, first look at your local used market, then try EBay. Buy quality over price, it will last longer and make you money.

Modern piston pumps with elctronic pressure control nearly eliminates the need for diaphraghm pumps. The key is the elctronic pressure control. Low cost piston pumps will have the high deadband, But with pumps like the LP Series from Airlessco you can get the low end Deadband to as low as 50 PSI. Graco Ultra Series works in a similar fashion, keeping a low deadband at all pressure settings.

The main worry you will have is going to be clean up and storage, if you dont do this right you will cause problems to any spray machine you buy. Low cost machines are more susceptible to this than the higher cost piston pumps.

Very intresting this deadband thing,learned something new.I would go with a titan 440 rig for what you need it for it is perfect. a little work horse and it does not have to be the I model the older ones work great I have the older 440 rig painted many interiors and exteriors and still have not had to repack it or had any major problems with it other than having to loosen the carbide whatever you call them flaps/balls because of improper flushing of the system and you can get them for a couple hundred bucks or less on ebay.

rw

PaintGuy (Gary)