Don't wish to hard. You don't need or want one. Spend the $ on quality brushes, roller, covers, etc, and especially paint and primers. This means shopping at a real paint store. Which means NOT Lowes and or Home Depot.

I've already painted one kitchen and a number of shelves with decent (not great but decent) brushes and a roller. I've also painted several projects with spray paint in a can. Overall, for things that are not walls, I prefer spray action (for ease of use and better finish) and would rather be able to try spraying paint onto things like cabinet doors.

good luck

I did a search using the term "paint sprayer" on this forum. I found some previous topics, but, nothing with a lot of information. You may find it helpful for your circumstances.
Don

Kristin I would be very careful using an airless sprayer inside an occupied house. If you do you will have to spend a LOT of time covering/taping everything that you dont wont paint on. If you dont know what you are doing things can get really messy. Also consider the clean up time of the machine. If I was going to recommend an economical airless sprayer I would look at the Ryobi. About $200 at Home Depot. Before I get nailed by the professionals on here just do an internet search for reviews and decide from that. I just primed my entire new construction with it, and all trim, and had no issues. I did not use it though to paint walls.....used rollers and brushes for that.

That's a great point, War_Eagle. In my case I'm looking at houses with basements so it would be relatively simple to plastic-off a section of one for a spray area :)

I wanted to update this to say that not too long ago I ran across a blog post describing the Critter sprayer. I bought one and I LOVE IT. I used it to paint my kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts, the doors and base of my china cabinet, and I'm going to use it for the trim and doors I need to do all over this house and for reapplying waterproofer to some of my outdoor wood furniture.

It is not any harder to use than an aerosol can of spray paint. Cleanup is a cinch. I spray in my basement over a big plastic dropcloth wearing a mask. The finish is great, and it cuts down the amount of time actually spent painting by a ridiculous amount. (I still have to do prep, but I would have to do that anyway, except for a trivial amount of time doing things like masking off drawer fronts.)

It was worth every cent.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I just got this one:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wagner-PaintREADY-Station-HVLP-Sprayer-0529017/204218851?N=5yc1vZarttZ1le

Tried it once. It's OK but produced a slight stipple on the piece using Behr latex acrylic enamel. I;m hoping that when using BM Advance, it will flow out level and flat.

Here is a link that might be useful: wagner

I just bought the Critter too! Can't wait to get it.

Well.....

SPAM again shows its head here!

There IS NO good "Home-use" sprayer for UNDER $300...PERIOD.
The GOOD ones that properly atomize modern/thicker paints...WITHOUT having to ridiculously thin it...are over $500. This takes POWER. Something the typical h/o machines JUST DON'T HAVE.

Not trying to be harsh/snooty here.
Simply....that's just the way it is!

Faron

Are you serious, Faron? Spam? Um, no. I started this thread almost a year ago, and when I happened to find a sprayer I liked, I updated it.

Since you're a pro and I'm not, our criteria for what makes a good sprayer are probably different, so I won't say you're wrong. But I disagree with you, obviously. For my purposes (and I'm pretty picky), and probably for a lot of home painters' purposes, the Critter is awesome. And for $50 it's hard to go wrong, even if it doesn't end up meeting someone's expectations.

P.S. Faron, if you had bothered to look at the Amazon link you would have seen that the Critter hooks up to an air compressor. That's where the "POWER" comes from.

When I hover/clink on the link for "Critter-sprayer" in your earlier post, it shows a jumping Llama.

Mistaken link maybe?

That's why I thought spam...

Faron

BWAHAHA, I had a cut & paste malfunction. That's embarrassing.

Correct link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Critter sprayer for real this time

WTH?!?!?

No Llama's?!?!?! ;-)
I'm getting concerned about you now...;-)

(I wonder why she was linking a Llama anyway??? hee-heee!)

But seriously...there's a REASON why good spray equipment ain't cheap. It takes much more ooomph than people realize/believe to properly atomize todays paints.

If a painter showed-up with that little contraption at my house, they wouldn't get in the door...
Again...NOT trying to be snooty here...believe-it-or-no!

Faron

I plan on using the Critter for some outdoor furniture, pergola and interior doors.

Just hope DH doesn't get a hold of it... Last year I had black spray paint left over from doing outdoor cast aluminum furniture - now all my gnomes are painted black. :(

It's not going to work for walls, that's for sure. It has a similar spray pattern to ye olde Rustoleum can. But it's way more versatile. I didn't have any problem with the furniture and large cabinet doors I did.