OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Victa Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers Airless Spray Gun. Any good?

I saw one of these airless spray guns with the screw on bottle underneath the spray head at Aldi and thought it may present an alternative method to the aerosol can or compressor spray gun set up to paint my mower base in hammer finish paint.
A couple of advantages I have learned is less need to thin the paint, if at all, so less coats required and a nice well defined cover may be possible.
the other is less overspray drifting around the working area.
What do other think?

I would be interested to see how one goes I've heard that they can have uneven air flow which would or could make it hard to get an even coat.

G'day folks,
One thing about all of these units is, if you need to thin the paint with actual lacquer thinners, forget about them.
Edit: Just re-read the instructions for the Aldi unit I have on hand, and any paint with the red 'Class 3 DG - Flammable Liquid' hazard diamond on the tin, is verboten.

If it's an enamel or oil based paint that can be thinned with mineral turpentine, they do work, but the finish isn't up to motor panel standards, by a long way.

I bought one of those Wagner airless spray guns in 1964, only used it once and never bothered again

I guess the hard way is worth it then.

yeah i agree ,give it a miss. they are good for painting timber and walls. with water based paints

Yup, + a big 1 to that.

That's the reason I bought the Aldi unit - after just one job of painting a sawn-finish paling fence with a brush, I swore I'd never do it that way again!

In 1964 I bought a compressor, had one ever since

1985 for me - a McMillan with cast iron V-twin pump, and it's still going strong!

On a very knowledgeable mate's advice, the first oil change saw it filled with 'Amsoil Synthetic Compressor Fluid', and that had scarcely discoloured when I changed it after 10 years' use! Really does seem to drop the wear rate dramatically.

McMillan, they were a good compressor, mine was a parallel twin Clisby. About 15 years ago my son took it back to Genco in Richmond where I bought it and told the bloke on the counter he had a compressor that was a warranty job. When he pulled the compressor out of the bag and put it on the counter the bloke nearly fell over saying they had discontinued that model compressor in 1964 and gone to the V-twin. Needless to say the warranty had expired about 35 years earlier

Ahh, good old Genco, hidden underneath the Richmond railway station - they had ads in the Weekly Times for donkeys years.

My pedestal drilling machine came from them; it's still going well, too.

I have a cheapy direct drive compressor I got from Aldi as a beginner model for $80, down from about $130. I have had it since about 2010 and the only thing that has failed is the regulator, which I removed and I use an in line one if needed. It does all my cleaning tasks and will run all the cheap air tools I have obtained since such as a rattle gun, drill, metal shears, air riveter and small air chisel set, though the rather loud pump activates very often during use.
Only good for running a touch up spray gun.

Well Mowerfreak, ya gets what ya pays for - and there's nothing at all wrong with that, if it satisfies your actual needs.

I knew as someone making his first foray into getting a compressor mainly for cleaning duties, I could not go wrong with this buy and I was definitely right, for domestic duties.

BTW, thanks everyone for your help in understanding the uses and limitations of these airless sprayers.

G'day MF,
I've done something similar when we needed a lowish-output compressed air source at a lab I ran, for some trials that involved bubbling air through solutions.

Supercrap had a $99 special at the time; small direct-drive compressor mounted on a tank, with an accessories kit including air blowdown nozzle, kero and paint guns, regulator etc. So I just grabbed one of those, and a longish air hose, on the company AmEx card.

The long hose was so that I could place the compressor in a far corner of the back room, and not have to put up with the noise in the lab itself!
De nada. They do have their uses, but fine finishes surely aren't one of them.