I went to repaint a shed with half a can of latex paint that had been
sitting 30 years. After 100 square feet I was tired and quit.

Today I decided to try my pump-up sprayer. Not having to keep loading my
brush was helpful, but the stream petered out. Then I remembered. Back
when I painted a lot, I normally thinned latex paint for brushing. Out
of the can, its good for rolling, but the viscosity puts a lot of drag
on a brush, and its hard to brush paint into cracks and corners.

I poured in about 5% water and stuck my drill-powered stirrer in. At
first it sprayed great, laying down paint in strips 2€� wide. It soon
petered out. I poured it back in the can and continued.

With just a brush, it was much easier than yesterday. With less
viscosity, the brush moved easily. The paint spread quickly and flowed
into cracks and corners. Naturally Id had trouble using a sprayer with
paint that was too thick for brushing.

Paint stuck to the exterior of the sprayer parts, but the inside cleaned
so well that I didnt bother to disassemble the pump or valve. The
achilles heel was the filter. My tip orifice is 1.25mm, but the filter
uses 0.5mm squares. I call that bad engineering, needlessly restricting
viscous fluids.

I believe the other problem was that the paint wasnt completely mixed.
A paint can has corners where the thickest paint can hide from a
stirrer. Likewise, the sprayer tank has places for paint to hide from
the currents a stirrer generates. I should have mixed it in a
bowl-shaped container. I think the thickest paint clogged the filter.

There was another problem. To squirt paint, either I had to lay the
brush down, or I had to hold the pump handle and the spray handle in one
hand. One-handed sprayers cost $10 to $20. Solo has one with a swivel
nozzle. That would be great for painting overhead.

A neighbor wants me to paint her porch ceiling. She says it isnt much.
Any overhead job is €œmuch.€� You keep loading your brush and tipping it
up, and eventually paint runs down the handle. Besides, a brush with
paint in the heel is hard to clean.

Ill bet a job like that would be a lot easier with a sprayer in one
hand to apply paint and a brush in the other hand.