Airless Paint Sprayer Tips Explained

Using a worn tip can cost you hundreds of dollars in wasted paint and labor.

Airless paint sprayer tips explained.

Entry level sprayers and diy models often don t have the sufficient delivery rate or spraying pressure to handle more demanding jobs. Lets use the spray tip number 515 as an example. Visit our blog for more content on airless and air assisted spraying. Here is a general guideline for airless paint sprayer tips as far as orifice sizes go as compared to the paint material to be sprayed.

The numbers on the airless sprayer tip will look something like fft310 this number is actually one of the most popular airless spray finish tips. These tips cost less but are much harder to clean and spray a similar quality fan to rac v tips. Spray tips slide into a hole in the front of the airless paint sprayer gun. A basic rule of thumb is to use small tip sizes such as 0 009in 0 011in 0 013in for thin low viscosity materials such as stains lacquers medium tip size such as 0 015 0 017 0 019 for acrylic latex enamel emulsion primer etc then.

A 415 tip for example would have an 8 in wide fan while a 515 would have a 10 in. The 3 digit number 5 1 5 tells you the spray angle and thus the fan width and the hole size in thousands of an inch. All coatings contain solids that are abrasive some more than others. Most airless paint spraying tips have a three digit code.

Understanding the airless spray tip number. So when you re looking at the sequence pay attention to the numbers. When using these you should have several on hand. A significant measurement used to determine the ability of an airless sprayer is its gpm or gallons per minute.

Because when a tip wears the size of the tip orifice increases and the fan. Also consider that when a tip wears the orifice gets bigger so in nearly all cases you will select a tip that is one size below what the pumps maximum rating is so as not to go beyond. While graco tips are made out of the highest grade of tungsten carbide the most abrasive resistant material available all spray tips will wear with normal use. Sometimes there are letters in front of it as well.

This graco paint spraying video includes great tips on how to use your electric airless paint sprayer including pressure adjustment how to test quality of. Flat tips were the original airless paint sprayer tips but many still use and prefer them. How many gallons per minute a sprayer can deliver determines what the largest tip size is that can be used with it. It can be deciphered as.

Doubling the first digit tells you the spray fan width with the gun held 12 in. As they are harder to clean they should be used only with clean strained and filtered materials and may not be appropriate when changing of tips is a nuisance such as on a ladder.