You can purchase little swabby things that check paint for lead. That way you’d know what you’re dealing with. I definitely wouldn’t sand it you have lead paint though.

Thank you,
Athena Karos

Your work is beautiful, inspiring, and freaky good. I will never be that skilled but if I can use the exact paint and color, maybe I can play like it looks as great as yours. Anxiously awaiting the color specifics for Sherwin Williams. Thanks!

We are using our bigger trim gun, an 18 gauge, and it’s working out fine. We have only done a small area so far and working out the bugs before we move onto other areas. Just ordered some feather fingers that might help with getting the diagonal cuts more precise on the table saw since at times there can be small gaps to try to fill with paint or spackle. I am not so sure if caulking is the answer either. The caulk around my windows eventually cracks. So shooting for a better fit instead. I love the idea that we don’t have to remove window and door trim to install this tongue and groove look ; )

We realized our hand painting and rolling wasn’t providing a finish we were hoping for on the tongue and groove. I really didn’t want to go down that paint sprayer isle but relented and began researching this whole paint sprayer thing. O M G ! You are so right this sector and you were not exaggerating. They ARE making things much more complicated than it needs to be. There are so many brands and models it feels a bit like a nut shell game the way they deliberately make this much more confusing than it needs to be. You take two steps forward and one step back with all this. If I am having a hard time ferreting this out I can just image how others are dealing with it or not dealing with it. It is also making me a bit peeved and wanting to adjust my expectations lower and not be led around by these companies. It was touch and go whether I was willing to play their game on all this.

Since you bought your sprayer . . . I was thinking there had to be a newer, better, cheaper model that can do both oil and water based paints. Well so far the Greco 390 is still the best one from what I can tell for the money, but the price has not improved. I feel these things are over priced for DIYers. I could spend less for one that just does water based paints but the reality is I know we will want to use oil with stains on fences or decks or oil paints on furniture and cabinets. There was this adapter for 85.00 you could use oil with water based Greco sprayers but the reviews for it was one star on Amazon which was not convincing.

I really think DIYers are not specialists and these units need to be able to handle both types of paints. I totally agree once you buy one of these sprayers hopefully you won’t have to buy another one and spend a lot of time dealing with the way these things are marketed. I give them a one star or F for the way they market these. I can see why some just give up or buy the wrong sprayer and this can’t be great for business but then again I think many folks end up going cheap and buying up as they learn they can’t do much with the cheaper models. So maybe it is in their best interest to confuse consumers? I do think there is a reason they do this maybe the strategy is to lure them in with cheaper models and then paint them into the corner with how limited or inadequate it is to get them to buy another one.

I have room to store just one sprayer, so it has to be a multi-tasker. Plus it seems like a headache having to learn how to use these units with certain settings and paints. Learning how to use one machine seems like less of a mind bender for this multi-tasking DIYer. For me as a DYers we end up being a jack/jill of all trades and a master of none. Having to learn all the quirks of one sprayer and paint brand is about as much as I want to sink into this whole paint sprayer thing.

I think it comes down to making more money with selling many models rather than making one good model that does it all for a reasonable price for DIY consumers. I would never buy a faucet that only had a cold water handle why would I buy a water based paint sprayer only?

I looked at other brands but it seems like Greco is the leader in this sector for now but if someone really decided to break from the pack on this and had a better approach I think it would sell well. We plan to use it a lot for remodeling and needed one that would hold up. We are older and and creaky and the thought of rolling all that paint out is something that will take us forever to do. I did wince when I clicked Submit Order since I really hated spending so much for just a paint sprayer for DIYer. I tried Sherwin Williams but they were charging 779.99 with sale starting March 1 but found a better deal with Portland Compressor online versus their Ebay venue and was able to buy the 390 for 699.00 plus tax. Amazon wanted 850.00! So I would say shop around before you buy since the markups on these things can be significant. The 390 seems to be the entry level model into their professional line of offerings but seems to hold us better than the lower priced Greco versions.

Right now I have a love hate feeling about this sprayer but maybe as we figure it out there will be more love down the road. I do think these sprayers get a significant amount of negative reviews and after reading so many you wonder if this is really a good idea. Many seem to not be able to figure out what they are doing wrong with them and I have to partly blame the companies for creating all the confusion and anxiety with the way they market them.

We appreciated watching you spray your cabinet door with this sprayer on the post. You made it look easy and doable and I can envision being able to effortlessly spray our cabinet doors down the road with practice and experimenting : )

sawdust girl… great work. currently remolding trim/woodwork in our house and also have question about the white. local sw only carries extra white stock in sg pro classic acrylic latex… very close to bm decorator but slightly less grey. did you match the bm or just use the extra? really like the look of the white you have. thx for any info you can provide.