Do you want to use outdoor wood paint with an airless spray gun? The choice of a spray gun nozzle is important. We will explain the airless painting technique to you before explaining how to choose the right nozzle for your airless spray gun when you want to paint outdoor wood in particular.
What is airless paine ?
An airless paint sprayer will spray paint at high pressure. The paint will pass through the nozzle of the sprayer to be sprayed on your wood. Unlike other paint guns, airless sprayers do not use air to spray paint. The wood paint is sprayed using an electronic motor. In general, airless paint offers a cleaner result than roller painting.
When you want to make airless paint, the nozzle is an important element. The nozzles will determine the angle and spray rate of your exterior wood paint. Choosing the right nozzle for your airless spray gun will give you several advantages :
A better finish. With a suitable nozzle, you can more easily control the thickness of the layers.
Less spray mist: An adapted nozzle limits the spray mist, thus limiting paint consumption.
Increased nozzle life: a suitable nozzle will wear less quickly than a nozzle that "forces".
There are a number of nozzles for airless guns on the market. Some are compatible for wood, others for metal. It is very difficult to use the same nozzle for two completely different projects.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE NOZZLE FOR YOUR AIRLESS SPRAY GUN?
CHOOSE THE JET WIDTH OF THE AIRLESS GUN NOZZLE
On each nozzle you will find three numbers to help you choose the right nozzle. The first number corresponds to the angle of the jet. If you have a 417 nozzle then the angle of the spray pattern will be 40°. If you multiply this first number by 5, you get the width of the spray pattern (spray gun 30 cm from the wooden surface to be painted). So for a 417 nozzle the spray width will be 4 x 5 = 20 cm spray width.
A large spray width allows large surfaces to be painted quickly. On the other hand, the consumption of wood paint will be higher. With a smaller angle, you will control your paint consumption but it will take longer to paint the wood. Small angles are often recommended for high-precision work. Don't hesitate to experiment to find the right balance. The larger the surface area of the exterior wood to be painted, the greater the spraying angle will need to be. We advise you to choose a nozzle with an angle of at least 40° for a large area of wood to be painted.
THE CHOICE OF THE SPRAY RATE OF THE AIRLESS NOZZLE
The last two digits are the spray rate of exterior wood paint (in thousandths of an inch). Generally speaking, the choice of spray rate depends on the application you wish to make (high finish, painting on large surfaces) and the material you wish to spray (acrylic wood paint, solvent-based paints, coatings, etc.).
APPLICATION OF EXTERIOR WOOD PAINT
For high finish applications, it is advisable to use nozzles with a diameter of 0.007 and 0.013 inches (last digit of the nozzle between 07 and 13). For professional airless paint applications, nozzle diameters between 0.015 and 0.033 inches (last digit of the nozzle between 15 and 33) are recommended. For high strength applications, nozzle diameters between 0.035 and 0.051 (last digit of nozzle between 35 and 51) are preferred.
THE TYPE OF EXTERIOR WOOD PAINT USED
The larger the diameter of the nozzles for airless spray guns, the greater the spray rate will be. The thicker the material to be sprayed, the larger the diameter should be. For example, to spray plaster, the nozzle diameter must be larger. You cannot use the same nozzle for all wood paints. You should refer to the manufacturer to find out what diameter he recommends for the composition of these paints.
With paints from the Anova Wood range, (theExterior Wood Paint PBE900 and the Exterior Wood White Paint BLE900), we recommend using nozzles with a diameter of 0.017 (last digit of nozzle 17). When acrylic wood paints are used, a nozzle diameter between 0.015 and 0.019 inches (last digit of nozzle 15 to 19) is recommended.
For painting exterior wood with a spray gun, we generally recommend nozzles 417, 517 or 617.
