My Wagner Paint Sprayer

The Flexio 590

I don't like painting.  At all.  But, when you own a house, painting just becomes a necessity - more often than one would think.  And I try to avoid whenever I can.  Probably the most tedious painting (we'll use painting and staining interchangeably in this post) that's been consistently required is the fencing around 173.  I mean hours and hours of painting.  Mind numbing painting. Get the point?  

The Ultimate Avoidance

Back in 2001, and annually for many years thereafter, the fence was stained by brush. Every. Single. Slat. By. Hand! It always took forever. Well - no more! 

Back in 2018 when I noticed the fences beginning to sour, I went out and bought a Wagner Flexio 590 paint sprayer, I just wasn't going to go through that tedium again!

The Job

I know you've probably been reading the last few posts about the fences being replaced (it's been going on since April), so you already know there's a lot of painting (staining) that needed doin':

As I mentioned back in April, pre-staining the fence panels proceeded, and this became the inaugural use of the paint sprayer!

A Learning Curve

There was a bit of a learning curve with the Wagner sprayer, and going was slow in the beginning, but by the end of the first day of prep work, panel spraying time had greatly improved. Take it from ol' Opa George - it's probably worth the couple minutes it takes to read all 2 pages of instructions!

Angela from Small Fry Creations did an excellent how-to video on dialing in your settings on the sprayer, probably the most important part of using this tool!

Wait a minute!  I just remembered another incredibly important part of using this sprayer - it comes with two tips, always have one clean, and switch out with the clean one every few minutes.  It only takes a couple seconds to swap the tips, and it'll save you a lot of frustration!

Product Description

I suppose I could write out some of the technical data and description of the sprayer, but I'm just going to include the info from Amazon:

The Wagner Flexio 590 is an indoor/outdoor hand-held sprayer kit for all projects. The X-Boost turbine produces unmatched power and provides adjustable control, full coverage, and low overspray. The Flexio 590 comes with two nozzles to meet the needs of any project. The iSpray nozzle delivers a professional finish spaying broad surfaces with residential un-thinned paints. The Detail Finish nozzle is ideal for small projects and fine finishing. The Flexio provides advanced user comfort being 50% quieter and 20% lighter than traditional airless sprayers.

Review(s)

So here's my opinion of the Wagner Flexio 590:  I love it!  Staining a 6'x8' panel went from 3 days (hyperbole, but you get the point) with a brush to about 4 or 5 minutes with the sprayer!  What a difference, and after learning how to use the sprayer properly, the stain went on evenly and the coverage was excellent!  It isn't a perfect tool, there were drips from the nozzle and the tips needed changing frequently, but I think most of that is operator headspace and timing. 

The gun is extremely easy to use. It is also extremely easy to clean up after your done too. It comes with a detailing tank and wide nozzle tank for all kinds of jobs. I'm sure this thing shoots out paint as good as it does stains.

Tips: follow the directions don't be one of those people overblown with so much pride you don't want to read the manual on how to use and clean it. Also spend some time using the gun with water filled in the tank and play with the settings against your fence outside this will allow you to get use to your gun and know what's a good spray width and amount of material you want coming out of the gun. For the first coat I went wide with gun on 3 and full width with knob at the top 3 setting away from fence boards. When I got to my second coat I tuned it down to 2 with everything else the same. My second coat only took me 10 min to do the deck. - Review Genius, on Amazon May 25, 2020

The Tool Manual:

Click to read all two pages of the manual!

One last thing, I love the case it came in - everything fits back in perfectly!

Immer Arbeit!