Graco Quickshot?

[Michael Drew]

I really detest finishing...... It's just tedious and the clean up makes my head hurt just thinking about it. I currently use a LVLP sprayer. Its the Qualspray AM 8008/5008 two sprayer kit. It does a good job, but again, the aggravation I go through getting it to spray just right, then all the clean up makes the prospect of using it mind numbing.

I was surfing the all powerful YT and ran across a video that made me ponder buying the Graco Quickshot. But $1400 is a pretty hard pill to swallow. I am just a hobbyist wood worker, and rarely use anything other than a clear poly coating, so this thing sounds great for my needs. But damn, $1400???

I do need to recoat my home this year (log house), and this system would be ideal, as I have to use ladders to re-coat the logs.

Does anyone here use this or have any experience with it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8BIpNzdh7M&t=10s

[George Yetka]

HAHA. I have been researching this thing, also because of Bent. I have a fuji q4 that I have never used and was thinking of swapping it for one of these. A local guy has one for 900 brand new.

[John TenEyck]

Unless you primarily want to spray paint, I don't see an advantage over what you have. The line and gun hold an ounce of paint. The Qualspray has less once you drain it. Clean up couldn't be easier on the Qualspray. I can't see how it could be as easy on the airless gun. And then you have a pump that will need to have lube put in it between jobs.

Get a piece of paper and write down the N/N size, cup pressure, gun pressure, turns open for the fluid flow, and fan setting for each product you spray. If you dilute it or add Extender, write that down, too. You only have to do this once. In the future, whenever you spray that product just set the gun up with those settings and you should be good to go with only maybe a minor adjustment, if any.

Do not expect a gun that gives a great finish on a cabinet or piece of furniture to work well spraying something on your house, or vice versa.

Clean up should not be a big deal if you only spray WB products. I put up/take down sheet poly hung on nails in the floor joists for a temporary spray booth. 5 minutes max. A paper drop cloth on the floor and I'm ready to go. My DC vents outside and is the exhaust for my spray booth using a hose drop from an adjacent machine. Zero setup. Soap and water cleanup of the gun is a 5 minute task. It doesn't and shouldn't have to be hard.

John

[Jim Becker]

Jason says unequivocally that the Quickshot Plus that he bought after a demo at the local SW store has changed his view of finishing which he generally hates. He mentioned that again in his latest video about things he wishes he got sooner, etc. If I didn't already have a great HPLV setup, I'd have already purchased the QuickShot...and may still. I understand that $1400 might seem like a lot, but price out a high quality turbine system with a decent gun and the PPS system...and that one will not handle the thicker stuff as well while the QS will.

BTW, I use a Qualspray 6008 with the PPS system and it's darn easy to clean and maintain, at least for me.

[Tom M King]

I looked at that, and as an airless user for over four decades, nothing about it appeals to me. You're limited to a quart at the time. As far as doing the outside of a house or cabin off a ladder, I'd much rather use a hose and something that can pull out of a five gallon bucket. I wouldn't want to go up a ladder and not be able to spray everything I could reach with one trip up and down the ladder.

I use tip extensions a lot, and that gun looks a bit light duty for a tip extension. You can spray a lot of things with a tip extension and no need to have a ladder in the picture.

No way having that thing on your waist is more mobile than just using a longer hose.

I think it's mainly targeted for painting contractors that do small jobs.

With a good gun and tips available these days, you can spray anything as good as a turbine HVLP stopping only at automotive thin finishes. Once you get used to a system, it's really not a big deal to clean any airless rig. People think you lose a lot of paint, but that's without a planned out systme. I have some threads on this very forum about it. For any job of any size like a full sized kitchen, I'll choose the airless rig over others that I have.

I don't see that the Quickshot can do anything better than a full sized rig, but looks like it costs less than a good one. It uses the same FF tips that any other airless rig can use with the right tip guard. If I had a job where I was only going to use a quart of something, I would use a cordless handheld one. I have the first generation of Graco cordless guns, and I rarely use it, but will if it's the best for a small job.

edited to add: I glanced through a few youtube videos, and the people who really like it have not much, or no experience using airless before. This rig doesn't do anything that other types of airless systems don't do. It's just presented in a different package. The things some of the woodworkers said that they like about it was just regular airless stuff. Two different users had a leaking problem with it.

[Jim Becker]

Tom, it's not intended as a "big job" airless and does not replace the "big job" airless systems. It's a detail sprayer which just happens to also shoot clears very well. Typical use cases are spraying cabinets in-situ, spraying windows and doors "on the ground" and now, woodworking pursuits.

[Tom M King]

I understand, but the OP was talking about coating the outside of his log home too. I would still suggest buying a cheaper regular airless rig and a better gun for the same money or less. Looking at the videos it doesn't do anything better than regular airless does, except for maybe storing in a slightly smaller space.

The leaking the two people had with that gun is a bit worrisome too. One complained about it, and tried fixing it by using a wrench on the tip guard, which you don't do. The other was just dripping paint all over the cabinet door he was painting, the floor, and his hand but didn't say anything about it.

Not impressed. You can adjust pressure on any of them, and as long as you have the tip guard that the Fine Finish Low Pressure tips will work in, any of them will spray anything this rig will at least as good. I wouldn't want to be limited to one quart and then having to refill. Looks too messy.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The small capacity is the appeal the Quick Shot has to me. My old Graco Nova requires 3/4 of a gallon to prime. This keeps me from using it for small projects. The Quick Shot is not well suited for house painting. One of the most versatile small paint pumps I use is (was) the Wagner paint pump with a hopper and diaphragm pump.

Too bad they are a thing of the past. They are great for small houses as well as cabinets.
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[Tom M King]

Amount of paint it takes to prime the regular rigs depends on the hose you're using. When I'm spraying inside a house, just one room or set of cabinets, I use a 1/4" x 25'. That was the smallest hose they made back when I bought it, but now you can buy a 3/16 x 15'. I haven't bought one yet, but have been tempted to. I just push what's in the rig back into the can with water and stop when you see clear. If I'm spraying a whole house, I use up to 150 feet of 3/8 hose. It does take a lot to prime that long, big hose.

They do make pro rigs that use a hopper, but I've never really had the need for one of those.

For small jobs, I like the handheld cordless because I can put the whole thing in a sink to clean it. It doesn't take any less time than cleaning a regular rig though.

[Michael Drew]

Appreciate the discussion.

I am looking for convenience. I work out of my 2 car garage. There will be a day I have a dedicated work shop, but that is not today. I would have a spray room, if I had a dedicated shop. This particular set up caught my attention, because it does appear to fit my current needs as well as being a system that requires little clean up and maintenance. Yes, I realize that I can more than likely take the time to figure out a systematic approach to using what I have now. I guess I'm inherently lazy or I would have already done that.

When I re-coat my house, it's more of a maintenance thing, where I sand the top 1/4 of the logs, then re-coat the that portion of the logs. I use a brush and bucket now. Up//Down extension ladders for several days. This system seems like it might be a good alternative to a 4" brush. But having said that, even if I use a sprayer, I will have to back brush anyways.

Does anyone here use this system?

[andrew whicker]

I have the graco cordless (ultra). I don't love it. It spits just often enough to make me only use it for primer. (edit: I did read that the quickshot is better made. But consider: the Ultra cost me $700 ish and it isn't great. I'm not saying one way or the other but this new product can't be too far off quality wise. I personally give a big no until it's been out for a few years and you have worthwhile reviews coming in)

I think theoretically a quickshot is a decent idea, but not at $1400.

I'm not as experienced as most people on here, but I'm learning: airless (or air assisted airless) for large surface areas and hvlp for small stuff.

Unfortunately, I think both is the answer. I mean to look into whether I can use a short hose w/ the graco 390 to help reduce how much paint etc I have to use. Something like that will be my next airless. Or maybe get a job to pay for an airless assist and call it good. HVLP + airless assist seems to be a winning combo, but expensive. Not sure how far down the airless world I want to go. Both setups seem to cost the same amount after everything is said and done... tips, guns, etc.



I also think my hvlp gun is easier to clean than my airless. Especially without a pressure pot (edit: NOT cup.. my bad).

[John TenEyck]

Andrew, if your HVLP gun has a pressure cup, change it to a 3M PPS H/O pressure cup. It's incredibly easy to clean up after use, with almost zero waste. Moreover, if it's a product you frequently spray, you don't even have to clean the inner bag. Just put a plug in the outlet port and sit it on your shelf until needed again.

John

[andrew whicker]

Andrew, if your HVLP gun has a pressure cup, change it to a 3M PPS H/O pressure cup. It's incredibly easy to clean up after use, with almost zero waste. Moreover, if it's a product you frequently spray, you don't even have to clean the inner bag. Just put a plug in the outlet port and sit it on your shelf until needed again.

John

Its on my to do list for sure for small spray jobs (most of my stuff at this point anyway). Maybe it should have been my first gun (vs the gravity fed I got). I didn't know enough at the time.

I have the Fuji Stainless 2 qt pressure pot. Unfortunately, I first bought their T series gravity gun. So the stupid line goes up and over my gun, which is annoying. Someday, I'll get the gun w/ the lower hose entry. I wish I had the Apollo gun.. it has multiple entries in one gun so that you can put the fluid thru top or bottom. Oh well. Too late now. I have three tips for my Fuji already.

Do you use separate tubes between the pressure pot and the gun for colors, white and clear? It seems to clean up really well, but just something I've thought about.

[Jim Becker]

Its on my to do list for sure!

Do you use separate tubes between the pressure cup and the gun for colors, white and clear? It seems to clean up really well, but just something I've thought about

The pressure feed to the cup is isolated from the finish by the flexible cup liner. If you remember the Playtex baby bottles that had the collapsable inserts to keep kiddos from getting overly gassy while feeding, the 3M PPS system works in the same way but with external pressure. The pressure to the cup (about 5 PSI) compresses the flexible container that is actually holding the finish which in turn allows you to fine tune your finish flow to accommodate almost anything from very thin to reasonably thick viscosities and get good spray results. (and holding the gun in ANY position, too)

[andrew whicker]

The pressure feed to the cup is isolated from the finish by the flexible cup liner. If you remember the Playtex baby bottles that had the collapsable inserts to keep kiddos from getting overly gassy while feeding, the 3M PPS system works in the same way but with external pressure. The pressure to the cup (about 5 PSI) compresses the flexible container that is actually holding the finish which in turn allows you to fine tune your finish flow to accommodate almost anything from very thin to reasonably thick viscosities and get good spray results. (and holding the gun in ANY position, too)

Sorry, I'm getting my pressure CUP and pressure POT thoughts mixed up. The pressure CUP certainly sounds wonderful for all the reasons you gave.

I meant to ask about a pressure POT (which is what I have). That line is about 6 ft and has to be cleaned after every usage.

Sorry for the confusion on my end.