3 Safety Tips When Using an Airless Sprayer

This is Chris, you got to hope here on Paint Life TV today. I'm going to give you three safety tips. Three, when it comes to using an airless sprayer. The first safety tip I want to talk about today is paint injections. Now an airless sprayer, you can be running anywhere from 400 psi all the way up to 3,000 psi. And do that large pressure coming out of the gun, the tip of the gun, the spray tip, atomizes the paint. It sends it out in a fan pattern. And it sends it out in high pressure. If you actually get your hand, any part of your body in front of this gun right here, and the trigger accidentally pulls, you can possibly get injected with paint. And injected with paint is the paint actually getting shot by the gun underneath your skin. That is a very serious injury. If you ever get injected with paint, do not. Whatever you do, do not go home and try to treat yourself. You need to immediately go to an emergency room, a hospital, and be treated. Because if you're not treated and treated properly, you could lose a lamb. You could even lose your life from it. If you're ever using an airless sprayer, you should always have access to an injection card. I keep one in my wallet. Whenever I'm working in sprain and an injection card is an instruction little pamphlet that walks through the emergency personnel how to treat you if you are injected with paint. Because it's not a very common injury. You could end up going to the ER, and they may not know how to treat you right away. And you want to be treated immediately as soon as you get there with no hesitation. You don't want them to have to be looking it up online, et cetera. So carry an injection card. The way you would actually get injected with paint is somehow your hand is somehow or a part of your body is somehow in front of this guard right here, in front of the tip, when the trigger is actually pulled accidentally or purposely. You want to keep your hands. You want to keep your body out of this area right here. Anytime you're ever messing with this tip guard, if I'm taking the guard off, I want to keep my hands not on top right here to unscrew it. I want to keep it to the side. Anytime I'm adjusting the tip, I want to keep it to the side and not in front. And anytime you're messing with that, another tip when it comes to injections, so you don't get injected, there is a safety on all airless spray guns. Make sure that thing is functioning properly. Anytime I want to mess with this guard, anything up here, I want to put that gun in safe. Now I can't accidentally or purposely pull that trigger. When I'm ready to go, I'll take it off safe and start spraying. So injections, very serious issue. Keep your hand away from the face of this thing. Don't ever get injected with paint. If you do, immediately go to the ER, the hospital. The next tip I want to talk about is wearing safety glasses. Now, an airless sprayer, you could be kicking out, you'll 3,000 psi or more. I'm going to be spraying stucco right here. Anytime you're spraying, you could be spraying a surface that could kick up debris. It could kick some stucco off at you. Some rig could go in your eyes. You could be spraying overhead. You can get fallout from overspray. Anything could possibly be getting in your eyes. You don't want chemicals in your eyes. You don't want dust and debris. In your eyes, could you actually could damage your eyes? Wear some form of safety eye wear when you're actually spraying with an airless sprayer. It can be kind of a pain the next sometimes. If you got a lot of overspray, oversprays getting on your glasses, it makes it hard to see. It is better getting overspray on the glasses than actually getting it in your eyes. So wear eye protection whenever you're using an airless sprayer. The final thing I want to talk about when it comes to safety when using an airless sprayer is a respirator. So anytime you're using an airless sprayer, you're atomizing paint. You're breaking up the particles into small droplets and you're actually atomizing the clay. You're atomizing silica dust. Whatever chemicals are inside the paint, you're going to have kind of this cloud of stuff around you as you're spraying. You don't want to breed that stuff in. When I'm outdoors, I typically use a P95 mask, a dust particulate mask, typically a silicone one or a cloth one like an RZ mask. I'll be using that to spray with. If you're inside and using latex products, you're using oil-based products, lacquer-based products, polys, anything, you should be using a charcoal filter mask and that will actually filter out the chemicals that are in the air. I'm not concerned about the chemicals outside because I got a lot of ventilation when blowing. So I don't have this cloud around me or in a room that I'm actually breeding this stuff. If you're outside spraying chemicals like oil-based products, lacquers, and stuff, it actually is good to use a charcoal filter mask. But I'm spraying low VOC products, exterior products out here that I'm not concerned about the chemicals with. Anytime you're using an airless sprayer, you should be wearing a respirator. Three safety tips.