The Paint Sprayer Plots Murder

After cleaning out the back garage with a pressure washer it was finally time to paint. My dad had picked up two used industrial paint sprayers at an auction really cheap and we'd planned to use one to paint the interior of the back garage.

The sprayers had to be cleaned as they'd been put away dirty. Brent spent several evenings soaking the sprayers and the hoses to try and convince the debris to find a new home. I was working one night and got a call from a frustrated man stating the paint sprayer was trying to kill him. Controlling my giggling I managed to ask what happened and why an inanimate object would seek his death?

Like all good stories it starts with the use of a large commercial compressor. Brent was using the compressor to blow the left over paint through seventy feet of high pressure hose. A chunk of dried paint lodged itself inside the hose refusing to budge while the back pressure of air started to build. Brent turned off the compressor, but how to release the pressure? I'm grateful he specifically told me he did not peer down the end of the hose to "look for" the debris, but he did decide to put the end of the hose into a bucket of dirty water instead.

While getting up to move the debris came lose and flew out of the end of the hose, bounced off the wall and struck Brent in the side of the head. The back pressure of air blew into the water covering Brent liberally with a layer of filthy, sandy wetness.

Cold, dirty, wet and headachy Brent limped, as all injured people do, into the house and promptly called me to tell me the tale of how the paint sprayer tried to kill him. Brent was not laughing.

A few days later Brent has recovered and is working on the paint sprayer that plotted his death when the whole thing stops working. I could tell he wanted to kick the sprayer, but how can you kick a machine while it's down? Brent got even by feeding the sprayer unfiltered old paint that was so thick and dirty it clogged the sprayer and gun forcing us to lose another painting day to hunt down a new filter for the gun.

Where did we get this old paint you ask? We gathered. We went to family and friends and gathered all the old paint. We then took the old paint home and spend an entire afternoon sitting on the driveway opening gallon after gallon of paint. We mixed mostly white and some blue together and came up with twelve gallons of industrial gray. Rather than filter the paint through a pair of old pantyhose Brent just started spraying.

It was a lovely colour and it should have only taken a few hours to paint the entire building, but it was starting to take several days because: the paint gun got jammed, so we got a new filter for the sprayer; then we lost the tip to the spray gun; then we needed a new gun filter. We finally got it all set up then the sudden death of the paint sprayer ruined the day (I guess Brent got even with that sprayer); then it started to rain.

We moved on to the back up paint sprayer with glee in our hearts, but now were were out of paint. The best and cheapest place to buy paint is Ollie's in Western New York. A quick trip over the border to buy fifteen gallons worth of Sand Castle Beige, a new filter and tip for the gun and some milk put us in good spirits.

We returned from our adventure and set up the second sprayer. Armed with fresh paint and new filter the system worked like a charm. It took only a few hours to paint the entire room, except Brent kept taking breaks because of the fumes. I painted half of the ceiling and managed to get a large amount of paint all over myself, but did it with delight.

The room looks clean and huge and ready for our big party. The back garage is going to be the central support building for the entire shindig and we're finally starting to feel ready.

Our endless to do list includes: painting the newly  moved outbuilding, creating a seven hundred square foot flagstone patio, building a waterfall and re-siding the pig building, and then we'll be ready to party.

With feeling that only can be gained by sniffing paint fumes we gather more ideas about building out houses and gardens.