Microsoft Paint, the simple drawing and painting tool that let kids channel their inner Picasso, is not gone forever after all. Brush Roller vs. Paint Sprayer. Paint Sprayers used to exist in the category of pros only tools but today, a number of sprayers are now available at affordable prices for the amateur, DIY painter. But just because its on the shelves doesnt mean that its good. Its tough to beat the tried and true painting tools, the brush and the roller. The first is perfect for clean edges and cutting in around wall transitions, the second is unbeatable at quickly covering large, flat areas. So, curious as to what the sprayer has to offer against these two aces of acrylic, we tested a new model head to head against the old standbys to see how it would measure up. The whole time I kept asking myself, What do paint sprayers bring to the tableAdvertisement Continue Reading Below. Rated 5 out of 5 by CraftyCathy from Latch Hooking Tool I needed a latch hooking tool and I stopped at Michaels and bought one. PaintTool SAI Product Overview PaintTool SAI is high quality and lightweight painting software, fully digitizer support, amazing antialiased. For these tests, I used an angled 2 12 inch Purdy brush, a White Dove roller with a O inch pile, and the Wagner Power Painter Plus Sprayer. Test No. 1 Casing. For this test, I nailed a 4 foot 2 x 4 to a piece of 34 inch pine to simulate a vertical seam requiring paint to be finessed along a raised edge. When painting around a window casing, this is a standard procedure for the paintbrush. Using the traditional tool, it took me 2 minutes 4. The sprayer, on the other hand, required a good deal of protection in order to keep the paint spray off the 2 x 4. Taping the plastic took 2 0. I got to spraying, it only took an additional 8 seconds, giving the sprayer a total of 2 1. I also noticed that since the sprayer lays down a thick coat of paint, the result after just one spray was equivalent to two coats of brushed on paint. Additionally, the sprayer had no problem filling in all the nooks and crannies in pine knots, an area where the brush struggled. Test No. 2 Plywood. I timed the sprayer against a roller when painting both sides of a 3 foot x 1. The roller dispatched the task in a quick 1 5. I was pleased with the results. The sprayer finished the job in a very quick 1 0. I started running low on paint, and the sprayer began spitting small globs on the plywood. The sputtering was not only unfortunate for the quality of the coating, it was surprising as well. Before the two tests, I had filled the sprayer tank about half full. I thought that quantity would be plenty for completing at least the first two tests. Not so. Test No. 3 Lattice. For the third and final test, I cut three pieces of 3. The timed results were as follows the sprayer at 1 2. Clip Studio Paint Manga Studio drawing and painting software is specifically designed for digital artists. Intuitive features mimic pens and brushes. Trusted by. Paint. Net is described here as probably the most powerful free photo editing software on the market its nice but powerful I suggest Image Analyzer is along with. Here, the sprayer was the fastest, but the amount of paint wasted was tremendous. Think about it To the sprayer, it might as well be painting a solid surface, and the voids in the lattice got a thick coat of paint as well. In the end, I used so much painters plastic that my garage looked like the house in E. T. when the Feds came. The brush was just tedious, finishing all of the edges took far too long. This left the roller as the big winner. While it took more time than the sprayer, it was efficient with the paint, it easily got to all of the edges, and it didnt leave me with a mess of overspray to clean up. Test No. 4 Cleanup. I didnt time the cleanup, but consider this I rinsed out the brush with a garden hose the roller and the roller tray insert I just threw out and for the sprayer, I had to dismantle the tool and meticulously clean eleven different parts, some as small as an apple stem. Conclusions. In my tests, I discovered two important things about paint sprayers. First, they go through paint like its an unlimited resource. Second, theyre fast. While a lot of that speed is lost in the prep and cleanup process, theres no question that, once it gets going, the sprayer is the Audi to the brush and rollers Ford Tempo. But there were some functional issues. Running out of paint while spraying covered the surface with uneven globs. Because focusing the spray isnt an option, painting things like lattice is particularly wasteful. As long as youre into taping sheets of plastic on the walls and youve got a bottomless budget for paint, a sprayer is worth considering. It has its strong points, but its not a truly practical replacement for the old brush and roller.