ississauga wrote:
> I recently started finishing basements and find painting the trim for
> baseboard and doors is very labour intensive. Has someone invented a
> machine for painting these things?, like you insert the trim and pull
> it thru betwen two rollers and some paint gets into it via one of the
> rollers...or something like that.
> 
> Since they are very narrow, only a few inches in width, I felt a
> machine would be simple. If no machine exists have you made one
> yourself?

	In my opinion you cant do a quality job pre-staining or pre-painting 
anything with regards to trim. It always results in a substandard end 
result. We, and our painting subs, always painted after installation 
because you need to run a _tiny_ bead of caulk between the trim and the 
plaster (or other surface) and then tape, or hand cut, rolling your wall 
color slightly onto the trim, and I mean SLIGHTLY.
	The only labor saving step is, which ever you choose to paint first 
(wall or trim) can get onto the other surface and you only tape once. We 
would most always opt to paint trim first with the progression being:
install trim
prime walls and trim
caulk all trim/wall joints
paint trim (getting trim color on wall doesnt matter so can be sprayed 
or brushed)
tape trim allowing wall paint to roll _ever so slightly_ onto trim
burnish tape
paint walls
remove tape

For stained trim it would be:
Install trim
stain trim (stain gets on wall)
urethane trim (urethane gets on wall)
caulk trim
tape
burnish
prime (but dont prime right to tape as you will see the edge of the 
prime coat when you remove the tape)
paint
remove tape

	Whenever you stain/urethane/paint your trim first it is inevetable that 
you will be left with gaps somewhere between the wall and trim. This is 
especially the case if you use tape&joint drywall but is an issue with 
all situations.
	In our opinion the end result is far superior to any other option and 
take very little extra time.
	For doors we spray everything except stain. Paint is sprayed with 
airless and urethane with HVLP.

Mark