IanM wrote:

Ronald Raygun wrote:

I was really pleased when I "discovered" (followed someone's advice
to use) radiator rollers (for the avoidance of doubt, we're talking
about the small ones, about 5 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter,
the handle being about 2ft long). They're so much easier to use and
make a quicker job of it than brushes. I also tried ordinary full
size rollers and found them too heavy and went back to the small ones.
But then I tried the big rollers on a long handle, and they really make
fast work of it. They're not too heavy when you hold them with both
hands.

Yes, same small rollers on a long handle.

No, I meant big rollers on a long handle. My experience was that the
2ft handle which you normally get for the small roller was too short
to get both hands on (and it's awkward to hold the bare wire with the
other hand, while the first hand is on the proper grip at the end), and
too heavy to wield with just one hand, and so I changed to normal size
rollers on a handle which telescopes to about 5ft, and use both hands,
generally about 2ft apart.

I should try attaching a broomstick to a short-handle small roller.

Big rollers might make sense if you are coercing the crew to help, but
it goes plenty quick enough with the small rollers, and I don't want the
extra mess and effort with big ones.

I must time myself properly next time and do half a coat with a small
roller and the other with a big one. I think I've been taking about
45 mins to apply one coat to both sides of a 32 footer, using a big
roller.

Also I find it convenient to work with a small roller and a big tray

Yes I also found that the small trays didn't work too well.

I use cheap rollers and don't understand what you mean about them
breaking up. Nor do I understand why using rad rollers should use
less paint overall.

The big rollers have to be wetted out and a lot of paint soaks into the
roller core on the cheap ones. Even with the little rollers named brand
'decorators' ones do a far better job than the economy DIY discount
store foam ones, stay bonded to their cores in spite of the Xylene
thinners, and last a whole coat or even two.

Maybe the type of paint I use is less fierce than yours. I use the
cheap cruising antifouling, not the fancy hard racing stuff.

We used 3/4 of two packs of 10 rollers the first year, as they were
breaking up after a couple of square yards, and I bought the good ones
hoping they'd last twice as long. I reckon we are using about 3 a year
and in a couple of years I might need to get a few more. Every roller
that breaks up and has to be binned with lots of paint still on it is
bad for the environment, and more immediately important to me, my pocket!

I only need one roller each year and it's enough to do 4 coats. Between
coats, the roller goes in a plastic bag to prevent it drying out and
hardening. I've never had one break up. But I do use pile, not foam.