Old thread, but further to
@woodco 's comment I will give my experience.
Spraying is not as easy as the YouTube videos would have you think. First there is the cost of the sprayer. The cheap ones aren't good and the good ones aren't cheap. I bought a Graco Ultra hand-held, which is a "good" one, so not cheap. Then there are the consumables --- strainers, Pump Armor, replacement seals, vacu-caps, flex liners, pump (one of these days), and seems like every time I start a new project I need to buy a new size tip (not cheap). You will also likely use more paint because of overspray (which a pro can likely minimize with correct settings, but you are not a pro). If you are using cheap Home Depot paint, I guess the cost of the paint doesn't matter. If you are using good stuff, it does. When brushing, I only need to put a piece of cardboard under the project --- when spraying, I need to protect basically the whole room.
On the
New Desk thread in Project Showcase, I sprayed the clear polyurethane. In the end, the sprayer did what I bought it for --- I got the smooth finish that was never going to happen with a brush. But it wasn't fast, it wasn't easy, it wasn't cheap. The upper surface of the desk-top has seven coats of clear on it. The plan was for four coats. First 3 coats went on fine, but on the fourth coat, the sprayer starts spitting (do a search - that's a common problem with spraying). So, let dry, sand down the imperfections and put on 5th coat... oops also some spitting. .... and 6th coat. Seventh coat went on nice and I was done. Seven coats of satin actually looks real nice on that desk-top.
