inexpensive air brush

[cteno4]

well just found a $10 treat at harbor freight. its a very simple external mix air brush with 5 containers.

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/quick-change-airbrush-kit-93506.html

 

its dirt simple, just on/off blowing air over the vertical paint container nozzle.

 

i just wanted something simple to play with spraying cheap craft acrylics on scenery and some parts. did not want to muck up the nicer airbrushes with this stuff so i thought i would give these a shot.

 

first 5 minutes was a bit depressing with it not working well at all, but after fiddling with the paint nozzle and air pressure i was able to get it working quite well. while this is not a fine airbrush, its better spray than aerosol cans deliver. looks to be something to play with! for $10 its well worth it for a fiddle and may turn out to be a nice solution to mix up stuff fast and cheap for cruder uses!

 

nice as you can pop on and off different colors w/o having to blow out the gun at all. since it comes with 5 containers you can have 5 going at once to do scenery blends, etc. at $10 its only $2 per container to get more. even comes with a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff, Some day you're going to tell us the secret on how you find these deals! 

 

I like the 2 other airbrushes they have in the right corner boxes for 9.99 & 14.99.

Do you know what the difference is between the 3 airbrushes?

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

I have a mother who was always hitting the sales so i learned to look around to get the best deal and be patient. also a dad who is a woodworker on the side so good tools were important and what quality you needed for what purpose was always driven home. always have to be careful using a $100 tool on a 1 cent job that would do fine with your $5 tool instead of running the risk of ruining the $100 tool. in this case i didnt want to risk gumming up my nicer airbrush with my fiddling with cheap paints!

 

i love the idea i can have a range of colors in bottle and just keep switching them out quickly to do scenery painting, very cool! it really does give as good or better quality paint coverage as regular spray paint cans do so its decent even for doing some building painting.

 

im not sure if this unit would work so well on organic solvent based paints. there is a lot of plastic in it (mainly plastic). the isopropanol mix i did with the craft acrylics did not want to come out of the jar and siphon hose easily. i had to scrub some and run it in the ultrasonic bath a few times to get it all clean. the mix i did with windshield washing fluid rinsed right out. so its not one i would plunk in organic solvent and soak if you have to if it gets mucked up some.

 

the $9.99 is one i had a long time back and its basically the similar external mix as the one i posted. i think its meant for larger spray area if i remember right. sort of if you needed a paint gun in a smaller size, not really a great airbrush. i actually meant to dig it out to compare to this one, ill dig through the storage in the shop this weekend for it.

 

the $14.99 is interesting you asked as i picked up one of these as well the other day. its a dual action internal mix brush! figure its not great, but again thought it might come in handy to experiment with for $15. i have seen what looks to be the exact same model on ebay for around $30. I have not yet tried it, but hope to do so soon.

 

instructions on all of these (like most harbor freight tools) totally suck! you are pretty much on your own to figure them out, so be willing to fiddle a bit. took me 5 minutes to figure out the most important adjustment on the one i posted was screwing the paint nozzle up and down to get the right feed, it came screwed all the way down tight.

 

I just reworked a new little airbrush setup for the basement with a better regulator i had laying around and a new air filter and want to make a simple little booth to catch the overspray and keep dust to a minimum. i may do a small fan just to get laminar air flow across the work and keep the dust off the painted stuff as i do find that the air brush puffing does seem to stir a lot of stuff up in the air. all acrylics here right now so fumes are not an issue. right now its running off my 5 gal air can which i can get a fair amount of painting done, but im very tempted by this little compressor

 

http://www.amazon.com/Senco-PC1010-1-Horsepower-1-Gallon-Compressor/dp/B0000AQK78/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2LUEDYSCGHX3U&colid=2KP9V7RB2NUFN

 

it aint cheap, but its really amazingly quiet, light weight, and tiny footprint. Matthew got one for his shop and i was really impressed by it as he turned it on and we could talk over it right next to us on the table at normal voice fine. im going to see if i can borrow it for a day and play with it. its way too far a run to the big compressor in the shop in the garage to run a line and filling the can does get old...

 

cheers

 

jeff