Airbrushing Leather (Buying An Airbrush)

[CrazedLemming]

I use my wifes old hose stockings to filter it into a dropper bottle

Yup. That was the direction I was headed - though I'm single so I had to buy some stockings myself...

1. I stumbled across these storage bottles at HF ( http://www.harborfreight.com/pack-of-3-8-oz-storage-bottles-with-twist-caps.html )

2. Grabbed some cheap pantyhose at a dollar store

3. Mixed resolene and distilled h2o in a bottle

4. Added the fabric while screwing on the cap like this guy does with regular paint bottles

5. Filled the airbrush from the filtered bottle

I ran about an ounce through the brush without any clogs.

[retiredff]

I saw the same video awhile back. I have no idea what people did w/o youtube or web sites like leatherworker.net.

[Billsotx]

Many thanks for the tips.

[club49]

I purchased the HF brush, it came as a kit. I was using resolene cut 50%- 50% with H2O. I didn't have any problem spraying it. I didn't clean it the right way, when I tried to use it again, it was clogged. I put the tips in windex and soaked them, then it was fine. I read another post that said you are better off putting the finishes on by hand. I only spray the dyes, it is to much of a hasel cleaning it after using any of the finishes.

Jim

[retiredff]

well, using an airbrush (AB) requires cleaning after using. Since my first post I have upgraded my AB. I dumped the VEDA, it wouldn't spray anything without spitting, and I tore it apart and thoroughly cleaned it, still no luck. So after watching ebay and reading alot of posts on AB forums I bought an Iwata eclipse side feed and a badger Spirit, also a side feed. What a huge difference especially when doing fine detail! I still use the Master AB but mainly for finishes, it does fine for that with a .5 needle. The Badger is a .3 and the Iwata is .3 also. Both spray dyes and thinned acrylics great. I did have an issue with Angelus silver metallic and switched to a createx pearl acrylic, when I have time to test it I'll post info here.The pearl's are suppose to be ground finer, hopefully they will work. The main thing I have learned from using an AB is it takes practice, practice and more practice. When spraying dyes vs a dauber, I can control the lighter color darkness much better than with a dauber, and painting flower leaves etc takes practice but can be done. I have found that when spraying dyes, to clean the leather with alcohol before spraying also helps the dye (fiebings alcohol based) absorb more evenly.

Edited February 5, 2016 by retiredff

[JLSleather]

Some of the spitting could be water getting in the air line, too. If you don't already have one, get a moisture trap for the air line.

[retiredff]

I have one, thanks.

[Mike516]

I see everyone talking about dyes, paints, finishes and acrylics. I'm sorry if I missed it but I didn't see anyone mention stains.

I use pretty much exclusively fiebings leather stains for my projects. I do paint and use block-out and finishes. But whenever I apply stain with a dauber I tend to get quite a bit on the back of the pieces, so I was thinking of using an airbrush for a cleaner end product. I was wondering if this would be possible or are most of the stains too thick?

Edited May 11, 2016 by Mike516

[retiredff]

I don't see why not. Try thinning by 25%, if it spits then try 50%. If it's thin enough anything should spray thru an airbrush. You may have to experiment with pressure also.

 

[Mike516]

Ok, I'm going to try the HF one and see what kind of results I get. Thanks.