Harbor Freight Airbrush

[Colt W Knight]

I have been wanting to airbrush leather dye for a long time, but I live in an apartment - didn't want to disturb the neighbors with loud air compressors. Also, the canned air is expensive.

Today, I as in Harbor Freight looking around, and they had an airbrush compressor kit on sale for $89.99 plus my 20% off coupon.

http://www.harborfreight.com/15-hp-58-psi-oilless-airbrush-compressor-kit-60328.html

Setup was very easy

Practiced a bit

I can't believe how much quicker, cleaner, and easier it is to dye something with the airbrush - not to mention so much less waste.

These bottles are 3/4 ounce, and I used about 1/3 of that practicing, spraying the test piece black, and bursting the other piece.

Faded edges

I have had airbrushes from HF in the past that I used for my guitar building back when I lived in West Virginia. These aren't precise airbrushes you can use for drawing and what not, but they work great for bursting edges, touch up, painting small areas, or stenciling. When I can afford to, I plan on investing in a quality airbrush, but I am very happy with how quiet and how well the compressor works thus far.

What they are not, is durable. If you drop these airbrushes, or set something on top of them, they will break. I was okay with that, because they are typically 10$ or less. Plus, when I was running lacquer through, it was easier and cheaper to throw them away after awhile than waste a bunch of lacquer thinner cleaning them.

TCP global sells extra glass jars for less than $2 a piece

http://www.tcpglobal.com/ABDTB-002.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwo7auBRCOtoqn_s-G7aMBEiQAxArNrK-S1zKcIAcJfaoS7aCJZtoy1NX6jM61e093Xk3ilyMaAsKH8P8HAQ#.Vc5CXpc0d-4

Edited August 14, 2015 by Colt W Knight

[Rohn]

That is cool. I have an airbrush and am ashamed that I have not used it even once even though I have had it for many years. I guess I should get it out and give it a try. Your post may just inspire me to do just that.

[JLSleather]

I bought one of those little tools about a year ago to spray finishes. One day, I really MUST get an air hose that fits it The ones on the Paasche brushes are different (which I used to know, guess I forgot).

That airbrush should be fine for a LOT of work. You know, proper combination of masks n stencils....

[Colt W Knight]

I bought one of those little tools about a year ago to spray finishes. One day, I really MUST get an air hose that fits it The ones on the Paasche brushes are different (which I used to know, guess I forgot).

That airbrush should be fine for a LOT of work. You know, proper combination of masks n stencils....

Do they have the normal 1/8" that goes to the air and a proprietary fitting on the airbrush end?

That is cool. I have an airbrush and am ashamed that I have not used it even once even though I have had it for many years. I guess I should get it out and give it a try. Your post may just inspire me to do just that.

So far, I am really liking how much easier it is to apply the finishes, but I need to order some more jars. I need a jar for several dye colors, a jar for cleaning, and a jar for clear.

[Art]

PEC Global airbrushes are reasonably priced but great quality. I have been using them ( I have a few) for a couple of years and they are working well. I also have my older Iwata airbrushes that are in the mix and pretty much interchangeable. I do use a big Iwata compressor, but that shouldn't make much difference. Spraying spirit dye is ok, but you don't get the same penetration as flood (dip) dyeing. Also great for spraying finishes as multiple lite coats are better than one heavy one, and they dry faster. The acrylics clean-up with water, the dyes with alcohol.

Chuck Bauman uses the PEC (Veda) airbrushes for flame painting and recommends them. I don't do anything but spray dye and finishes and recommend them as they hold-up well. You can do some really fine line work and outlines and borders on leather with acrylics, but you have to practice some. Ditto fades with dye, but dilute, dilute, dilute. You can always put more on. These airbrushes vs. their cost are impressive.

Art

[Colt W Knight]

Ive never had a nice air brush, just cheapo ones from HF. I have been considering picking one up to learn to airbrush. Airbrushing involves a lot of skill and art. I can ussually master mechanical things, but I fall short in the art department.

[JLSleather]

Seriously.. I've seen some STUNNING things done with a $39.95 single action airbrush, an x-acto knife, and some sheets of paper. I mean STUNNING ...

[JLSleather]

Oh, keep in mind that "painting" with leather dye is not the same as painting with some other types of color. Stohlman's book Pictorial Carving has some great info in there about coloring leather.

Ever see Bob Ross? He does a lot of landscapes. With oil or acrylics, you just paint the background, then paint trees or mountains or birds right over top of the background. The new "layer" covers the old layer, so the brown tree covers the blue lake water, makes it look like the tree is in front. And if you're making aspen trees (mostly white) you do the same thing.

But with leather dye, that wont work. I could give you the whole speech, but the short version is, if you want aspen trees in front of a blue lake in leather dye, then you need to NOT paint the tree area wit the blue. So, you can almost think of coloring leather as the negatives of your photos.

[JLSleather]

I did this one 5 or 6 years ago. Someone was talking about rose patterns, and they had this one from stohlmans Inverted Carving book. There used to be a tutorial of sorts on this site, but maybe not any more (?).

This is not carved at all... just a piece of 3/4 royal meadow tooling leather, some fiebing's red, green, and brown, and a sheet of paper.

[JLSleather]

And even though it may not look like it, this was MUCH more difficult than the the rose ..