Airbrush compressor question

[AllenS]

I've got a 20gal compressor that I use with a motorguard filter to dry the air for my plasma cutter. 

I'd like to buy a brush and was looking at the Paasche VLS

http://www.paascheairbrush.com/discount-class/u/VLS-SET

Is that brush good enough to get started?

Was also looking at a secondary regulator like this one:

http://www.paascheairbrush.com/products/Compressors/Regulators/R-75

Not sure what fittings will be needed and planned to connect the secondary regulator to my current air line, and then the brush. 

[garypl]

The Paasche is a good brush, but if you don’t plan to do any detail work or if you just want to spray dye or finishes, I would start cheap with a brush from Harbor Freight for $10.  I have an expensive airbrush that I never use on leather because the cheap brushes from HF work great for the intended purpose.  I have 3 airbrushed from HF that I have been using for about 1 year and they do the job for spraying dyes and Resolene.

 

[mikesc]

The VLS is ideal ( definitely good enough to get started with, and very robust ) to start airbrushing leather finishes ( and even some detail with )..and that regulator will be just fine..most finishes will require between 1.5 and 4 bars ..1.5 for the more liquid ones and 4 for the thicker ones.

I still have the first VLS I ever bought, and used it for decades for custom painting of cars motorcycles, fairground attractions, circus trailers, trucks, and high grade trompe l'oeil work, later when you get to wanting something that will let you paint eyelashes on the Mona Lisa type detail you can buy a VJR or an Iwata etc.

tip..get yourself a small bottle of glycerine from the pharmacy and occasionally use it to lube the O ring joint inside the airbrush, you don't have to take the O ring out to do this( it can be a real pain to get it back in ) just when you have finished cleaning the airbrush , slide the needle out towards the back, but not all the way out ( avoids risking/ damaging/ bending the point ) and put a drop of glycerine on the needle shaft so that when you slide it forwards again the glycerine will lube the internal O ring joint.

tip #2
don't let go of the trigger suddenly when painting or doing anything..
reason ?
..the adjustable needle spring is fierce enough to snap the needle forwards into the inside of the brass tip, being brass ( the needle is steel ) the brass tip will deform easily and give you a non circular hole , which will spray unevenly..get some spare tips anyway,( they wear out ) and a couple of spare needles, if you really badly "hook " the tip of a needle even removing it to straighten it will damage the brass tip as the needle backs out through it..don't throw damaged needles or tips away, they are fine for spraying larger areas even when the needles are a little "off true straight" and the tips have developed and oval hole..

Check the tips from time to time for splits..splits begin from the hole and go backwards towards the body of the airbrush..splits will give you weird spray patterns..split tips you throw away..or ..but you don't try to keep using them on the airbrush, they are like a bad needle on your sewing machine..

Keep your airbrush needles and tips "paired"..
Good needles with good tips
not so good needles with not so good tips.

HTH :)

I have around a dozen or more airbrushes..3 VLSs ..3 VJRs some Iwatas , some clone Iwatas. some azteks, a bunch of others whose names I forget for now, and a collection of spray guns for painting flip flops, candies etc and metallics and base coats and epoxies , PU, etc on cars trucks, boats, planes etc..and some really wide fan spray ones for laying in fast two pack clear coats and two pack colour coats on the big stuff like trucks and trailers and carnival rides/trailers/ circus trailers and planes, boats helicopters etc..you can't spray the big stuff with what you'd spray a car with, the 1st pass would be drying before you got back for the next pass on them, so you have spray guns that can spray a fan a half a yard high ( or more ) per pass..and compressors that can deliver the volume of air needed without any hint of pulsing which can ruin most "trick paint" finishes, especially prismatic paint.

Make sure to buy a mask which uses replaceable cartridges..much of what you are spraying , even for leather, is really bad for you..and if you can run to it, a silent compressor is really nicer to work with for small items, you can make one from a n old fridge motor and a tank and few parts ..a silent compressor for the big guns is a lot of money..and its motor is large..big guns are best with a tank of at least 500 litres if you are spraying prismatics etc.

btw..people whose main work is on the small stuff like helmets or illustrations, tend to have many more airbrushes, each pre loaded with a different colour, but on the big stuff one tends to spend a lot of time walking around it working, or running up and down ladders or scaffolding while airbrushing, so use one colour at a time, then go back and get the next and so on. Some carnival rides can be hundreds of square feet to decorate.Haunted houses ( even the trailer based ones ) in particular have a huge area inside and out.

Edited November 2, 2017 by mikesc

[AllenS]

Thanks for all of the info.
This is the respirator I was looking at: https://www.amazon.com/3M-Company-3M-7179-Cartridge-Respirator/dp/B0150920NU
The 20gal compressor is going to sit in another room so the noise will be minimal.

[mikesc]

That respirator will be fine..re eventual cartridge replacement..some substances that you might spray may have little to no smell, so you would not notice if they were getting through the cartridges because the cartridges were too old..so..when ever you spray, note how many minutes it is for..when the total reaches the recommended time to change cartridges..do so..don't take a risk on "just a few hours more won't hurt"..a lot of what gets sprayed is pretty sure to be bad for your lungs and may be cancer causing if inhaled.Don't let anyone else ( particularly kids, old folks or any one with breathing problems be around you while you are spraying and make sure any vapours have dissipated before you take off your mask or let anyone else in.

Overspray goes a remarkably long way..even when spraying little things, so throw some old cotton or plastic sheets or drop cloths over anything that you don't want to get overspray on..if you wear eyeglasses, clean them as soon as you are done..clean your airbrush as soon as you are done too..it takes much longer to do later.

[Northmount]

Cap the mask cartridges when not in use so the absorbing media is not used up by ambient air.

Tom

[mikesc]

Good point Tom..I bought one of that model about 20 years ago , cartridges didn't come with caps or covers, used to store it assembled in an airtight box*..eventually the synthetic rubber mask surround went hard anyway and I changed to a full face airflow model, but they didn't become available here until later, and are probably overkill for someone just airbrushing leather from time to time.

* if you do store your mask in a box..wipe it down inside and out with dry paper towels, and then again with an antibacterial wipe before putting it away, because when you are wearing it you are breathing out a lot of humidity, and probably sweating lightly too, it will last longer, and smell much nicer, and harbour fewer bacteria, which even if they are your own, they will get concentrated inside the mask and will become unfriendly to you. A small pack of the absorbent / desiccant silica gel crystals ( like you get with a new camera when you unbox it ) in the box is also a good idea.

[AllenS]

More good info! Thank you. 

[bullmoosepaddles]

@AllenSYou are in the US. You may also want to call one of your local auto parts dealer. I buy my 3M mask at the local Carquest Auto Parts for $29.00. They also sell prefilters which will extend the life of your main filter.    

[JLSleather]

The VL (and the VLS) is a good brush.  I've used em for years.  Haven't seen a project I couldn't do with them, from relatively small detail to broad surfaces (though the entire back of a full size binder did take a bit longer than I would have liked to get a good solid dark brown).  ONLY issue with the Paasche brushes, they use a different connector than a lot of other brands. Like SONY, great products but require SONY add-ons.  I added a quick-connect on my paasche airbrush hose, so all I have to do is pop the whole assemly on or off.

Not only good quality brushes, but they're indestructible, and replacement parts are available EVERYWHERE (in fact, I've been known to pick up a replacement needle right at hobby lobby 10 mins up the road).  About any compressor will work, long as it will blow 20-40 psi.   

 Some examples?

Roughly 13 x14" over all.  Done entirely with VL #3

 

 

 

Outer circle (in red) is 3" dia (VL#1) and handbag with large rose about 12" across (VL#3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full size men's wallet (original art by Al Stohlman) with VL#1

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by JLSleather

[garypl]

That’s beautiful work Jeff!  What kind of paint do you use?

Gary

[JLSleather]

On 4/26/2018 at 6:36 PM, garypl said:

What kind of paint do you use?

Awwww.. shucks

Tha's just some ole Fiebing's spirit dyes.  Thinned the red about 10:1 and thinned the black (USCG Rating) about 20:1.  And mix the green about 3 parts green, 1 part dark brown, 15 parts reducer (that green is too "loud" without teh brown tone).

Here what I dun did with the PAASCHE air hose connector :

[garypl]

3 hours ago, JLSleather said:

Awwww.. shucks

Tha's just some ole Fiebing's spirit dyes.  Thinned the red about 10:1 and thinned the black (USCG Rating) about 20:1.  And mix the green about 3 parts green, 1 part dark brown, 15 parts reducer (that green is too "loud" without teh brown tone).

Here what I dun did with the PAASCHE air hose connector :

I never thought that dyes would give such vibrant, defined colors and not bleed outside the area you are spraying.  I’ll have to play around a bit with my airbrush, but I don’t think I am capable of this kind of work (at least not now, will require a lot of practice to get close to this!)

 

[KingsCountyLeather]

15 hours ago, JLSleather said:

Awwww.. shucks

Tha's just some ole Fiebing's spirit dyes.  Thinned the red about 10:1 and thinned the black (USCG Rating) about 20:1.  And mix the green about 3 parts green, 1 part dark brown, 15 parts reducer (that green is too "loud" without teh brown tone).

Here what I dun did with the PAASCHE air hose connector :

When you’re mixing your colours... do you make a big batch of the colour so as you don’t have to mix it each time? And what are you using for your thinning? Beautiful work!

[JLSleather]

3 hours ago, KingsCountyLeather said:

do you make a big batch of the colour

I have 3-oz bottles for that particular green, because I use it often.  Some shades (the red and blue) are not critical, and I use less, so I have 1-oz bottles of those.  The brown shades, I use chocolate full-strength AND thinned - like on that fishin' wallet - full strength in the "cutouts" of teh horseshoe and thinned on the rest of the floral design.  So I have an old bottle of dye almost empty, I just buy another and add solvent to the old bottle, so some of those have 2-3 oz of "thinned" in them.

I had that happen a couple of times, where I mixed some "special" color for a request, did the project and had the customer all happy and going on about it.. then their friend decided they wanted one and I had to try to duplicate that color again after I dumped it.  So I always mix more than I need, and save for a bit after, but I don't plan to keep every mix all the time.  That shade of red on the welding logo was designed by the wife of the guy who owns the welding business... it's their co. logo, so had to be pretty durn close.  Incidentally, the large rose handbag is from an old Al Stohlman craftaid design ... just painted on a purse because it was laying there ...

Everything reduced is thinned with Fiebings Dye Reducer.  Its' a no-brainer, being MADE FOR THAT.

But I have used Angelus brand dyes also, and they are quite good. I don't generally keep a lot of that around, because they mix very well with other Angelus colors, but they do NOT like to be mixed with Fiebings dyes.  I've had some WEIRD results trying to mix teh two brands ... one holster that should have been a brown tone turned out almost GOLD .. shiny like metal ...

Maybe there's an answer in there somewhere...

[KingsCountyLeather]

4 hours ago, JLSleather said:

I have 3-oz bottles for that particular green, because I use it often.  Some shades (the red and blue) are not critical, and I use less, so I have 1-oz bottles of those.  The brown shades, I use chocolate full-strength AND thinned - like on that fishin' wallet - full strength in the "cutouts" of teh horseshoe and thinned on the rest of the floral design.  So I have an old bottle of dye almost empty, I just buy another and add solvent to the old bottle, so some of those have 2-3 oz of "thinned" in them.

I had that happen a couple of times, where I mixed some "special" color for a request, did the project and had the customer all happy and going on about it.. then their friend decided they wanted one and I had to try to duplicate that color again after I dumped it.  So I always mix more than I need, and save for a bit after, but I don't plan to keep every mix all the time.  That shade of red on the welding logo was designed by the wife of the guy who owns the welding business... it's their co. logo, so had to be pretty durn close.  Incidentally, the large rose handbag is from an old Al Stohlman craftaid design ... just painted on a purse because it was laying there ...

Everything reduced is thinned with Fiebings Dye Reducer.  Its' a no-brainer, being MADE FOR THAT.

But I have used Angelus brand dyes also, and they are quite good. I don't generally keep a lot of that around, because they mix very well with other Angelus colors, but they do NOT like to be mixed with Fiebings dyes.  I've had some WEIRD results trying to mix teh two brands ... one holster that should have been a brown tone turned out almost GOLD .. shiny like metal ...

Maybe there's an answer in there somewhere...

Very helpful! Thanks. I’ve just ordered an airbrush kit and looking forward to trying it out.

i didn’t realise that chocolate brown could have different shades when thinned.

Just now, KingsCountyLeather said:

Very helpful! Thanks. I’ve just ordered an airbrush kit and looking forward to trying it out.

i didn’t realise that chocolate brown could have different shades when thinned.

Does that mean I can get shades of grey from black dye?

[JLSleather]

47 minutes ago, KingsCountyLeather said:

Does that mean I can get shades of grey from black dye?

Yup.    

[KingsCountyLeather]

46 minutes ago, JLSleather said:

Yup.    

Cool!