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Air brush?

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Woodcraft has a basic one container airbrush set. I thought that it might be useful for spraying finish with a can of propellant, much cheaper than a compressor. Any experience or thoughts on this? I don't have room or storage space for a HVLP system and compressor.
 
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Woodcraft has a basic one container airbrush set. I thought that it might be useful for spraying finish with a can of propellant, much cheaper than a compressor. Any experience or thoughts on this? I don't have room or storage space for a HVLP system and compressor.

Only thoughts , I have on occasion used airbrush with colors, best to do it outside seasonal on calm day, same would be for lacquer. Your clean up for the sprayer is really important. Must take it apart and use paint thinner in small spaces even between hours of use much less days. It is doable and even coatings result thru several thin coatings.
 
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spraying is a PITA I own a nice italian hand made air gun that I rarely use and it's all because of the clean up even when spraying water base the clean up is a PITA
 

john lucas

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I agree. I have a halfway decent spray gun and use it a lot but I have constant problems with the viscosity of the finish. I think it possibly is the constant humidity changes around here. I spray out my door because I can't spray inside. That's part of why I changed to min wax wipe on poly.
 
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Everything that was said above is right. I have one in my storage shed someplace. I used to put an automotive grade clearcoat finish on my pens when I was into that.
In the long run it may be less expensive than spray cans, but do you have lots of extra time on your hands?
 

Bill Boehme

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Finding anything on the new "improved" Woodcraft web site seems to be nearly impossible. I finally found the basic airbrush kit that you might be talking about, but I never could find the Propel canned gas. I think that the small airbrushes like that are for very fine detail work somewhat like the kind of work that Binh Pho does. If you are just wanting to apply a clear finish then I think that a wipe on finish or rattle cans are much easier to work with.

It appears that the basic kit uses a simple Bernoulli tube type sprayer so there isn't much you can do to adjust the spray pattern. I have a similar kit that I got from Sears about fifty years ago for painting model airplanes and it wasn't satisfactory for what I wanted so it is buried somewhere in my unused junk.
 
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Canned air would be from someone like Hobby Lobby. Thanks but I'll go with canned finish or WOP as mentioned.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.
Bill, dig out the paint system and sell it on CL or eBay to buy more turning stuff.
 

Steve Worcester

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For spraying finish, generally an airbrush doesn't work real well. You have to thin down the medium alot (%50+) which means it goes on thin and you in general an airbrush has a narrow pattern.
I have about 6 different types of brushes, but for finish, get a decent minigun with a .8-1.0 tip, I use a SATA and an Iwata mini. You will need a compressor, and maybe good natural rubber lines, and a good mask, and air filters... it's a vortex too.

But since your intention was to not get a compressor, it didn't solve your problem.
 
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Back to the basics, I guess- good ol' brushes. Thanks to all. No other reason to buy an airbrush outfit.
 
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