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I'm just bought an airbrush, and I've heard that using a compressor as opposed to buying cans of compressed air for exorbitant prices is a wise idea.
Is there any specific good standard/cheap/beginner compressor that I should use? I can't quite tell if the generic ones are for car tires/rafts only, or if they have an adapter compatible with an airbrush?
You can definitely find a cheaper air compressor, but those that aren't designed for airbrush work are significantly larger and noisier. If that's not an issue, then they're often a more flexible option, as they have the extra oomph to do heavier tasks, like inflating tires and operating pneumatic tools. Just be aware that the extra fittings I mentioned may bring the cost in line with the quietest airbrush compressor, so the consideration is more one of flexibility versus size and noise than actual ability to run an airbrush.Quote:
Originally Posted by urtis
Not at all a low-cost hobby, lol.
But it seems to me that an airbrush is a very low (almost trivial?) CFM load on a compressor. Especially if they can be run off bottled air.
Are large-capacity compressed-air tanks sufficient for airbrush painting? They're cheap. And they could be quickly filled up anywhere you could connect to a compressor - at work, at a local gas station, etc - for free, or maybe for just a nominal cost. Or do they just not have enough air (and pressure) to sustain real airbrush work? (Not heavy industrial use, of course, just home/hobby project stuff.)
The issue with most contractor style compressors (and 99.9% found at gas stations), is that there is no filtering of any kind, so you end up with oil, or water in the air and this can wreak havoc with airbrushes and the quality of the output. You can add a filter to remove _most_ of the oil and water, but it is an added expense.
I don't own one, but both of my friends who do have air brush compressors have the filtering included and have to empty or change filters on a regular basis. Is this the norm for an airbrush compressor?
This thread needs SgtM's expertise.
