I have been a FSM subscriber for many years and feel it is a well balanced magazine. You get a very good per copy price by subscription. And access to full feature of this web site, mostly extra pictures. But FSM has moved many of the good downloads from free to paid section in recent years. In terms of tips and techniques, it does not have as much details as some of the British magazines, but still good.
I also have a subsription to the AIRFIX magazine from England. But it costs 3 times more than the FSM. Find a good local hobby store and sample several modeling magazines before deciding what to subsribe. FSM is probably the cheapest you can get in annual subscription.
Not sure if it’s too late to chime in or not and this might not be what you’re considering…but I just recently replaced my old compressor with a Craftsman Evolv from Sears. It has a 3 gallon tank and, compared to my old 6 gallon compressor, is as light as a feather. Even my wife carries it around when she needs it. It’s also substantially quieter, too. I believe it normally goes for $99 but you can get it for even less when Sears has their usual sales. It’s also perfect for inflating bike tires, kids’ toys, etc. Not sure if you have a need to do that though. But as an air compressor for my air brush, it works perfectly.
Having been an apartment dweller myself in the past, I can understand your need for quietness and possibly even space consideration. I lived in a one bedroom apartment before I got married. My “workshop” was the basement late at night also. Am I assuming that, when you paint, you run down to the basement, model, paint and compresser in hand?
Thanks for the suggestion Eric. My situation is similar to yours! One-bedroom apartment and close to getting engaged. I do not have a basement though… never heard of apartments with basements, haha. This is also my first time looking for an airbrush/compressor. I already have my brush picked out - Badger Patriot. Just looking for a good compressor to go with it.
I was looking at that Craftsman. I am a HUGE fan of Craftsman - I buy all their tools when working on my car. I just have a few questions about that one. It looks like it has a regulator on it, right? Can you get low pressure from it? I’m sure I don’t want to be spraying at it’s max - 100 PSI. lol Also, what about sputtering? Every single review I’ve read/watched since I’ve been looking has said compressors with tanks can cause sputtering - something I definitely want to avoid.
I’m figuring that you are talking about the compressor intermittently passing water (eh)?
Receiver / tanked compressors usually outperform those without a tank in regards to water output - they produce just as much moisture as those without, but this is generally condensed back into water (which sits at the bottom of the tanlk) when the compressed air cools as it enters the tank. This is almost 100% true when the compressor is recharging & no air is being drawn from it & even when you are drawing air when it’s running, the tank acts as a buffer & will still condense some of that moisture. This is part of normal operation for a receiver compressor & the all have tank drain fitted at the bottom of their tanks.
In comparison a unit without a receiver has (excluding the hose & regulator) nowhere for the moisture to condense…
I’ve found that all compressors produce excess water, which is why I have a moisture trap on my regulator, and an inline one on my hose. Tanks store water quite well, which is why you need to drain them occasionally. However, my experience is that not all the water produced in a tank gets to the hose. Something that is guaranteed with a non-tanked compressor. The benefits of a tank (less wear and tear, less pulsing due to diaphragm or piston action) outweigh the potential dangers of sputtering. In either case as good moisture trap will prevent the water from getting to the paint job.
I am lucky I live in an area with relatively low humidity, typically in the 35-50% range. I’m on vacation in NYC and Holy Cow, you can drink the air! [;)]
Hey Icer, I’ve been following your post and these guys are giving you great advice. A compressor with a tank is definitely the way to go. Like you, I’m a big fan of Craftsman. I just bought their Powermate brand 26 gallon compressor for my garage, but down in the basement is the 3 gallon job I bought from Harbor Freight and I just love it. I saw one guy had a 3 gallon craftsman and if you’re more comfortable with the name brand then I say go for it. At less than $100 it’s a good investment (I paid $40 for my H.F. job, but I know it’s not the same quality as craftsman). And a good water trap is essential. I got mine at H.F. for about $20 and it does the job quite nicely. It automatically drains itself every time I drain the compressor and I haven’t had ANY water or sputtering issues with my Iwata HP airbrush. One thing I saw in the post needs a little expansion, though. Don’t drain your compressor “occasionally”. Drain it EVERY TIME you use it. Water sitting in the tank can cause rust and that’s BAD. Your compressor will last much longer if you drain it every time. And when I bought mine I went to the store and asked to hear it run. Most stores will do that for you and then you can hear for yourself how much noise it makes before you make your decision.
Wow, thanks guys! And thanks for the welcome Eric. So it seems a compressor with a tank is the way to go. I know tank-less compressors are still a good investment, but I do want a compressor that runs the least amount of time possible just so I can preserve the inner-workings. Honestly, I was avoiding a tank because of the reviews talking about sputtering. But I can see all I need is a good moisture trap and I’m set (well, almost).
Eric, if you have a moisture trap on your compressor, where did you get it? I am thinking about stopping by Sears and seeing if they have one of these compressors. I’m going to look at Harbor and see if they make a moisture trap for this. Also, you mentioned it was substantially quieter than your other compressor - do you know about how many decibels it puts out? And how does the regulator work? Pretty accurate? Everything I’ve researched so far says that 35-40 PSI is the max I’ll need for modeling.
EDIT: I was looking up moisture traps and came across this:
I agree in that everyone here is making some excellent suggestions! Just to expand on my past, I also had one of those smaller tankless airbrush compressors. I wish I could remember the name brand seeing as how it came with my wife when we got married. LOL! It was blue but that’s all I can tell you. It was adequate but it had no regulator other than a little needle valve which you had to open or close in order adjust the pressure.
The apartment building in which I lived had underground parking which came in handy during the harsh winters up here in Wisconsin. It was also where the set of washers and dryers were. Late at night when I was ready to paint a plane, I’d haul my stuff down to the laundry room, paint as quickly as I could so as to avoid anyone suddenly coming down to do some laundry, then haul it all back upstairs again.
On my Evolv air compressor, I do not have a moisture trap. Yes I know they are good investments but with this compressor and in my Craftsman 6 gallon compressor before that, not once did I ever have an issue with moisture spitting out and ruining my paint job. Maybe I’m just riding on luck so far but I have not had any problems with it. I did, however, have that problem with my little blue tankless air compressor which was my wife’s.
I read hear how one can get a Harbor Freight compressor for a fraction of what I paid for my Craftsman. It is my understanding that the Evolv is technically manufactured overseas somewhere but I can’t help but go back to the Craftsman name. All my tools are Craftsman and they’ve never let me down once.
I also looked up the stats on the Evolv and I could not find a decible rating for it. I’ll try to do some more digging to get that info for you though. As one other person mentioned, see if the store will let you fire up the compressor to see what they sound like. I think that’s excellent advice. I wasn’t able to do that for mine because I got it unexpectedly as a Father’s Day gift. Again, I was lucky that it has proven to be far quieter than my old 6 gallon one.
The regulator seems to work alright but not quite as sensitive as the one on my 6 gallon job. I typically paint at the 18-25 psi range and it seems like the regulator on the Evolv starts to be accurate once it gets to 20 psi but not below that. (I don’t know if this makes any difference or not but I use an Iwata about 5% of the time and an Aztek the other 95%).
I hope this all has helped! Once you get married and your own house, your modeling area/conditions will improve exponentially!!! Congrats on the soon-to-be engagement, also! [Y]
As said, a compressor with a receiver will “Sputter” less than the equivalent compressor without a receiver. Most, if not all airbrush compressors are sold fitted with moisture traps - why not see how it works before shelling out on an additional trap?
If the 55-58 decibels is true, then that’s pretty good considering one web site I found stated that normal conversation is between 60-70 dB. I did find a forum where one person said their Evolv was 84 dB and he was complaining about the noise. I don’t know how that person measured it or how he got that number but if he’s getting 84 dB, then city traffic (inside car) is rated at 85 dB. All I can tell you is that my 4 and 7 year old daughters used to run upstairs holding their ears when I fired up my old 6 gallon Craftsman. Now, with my Evolv, the kid are no longer afraid of it and they don’t even plug their ears. LOL! Far from scientific but I thought that was pretty good considering my girls scream when I chase them with the vacuum cleaner.
Haha I have to ask - did you ever have anyone walk in to do laundry and have that awkward stare off before you offered up your explanation? That image ran through my head. Too funny.
Well, I think I am going to stop by Sears after work and check this thing out! Wish I had my Badger 105 already…[:'(] I’m going to be sitting in my room playing with m compressor. haha
I will post back with any questions. Thanks for you’re help guys. I look forward to using this community as I drastically improve my modeling skills.
Haha! Well thanks man. With the size of the parts we paint plus the capacity of 3 gallons of compressed air, I don’t see the thing running all too often.
I lived in that apartment for a year and a half and I can honestly say that not once was I ever walked in on as I was painting! Talk about dodging a bullet! I just would have felt dumb if some cute female would have walked in while I was trying to paint a little plastic airplane. It probably wouldn’t have been high up there on the “cool” meter. Not exactly “James Bond-ish” if you catch my drift. More like “Hi. I’m Eric and I never evolved emotionally beyond the age of 12.”
Eric
PS. I saw one web site that showed the Craftsman 1.5 gallon compressor at 55 dB. However, I, myself, have never owned one that small so I don’t know how well it would work out. Remember, once those tanks get below a certain pressure, the compressor will automatically start up again unless you remembered to turn it off. I typically forget. So if you have one of those smaller capacity tanks, the motor will come on more often. They may be smaller, more portable, lighter weight, quieter, etc but they will run more often. Just another thing to ponder. [:)]
Good luck and keep us informed as to how things are going!
You asked about regulators and said you were going to Harbor Freight so I thought I’d write again. Here’s a photo of my regulator and water trap. As you can see, I have it hooked up so it just plugs in, that way I can use it in the basement or the garage and I don’t have to have two traps. You can find this item in the Harbor Freight online catalogue, too. Just go to www.harborfreight.com and enter the number 68232 in the search box. It’s the Central Pnuematic regulator/moisture trap and it’s $19.99 (less if you use one of the 20% off coupons from their flyer). It automatically drains itself when you drain your compressor (it opens when the PSI gets down to about 5 lbs). I typically spray at no less than 15 psi so it works great. I set the regulator on the compressor itself at about 60 psi and then fine tune with the regulator on the water trap to get between 15 and 25 psi, depending on what I’m doing. And if you’re going to H.F. you might want to know that they’re having a great sale right now and I just got some 4" bar clamps for $1 each. Hobby Lobby has the exact same clamp for EIGHT BUCKS!! Also, they have these really cool mini clamps that come in a pack of six for $2.79. Yes, I bought several packs. They also have all the fittings you’ll need for your hose to compressor connections at pretty good prices.
Me again. Here’s a photo showing both kinds of those clamps I told you about in action. The mini clamps are holding the tail and there’s also a red one laying on the bench. The 4" bar clamps are just $1 each right now (no coupon necessary) and these are the ones from H.F. except for the one just forward of the cockpit. That one’s a craftsman but they’re MUCH more expensive. The mini clamps are $2.79 for a pack of six. Now that I have them I don’t know how I ever lived without them.
A good noise test of the compressor is whether your wife can talk to you without raising her voice or you turning off the compressor. The better airbrush compressor passes this test.
Test running the compressor in store is not accurate. The store has high ceiling and open space. The compressor always sounds less noisy. Sears has good return policy and you should be able to return if it sounds too noisy for you.
I added an airtank to my dual piston compressor myself. The compressor does not run less time with a tank. It just wait longer before running the motor again, but it also runs longer too. The key is to get a compressor with enough power, quiet and having auto-on-off feature.
Thanks Gary! Heading over the H.F. right now! I actually just picked up the Craftsman Evolv. I couldn’t resist the online discount so I ended up spending $86. Considering I was reading to spend around $200, I think I did alright. I’ve been playing around with it here. It’s loud, but not ear-bleeding. I can stuff it into a plastic storage crate with some blankets around it (not covering the air vents of course!) and it reduces the noise enough for me to feel comfortable running it in my apartment. Plus, I’m on the ground floor (concrete slab foundation) so no need to worry about vibrations. Overall, I am happy with my purchase. With the default regulator I am able to get it down to airbrush-worthy PSI no problem. But I am probably going to invest in that reg./trap that you showed me. I CAN’T WAIT TO GET MY BADGER 105.
P.S. - Nice work on your plane! I can’t even see the plastic seam lines from the two halves - that is one thing I hope to prefect here in my next two projects (up next for me is a B-25J Mitchell). What plane are you building there?
Great find on the spring clamp set. I hadn’t seen that one, but I’ll look for it the next time I go to H.F. It looks like they’re assorted sizes, too, which is even better. I think you’ll like the evolv brand. I have their shop vac and it’s pretty cool. Much cheaper than most name brands, too. You did pretty good on the compressor for that price. Just be careful putting blankets around it. You need ventilation around the compressor to prevent heat build up. My big one says it should be at least 12 inches from the wall or anything else, but I imagine for the short periods of time we actually use our airbrushes you should be OK. The plane in the photos is the Airfix 1/24 scale FW 190, which I’m doing as Emil Lang’s “Black 7” from 1943. The seam lines are still there, they just don’t show up in the photos.
This is what I love about this forum - guys sharing information not only on models, but stuff like good finds on tools and things. Glad you joined and I look forward to sharing more great finds in the future. Let us know how you like your Badger when you get it.
They also have all the fittings you’ll need for your hose to compressor connections at pretty good prices.
