Decanting Spraypaint for an airbrush...

Hello all.

I read somewhere about decanting spraypiant from a rattle can to use in an airbrush. Is there a trick to this? Do you just spray it into a plasitc baggy and sqeeze out what you need? Do you use regular thinner? alcohol? laquer?

Thank you for your time.

Yolev

I have used a legnth of drinking straw to spray into a paint jar before, never tried a plastic bag. I think Swanny has something on his site about this however, check out his Alclad article and see what you can find there.

he uses a drinking straw as well… simply line up the hole with the straw, point said straw into a receptacle and spray spray spray!!!

no need to thin. it is already thinned in the spray can… cap it off when done and it will last till empty… when you need more decant again!

I found that if I cut off about 2 inches of straw with a curved cut it’ll mate up to the nozzle better, then take a short strip of old masking tape and tape it right to the nozzle. After you’re done, use your thinner soaked used pipe cleaner or cotton swab to clean up the nozzle.

Thinner helps out a lot even though it will usually go through the airbrush without thinning. I’m doing this now with Testors spray can enamel transparent red. It has to go on too thick to smooth down without thinner. I put in an equal part of mineral spirits for a 1:1 thinning ratio, and now I can put it on light and smooth.

The straw held up to the spray nozzle is the way I get it out of the can too. That’s a real clean way of doing it as long as you don’t let the straw slip off while spraying. Wait 'til ya see how it works. It’s much easier than you might be anticipating. You can even spray right into a small gravity feed airbrush cup from a straw without it being messy.

Definitely go with cutting an arch in the end of a straw like honyocker said, or at least cut a V in it. It doesn’t have to mate up & form a seal or anything. It’s just to make it easier to hold it to the spray nozzle without slipping.

yolev: tamiya now sell laquer thinner thats safe(safer?) for use on plastic, and used for thinning their spray paints…
ive been thinking bout buying tamiya spray cans recently to decant and use in my airbrush aswell, coz it works out cheaper than the jars and theres alot of colours u can only get in the cans, but i have a few questions…
it says its 100 ml. is that 100ml of paint, or 100 ml of paint + propellants? i know this sounds dumb but when i used the cans i found my self using like 1 per car, but now i have my ab i find i can paint a car shell wih 10ml of paint. i know its prob to do with the more control on a ab, but i just wanna b sure
how long can a can sit 4?
and should u heat the can up b4 decanting it?
thanks!