I am going to go and buy an airbrush compressor

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

ive been wondering what are the things i should look for when purchasing a compressor?

2

What type of compressor are you looking at? There are generally two types; the “General Purpose” compressors and those made specifically for airbrushing. The former usually have a higher capacity, highre pressure, are noisier, and cost less. The airbrush compressors are normally very quiet, have enough volume and pressure for an airbrush, and cost quite a bit more. You have to pay for silence [:)]

In general, avoid diaphragm compressors since they frequently have a pulsation in the airflow unless they have a tank to eliminate it. MikeV can give you more info on that.

Regardless, you’ll need a hose, regulator and moisture trap. These can be purchased separately, but the regulator will normally come with the compressor. You’ll also need to make sure the compressor will fit your airbrush hose. Most compressors typically have a 1/4" NPT connection, and most airbrush hoses will fit this connection although an adapter is sometimes required.

3

hey thanks alot, i just learned alot of stuff i didn’t know before thanks for the pointers!

4

Quick general question so I don’t have to start a new thread.

A lot of the general purpose air compressors have a several gallon size tank. From my understanding, you…

  1. turn on the air compressor (noisy at this point)
  2. it puts air in the tank until it’s full or full enough for the amount of airbrushing you plan on doing
  3. then you turn off the air compressor (goes silent)
  4. the tank still has air in it and you can continue to airbrush but you hear nothing other than the air coming out of the tank. In other words, the compressor part of the unit is completely off and you’re just running on whatever amount of air is in the unit.

Is that correct? Thanks…

5

Hawk,

Yes that is correct.

Mike

6

be a highroller, buy a badger millionaire :smiley:

7

Not a problem. If you have other questions, just yell. Someone around here will be glad to help you out.

Hawk, as MikeV said you are correct. “Noisy”, of course, is a relative term. My compressor isn’t loud enough to wake my wife upstairs but my cat runs every time I fire it up. With a 6-gallon tank at 140 psi I can paint for about 30-45 minutes before I need to fire up the motor to refill it.