New Airbrush/ compressor issues

Tim Allen

Well-Known Hunter
Well I bought a Pneumatic Oilless Aircompressor and a cheapo airbrush with it. The cheapo airbrush came with a smaller cord and a 1/4 attatchment with it for the compressor. The larger compressor cord was to big to work with the small airbrush so I had this set up like this
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1.gif


The connectors between the cord and the brush for whatever reason leaked. I could get air to blow out through the pistol but it had 0 sucktion on the 2oz bottle. I tryed various ways of hooking it up but nothing, so I figure it was a cheapo airbrush and I got what I paid for.

So I drove up to Harbor Freight today and returned the compressor and airbrush just incase something was wrong with them and got a brand new compressor and a different airbrush but ran into the same problem again.

airbrush001.gif


This time I bought a gravity gun and I still have air leakage between the connections. I also bought these 2 niffty little male and female hose connetors thinking they might fix that problem
airbrush003.gif

( we use the same type connectio at my school with our air compressor system) but even with these connectors the air still leaked out.

As you can see in the 3rd picture the connectos are all wrapped in white tape. The Pneumatic compressor came with "teflon" roll of tape so after the air leaking wouldnt stop I linned all the threading I could find on any connection and wrapped the entire thing with the teflon tape and I still could hear the leak. The 1st airbrush I had leaked but had alot more air flow through it than the 2nd gravity gun, except the gravity gun actually will shoot the paint out, just a very very weak spray. Im at a total loss of what to do....Any ideas????
 
What kind of pressure does that compressor put out? I don't see any regulator on your separator. Is there any to regulate air flow? It sounds to me like you don't have enough air pressure.
 
The purple and silver gun looks like an HVLP (High Volume / Low Pressure) sprayer, not an airbrush. That little airbrush compressor probably does not put out enough volume to drive it. (But it may put out enough pressure whent the sprayer trigger is closed that the sprayer vents itself to prevent overpressure. I don't know if your sprayer does that.)

Do you have a regulator? (Is there a knob on the other side of the separator/gauge assembly?)

If you have a regulator that vents downstream pressure, it will "leak" by design until you adjust it up to the right pressure range; after that it will leak extra pressure that accumulates between it and the airbrush. That's a good thing, if I correctly understand how these things are supposed to work.

(My understanding is that most valves leak a tiny bit, so when you're not spraying, air gradually leaks into the hose between your regulator and your sprayer, until the pressure there is equal to the pressure in the tank, rather than the lower pressure it's supposed to be regulated down to. Then when you hit the trigger, you get a brief PFFT! of too much pressure until the pressure is relieved. Venting downstream pressure prevents this accumulation of excess pressure in the hose.)

The bottom line there is that the leakage you hear may be perfectly normal, and your problem may be elsewhere---e.g., not having adjusted your regulator up, or something entirely else.

Does your system have auto on/off, where the compressor kicks on when the pressure in the tank drops to some pressure (say, 50 PSI) and turns off when it hits some higher pressure (say, 80 PSI)? (I'm guessing that's what the black box on top is, but I could be wrong.)

Paul
 
Well Im more or less "brain dead" when it comes to all this technical stuff and ive rarely worked with compressors and an airbrush so could someone point me in the righ directions of r a suitable airbrush. I bought this one at harbor freight, im surprised it didnt work as its make by the same company that made my compressor.
 
Hey Tim. One thing you could try, is using the telon tape differently. Teflon tape is designed to be wrapped around the treads of your connecter before you screw the connecters together, not wrapped around the outside, (as I see you have done;) ) Take all your connecters apart, and put about 2 or three wrapps around the male threads. Now, you have to do it the right way, ie wrapp it the right way, so that when you screw the parts together, it doesn't unwrapp your tape as you thread the parts together. It looks like you might have the wrong gun there for that compressor, but I would bet you 10 bucks that if you apply your tape correctly, you wont have any leaks ;)
D

Edit: OOppss, I read your post again & see that you did apply tape to the threads, as well as the outside. :( Hmmm, I guess I agree with everyone else, need a regulater & maybe different airbrush for that set up.
 
Hey Tim. One thing you could try, is using the telon tape differently. Teflon tape is designed to be wrapped around the treads of your connecter before you screw the connecters together, not wrapped around the outside, (as I see you have done;) ) Take all your connecters apart, and put about 2 or three wrapps around the male threads. Now, you have to do it the right way, ie wrapp it the right way, so that when you screw the parts together, it doesn't unwrapp your tape as you thread the parts together. It looks like you might have the wrong gun there for that compressor, but I would bet you 10 bucks that if you apply your tape correctly, you wont have any leaks ;)
D

Edit: OOppss, I read your post again & see that you did apply tape to the threads, as well as the outside. :( Hmmm, I guess I agree with everyone else, need a regulater & maybe different airbrush for that set up.

Yep wrapped it around all the threads and the outer seems as well, but still could hear the leaking between the the pistol and cord

also has a regulator on the end of the compressor
 
ya its just to much for that compressor to push out, more than likely all you need is a small duel action airbrush, not airgun.

I have this one and its very nice.

http://www.spraykings.com/product.php?category=201&id=2673


Im looking for something a bit cheaper. Im only going to be using it for base coats and dont need anything to crazy. The one I had orignal was like 5 bucks but was a POS obviously.....Any other basic ones would be helpful
 
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