Harbor Freight air brush

I bought the airbrush compressor combo last year and love it.  Had been thinking about getting an Iwata but I also needed a compressor.  For $79 for both the airbrush looks like a Chinese copy of Badger.  I have been meaning to buy a single action from them just for clear coats.  I think its $6.

I think the single action was $9.99. I saw the compressor combo-what type of brush did it have? I have a friend who is into model railroading, and tried to do some weathering with a rattle can with predictable results. I had shown him some rail cars and locomotives that I had added dust and road grime with my equipment, with much superior results. I might have to point this out to him as many of the brand name compressors are $100+ themselves without the cost of the airbrush. And I had told him of the cost and inconvenience of canned air.

I have three of the Harbor Freight double action airbrushes.  I ordered different tips and needles from the online cataloge.  They work great no problems.  The are copies of the Badger 150 airbrush and break down just like them. Here is a link to the breakdown:

http://webairbrushes.com/abb150schem.htm

Basicly the description you gave on how you clean your airbrush is fine.

Thanks for the tips and I will have to keep that webairbrushes site in mind. The last time I needed parts and seals for the 350, I had to chase all over town to find what I needed.

I examined it a bit further, and it looks to me that their isn't a whole lot of difference between an internal and external brush. The paint is still delivered to an exposed needle where air is blown across the tip. The main difference seems to be mostly how the air is delivered-the external the air is blown from a distance at a slight angle, and the internal the air comes out aound the needle evenly right at the tip. The mix still takes place outside the body of the brush, though I assume the second is probably more precise.

I see two tips and needles offered online-a 0.4 and a 0.5. Not sure what comes with this one. 

jimbot58 wrote:

I see two tips and needles offered online-a 0.4 and a 0.5. Not sure what comes with this one.

If it's the one with the blue handle and a ball on the end of the needle the size is .35.

If you look at the right side of the airbrush it says the nozzle is .35.

At one time The Harbor Freight web site had three different sizes listed they were .30, .40 and .50.  They were supposed to be for the the 6 color airbrush set. I ordered all three but only got the .30 and .40 sets, they didn't have the .50 set.  The sets fit the the one with the blue handle.

Ah! I see that now! These eyes ain't what they used to be and often find some of that stuff easy to miss. I need to try this out on some smaller work, so I can see if I need any larger nozzles or not. I did find that my mini-compressor was putting out 30+ psi and this seemed to be too much for this brush. I bought and installed a mini-regulator (from HF of course) but didn't get a chance to give it a shot yet. The higher pressure always was fine for the Badger 350, but my goal is to see if I can get some better control with this one. I usually paint most of my camo-patterns free hand look forward to trying this. I can always still use the Badger for the larger areas.