Air Brush Rookie

Hi John

I am not familiar with the Sparmax but I am sure others will be able to offer their reviews.

I would say your garage compressor should work with a line feed into your shop. A close proximity reg and filter should do the trick.

Best of luck with it.

TractorNut57

Hi All,

  Pretty new to this whole air brush thing and have been looking into buying a air brush set up, compressor, tank, etc.  I hear the Sparmax DH103 is a pretty good set up, was wondering what you all think. And also, I have a huge compressor already out in my garage, I was thinking about just a good size volume tank that I can pressure up and then just bring it in the shop and plug on the reg and filter, or just stub a line in from the garage to reg or manifold set up, sound doable?  Thanks for your help, John

Phil H is one of the few Sparmax airbrush user on this forum. He likes the DH103. Hope that he will reply soon.

keilau

Phil H is one of the few Sparmax airbrush user on this forum. He likes the DH103. Hope that he will reply soon.

Actually, I'm not familiar with the DH-103. I use a SP-35C which has a 0.35mm nozzle, compared to the 0.3mm nozzle on the DH-103.

Sparmax brushes are made in Taiwan, unlike many of the "Iwata clones" which are made in China. As far as the SP-35 series is concerned, the build quality is excellent and I would assume that this carries across the range. On the SP-35, the needle is gently tapered, giving a smooth, linear control over the paint flow.

I primarily use Tamiya acrylics get great results with the SP-35. I do find that Tamiya's metallics can be problematic at times due to the large size of the metallic particles - this may be more of an issue with the DH-103 due to its smaller nozzle.

Ovrerall, it works very nicely, delivers good results and any problems that I've had with it have largely been of my own making..

My basement workshop lies right behind and below my garage. I used steel water pipe to plumb a line down into the workshop, with a seperate filter and regulator on the end. It worked fine except for one problem.  Here in Minnesota we get a lot of below zero weather in the winter and the compressor will not start in extreme cold.

Now I have a little pancake fifty buck compressor/tank in the workshop for winter painting.  Noisy, but at least I can paint in arctic weather.  I also use an additional filter and regulator on that unit.

If you live further south, plumbing a line in from the garage may be all you need.  Just mount filter/dryer and regulator on end of line.  You will also need the adapter from the regulator fitting to whatever your airbrush needs.  Many hobby shops and artists supply places carry those.

Hey Fella's,

  Thanks for the reply's, Don I use to do plumbing work so running the line would not be a problem, as a matter a fact I thought about some of the new plastic high pressure stuff that is flexible, I could snake that stuff were ever I wanted to. The freezing up part, I usually drain my tank and leave it turned off in the coldest months, I live in Ohio so we do not get it as bad as you all do up in Minnesota but we do get it bad enough to freeze things in my garage. I am thinking if I tap into the midway point on my tank and the keep some air tool anti freeze floating around in the bottom, I maybe able to pull this off. Thanks again fella's, John

TractorNut57

Hey Fella's,

  Thanks for the reply's, Don I use to do plumbing work so running the line would not be a problem, as a matter a fact I thought about some of the new plastic high pressure stuff that is flexible, I could snake that stuff were ever I wanted to. The freezing up part, I usually drain my tank and leave it turned off in the coldest months, I live in Ohio so we do not get it as bad as you all do up in Minnesota but we do get it bad enough to freeze things in my garage. I am thinking if I tap into the midway point on my tank and the keep some air tool anti freeze floating around in the bottom, I maybe able to pull this off. Thanks again fella's, John

My problem has nothing to do with tank, it is the compressor.  The compressor will not start- it pops the breaker in below-zero weather.  I am using regular compressor oil. I am afraid to use anything thinner because it might not be adequate when the weather warms up.