Harbor Freight Airbrush

Have a look at this page.  You should be able to get a very fine line with that airbrush.  It sounds like the needle chuck isn't tightened or the rocker is out of position.

Don

Thanks I'll give it a try.

68GT

 a pieace of crap.

What do you think?

Yup. Its another one of those cheap Chinese knockoffs which even HF doesn't really know who made them. They change vendors that supply these to them so frequently that if you have problems, you can't get parts and they replace them. My son went through three and finally when they gave him his fourth replacement, they also gave him his money back and said...we suggest you purchase one elsewhere.

I've bought enough disposable tools there to know what their story is. 

I figured at $10 I would get it and give it a try to become comfortable with a doule action airbrush.  If it is fixable with little work it might be worth the trouble.  I really don't have the money to buy one of the more expensive ones now.

The Harbor Freight brush has a smaller nozzle than your 200.  It could be that you're not thinning enough.  Try spraying some food coloring or ink on paper towels.  Or, take a sheet of newspaper with a lot of black areas.  Load the airbrush with plain lacquer thinner and try it on the paper.  If you can get fine lines either of these ways, the brush is OK and you need to work on your thinning.  Look over the page I referenced and you can see what I did to mine.

Don

I just bought an A/B comp. combo from H/F a few months ago. I absolutely love it! I do have to thin the paint quite a bit more than I did with my old cheapo Testors A/B, about 60/40, sometimes even 50/50. I can get a spray small enough to do German spagetti at about an inch away, out to about a 3/4" mist at about 5 inches away.

im using this brush for learning skills. i haven't had any problems so far. 

I brought Harbor Freight AB few months ago because I couldn't wait while my Iwata AB was being repaired at the factory for couple of weeks.  It was only $20.  At first I hated it because it not as good as Iwata but after few practice rounds I got better handle of it and it wasn't bad at all.  Its trigger is pretty tricky...

For sure HF AB doesn't paint very fine lines as well as my Iwata AB does as I have tried several times.  I would use HF AB for base coating or primer because it was easier to clean than Iwata in my opinion.  I noticed with HF AB if I take my finger off the trigger too quickly, it would spit paint... so you have to be careful with that and point the AB away from the model before you take your finger off the trigger. 

I consider it a good back up AB if you can't afford another $150 AB. 

deafpanzer

I brought Harbor Freight AB few months ago because I couldn't wait while my Iwata AB was being repaired at the factory for couple of weeks.  It was only $20.  At first I hated it because it not as good as Iwata but after few practice rounds I got better handle of it and it wasn't bad at all.  Its trigger is pretty tricky...

For sure HF AB doesn't paint very fine lines as well as my Iwata AB does as I have tried several times.  I would use HF AB for base coating or primer because it was easier to clean than Iwata in my opinion.  I noticed with HF AB if I take my finger off the trigger too quickly, it would spit paint... so you have to be careful with that and point the AB away from the model before you take your finger off the trigger. 

I consider it a good back up AB if you can't afford another $150 AB. 

good point i forgot to mention. i sometimes forget about the spitting problem.

Ok, I got the chance to play around with this thing.  I must have disasebled and reasembled it 10-15 time so I think I know how it work now.  I also thined down some cheap Applebarrel acriylic from Michales to try things out.  Thined it down to a 70-30 water/paint mix and I can see a world of differance.  I plyed for about an hour making scigles, shapes, writing, drwaing and playing connec the dots.  I can get it down to a 1/16 of an inch up to about 3/4 of an inch.  It probably doesn't do as sharp of a line as some of the others but it will do if I need to use it.

I also see what you mean about the thing spitting.

Thanks all!

only thing i thought was tricky was the rocker assembly. it's a little tricky putting it back in and holding it while you screw the main half of the rocker. 

or maybe it's just me and im doing it the hard/wrong way. 

Thats kinda what I meant about having it apart 10-15 times.  I'm still not happy with the feel of the trigger so I'll have to clean that up when I get a chance.

I agree.  Like I said it wasn't like my Iwata.  Trigger is tricky but you will get used to it.  I notice it sprays paint as soon as you hit the trigger with HF AB while it doesn't happen halfway down with Iwata AB.  But it wasn't that bad just for $20.  I plan to use HF AB soon to apply Mr Surfacer primer on my M24 Chaffee and several figures because I found it easier to clean than Iwata.

It ain't just you.

I tried so many different ways I forget which one worked!