BRAD NAILER COMPRESSOR FOR USE WITH AIRBRUSH

Aeronca Mac

I do not as yet own an airbrush but do have a small pin nailer compressor. Can it be adapted to use with an airbrush? It would be a great saving if I could do so. Any help will be appreciated.

 

It can be done, however, if you are in USA, you will need an adapter. The airbrush hose WILL screw on, although incorrectly. It will leak horribly and damage the threads of both the hose and the compressor. You will most likely need a 1/4" male BSPT to 1/4" female NPT adapter. This is because the rest of the world uses a different thread than the USA, just like the rest of the world uses the metric system yet we don't. I couldn't find any at LHS or art supply or Amazon but easily found it on eBay. It comes from China and takes a couple of weeks but I got two for less than $8 and they are machined very nicely from brass.

Once again members of this website have responded to my guestions and I am indeed grateful. Many thanks to all who responded. So glad I found this site as I begin modeling.

I use a 2 gallon Fortress.  I would recommend getting a "pumpkin" water trap, (red ones at HF were around a buck) and set up the inlet side with your QD, and put your low pressure regulator on the outlet.  Then adapt the regulator to the AB hose.

If you need the compressor for other uses, then just pop everything off at the QD.

All I've ever used are non airbrush compressors for nearly 50 years, or refillable air tanks before that. You just need to adapt the hose to the 1/4" nipple on the compressor . There are 1/4 to 1/8 , 1/4 to Paasche, 1/4 to Badger etc adapters.  I use a Paasche hose and a Badger hose and don't use quick disconnects except the 1/4" one at the compressor so adapted each hose to plug into that. Pretty sure I got the latest adapter for the Paasche H from Amazon. Another came in a set of adapters and fittings with a Point Zero regulator I bought. That kit was used to adapt my Ganzton airbrush hose out to 1/4" ( the Ganzton hose is the standard 1/8 airbrush hose like Iwata and others use, Badger and Paasche each have their own thread). The smallest air supply I've used thus far is my current compressor which is an 8 gal portable. That's not 100% true if you consider my starter brush that used canned air initially.

Edit:  I've since posting this just gone with the standard 1/8 hose on my compressor from the Ganzton brush, with an airbrush quick connect from TCP Global. So each of my brushes now has a nipple to fit the quick connect.

I have my house centrally plumbed from a large compressor, but completely agree with Ed.  Most of the hobby compressors are 15-30lpm @40psi, that's less than 1CFM.  I think the typical pancake compressor you'd use for nailing is 2-3CFM at 90PSI

Yes indeed.  I have a Porter-cable 2 gallon pancake compressor.  Two gauges (tank & line) built-in regulator, and two female quick connect taps.  

I leave set the tank regulator t about 30 PSI. I come out of the compressor via a flexible whip with male & female connections. I go into a Harbor Freight  filter/regulator with a max 30 PSI gauge & that I use to control pressure to the AB hose. Out of the regulator to the hose.  I have some AB quick disconnects that allow me to swap my AB of choice. 

My compressor is under the bench where I can easily pull it out to fill a car tire or shoot a few brad nails  My regulator setup is mounted on the end of the bench adjacent to the window  

most fittings are standard 1/4 inch NPT available at your local big box hardware store.  The 30 PSI gauge was off Amazon,  locally available gauges were 180-200 full range and most inexpensive gauges can be off by as much as 10%. Gauge is 1/8 NPT, you can also find nipples & elbows to position gauge on a good viewing angle