CO2, Nitrogen or Compressed air?

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

CO2, Nitrogen or Compressed air?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 2:18 AM

Hello all!

I've been modeling for some time now, but until quite recently I've never actually had an interest in airbrushing my models...
I bought a really cheap single action ab the other day - basically to find out whether or not I'm up for the whole "ritual" surrounding mixing paints/air pressures/cleaning before I spend more money on a proper double action.
Needless to say, the can of propellant only lasted a while! Big Smile [:D]

I spent all of yesterday browsing the forum, so most of my newbie questions have been answered, except for one:
I've decided to use bottled gas to power my brush. Upon browsing the Afrox website (www.afrox.co.za) I came across the following possible "propellants":
Carbon Dioxide, Food Grade Carbon Dioxide/Nitrogen mix, Compressed (liquid) Air mixture.
I'm leaning towards the CO2 - mainly because it's 99% pure.

Does anybody have any experience with these different types of gases?
Which one would you recommend?

As a sidenote...I'm planning on building a spray booth that has extraction points at the bottom and the back of the box. (They would both be working simultaneously. ) Any comments/suggestions?

Many thanks!
Modulas

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styrene

Member since
May 2003
From: The flat lands of the Southeast

Posted by styrene on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 6:00 AM

CO2 or Nitrogen would both work well as a propellent source, since both gases would be considered a "dry" gas (no atmospheric moisture to have to deal with). Many on this forum use CO2 because of its availability, and, I assume, its cost.

As far as the spray booth goes, typical design only has one fan, and if the booth is designed appropriately, that's all that's really needed. I'm not sure I understand why you would need an additional fan mounted at the bottom of the booth or at the back. Maintaining a face velocity of 80-100 fpm is sufficient for vapor capture, and one fan in the back (or at the bottom, if your idea is a downdraft booth) is sufficient to provide laminar airflow without a lot of turbulence inside the booth. Keep in mind that a downdraft booth is ultimately more efficient since it uses the vapors' characteristic of being heavier-than-air to assist in capture. Typically, capture velocity recommendations for downdraft booths are about 50 fpm compared to the 80-100 for a "standard" spray booth.

Keep us posted on your efforts, and welcome to the funny farm---errr--forum. Smile [:)]

Gip Winecoff

1882: "God is dead"--F. Nietzsche

1900: "Nietzsche is dead"--God

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 6:43 AM

Thanks for the reply and the warm welcome!

In that case the biggest factor in determining which one I choose would be the price...I suppose the plain CO² would be the cheapest?! Who needs Food Grade anyway? Unless you're airbrushing weddingcakes I guess...
I'm going to my local Afrox depot after I finish work today...I'll report back tomorrow.

About the booth:
The reason I wanted to have two extraction points was to have double the extraction. Thinking about it now, it is a bit impractical. At the very least - overkill!
I'll most probably end up building a downdraft booth as it makes the most sense to me. :)

Thanks again!
You'll definitely hear more from me in the future.

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, November 14, 2004 11:41 AM

I've been using dry nitrogen for about six months now. No noise. No moisture problem. Pressure is easy to regulate. Most of the cost to refill the tank can be attributed to labor so I recommend getting as large a tank as is practical. I bought the regulator and am renting the tank. No problem adapting my Badger air supply line to the regulator...something I checked out before going too far.

I don't think I'll be going back to compressors.

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, November 14, 2004 2:10 PM

I use co2 and wont go back to anything else.

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 7:11 AM

at the minute i use a car tyre pumped up with a foot pump( too poor/tight to buy a compresser) but i'm thinking about going to co2.

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 18, 2004 3:04 AM

So I went to Afrox the other day...and to cut a long story short: It's simply too expensive! Sad [:(]

The monthly rental on the canister is still reasonable (R60), but having to spend almost a R1000 on a regulator is too much.
Maybe if I was airbrushing every day...

Luckily I found and old automotive spraypainting compressor sitting on a shelf in my father's garage. (Diaphram type, no regulator) It's output is about 30 psi.

Really noisy - but it gets the job done! Wink [;)]

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