whats the thinnest line i can expect from a 155 ?

Hi Reggie:

You gonna use this on your F-14?

Try changing the name of the post topic to "Help MikeV" - or e-mail MikeV. That guy owns more airbrushes than I own socks...he's a Badger expert, too. He is a personal friend of the president of the company.

MikeV will not steer you wrong.

I think the Anthem has the same needle/tip as the single action 200, so you should be able to get finer than 1/4", even with those ridiculous gravity feed color cups. It should be just a matter of tweaking the paint/thinner mix, air-pressure, needle postion, and the distance from the paint surface until you hit on the right combination of variables to give you the results for which you are looking. Practice, practice, practice.

About the color cups, I really dislike the Badger color cups for gravity feed airbrushes. It seems as though the thing is always at an awkward angle, it has no lid so I am always worried about dumping a load of paint onto my model, and the thing puts that paint about as far below the airbrush body as is possible. It almost seems as through the design was predicated on manufacturing ease rather than functional utility. My Aztek, on the other hand, had a really nice little side feed color cup. You could adjust the angle to keep it level, and it had a nice lid to keep paint from spilling. All in all, I really liked my Aztek's side feed color cup a lot better and wondered if there was a way of somehow adapting the Aztek one.

What I did was to make a little elbow that would fit into the Badger body's siphon pickup, and kick out to the side and allow the Aztek color cup to fit into it. It wasn't real complicated. I picked up a piece of 3/16" x 0.03" wall aluminum tubing from my local hobby shop. I used a propane torch to heat it for a nice 90 degree bend. (Actually, I went a few degrees shy of 90.) I used sandpaper to grind a slight taper on the end that fits into the airbrush body. This took a bit of time to do it carefully enough to keep it perfectly round so that it would fit without leaks. I then used a round jeweler's file and some sandpaper to enlarge the hole so that the Aztek color cup can snuggly fit. Since the Aztek cup is somewhat pliable plastic, I didn't have to be as futzy to get a leak-free fit.

With this arrangement, the paint is a lot higher thus needing less suction to lift it into the body which in turn allows spraying at noticably lower pressures. I'm not exactly sure how low of pressure that my sidefeed adapter will paint at, but it is somewhere below my gauge's minimum threshhold reading of about 10 PSI.

Don't get hung up on gravity feed. Your 155 is fully capable of spraying lines that our pencil lead thin. What you need to do is thin your paint , 60:40 ratio is a good starting point, use 10 psi if you can, and then get in close to your subject. Practice on scrap material until you are satisfied with your lines.

Mike M

no the 155 will definitely spray lines thinner than 1/4 ". play around with the thinner ratos and air pressure. even with regularly thinned paint at 15psi i can get down to 1/8 of an inch.

im shooting water test patterns on caligraphy practice paper that turns black when it comes into contact with water. im using canned air, too. ive been trying nonstop to shoot fine lines, but it seems that below a certain pressure, the water wont pickup. could it be because the canned air's pressure gradually drops cos it gets cold ?

ABARNE - i will try doing what you did, but considering my shop skills are pretty iffy, i might not be able to pull it off so easily.

MACooke - you betcha im gonna use it on my cat ! whats up with your account ? changing usernames ?

Reg - I almost forgot... a congratulations is due to you... in the few short months I have known you ... all the way fro a spray gun, to an aztek to a 155!!! quite a change!!! that 155 will do you good... I really recommend if you can to get some needle lube and it will do ya better, f ya cant get it thats ok too...

good luck friend!!!

Reggie,

Use some real paint and see the difference.
I can get lines around 1mm with the Anthem at 60 psi on fabric.

Mike

so water is too thin ?

reggie if the can is getting to cold stand it in a bowl of WARM water no more then half the depth of the can will keep constant air pressure

hey thanks shroomy. i knew about that trick but i been a little too lazy to do it for the past few days. i think i will do that , should help with the pressure

woe betide me. i have just discovered a new problem : the braided hose that came with the set has a leak in it. i tested it in the sink, and its bubblin. i will have to send it back the the LHS. so i swapped the braided air hose to the rubber one that i was using with my humbrol POS spraygun, and whadya know, its leaking around the join between the brush and the hose. teflon tape isnt helping much either. any ideas ?

For Andy...Find a sheet of 1/8 Foamcore. Trace the cup shape on it. Cut the circle out with an exacto #11 slightly tapered in towards the center. Punch a hole in the middle, and it makes a nice cap that will last several paint sessions. i make a mess of the covers and they work well. Make sure the blade is new so you don't have any foam flaking off.
WARNING! This only works with water-based paints. Oil base will attack the foamcore.
Bud

QUOTE: Originally posted by reggiethedorf so water is too thin ?

I don't think it's the water, I think it's the surface you are spraying on.
You said:

QUOTE: im shooting water test patterns on caligraphy practice paper that turns black when it comes into contact with water.

I think that may be your problem. The paper is absorbing the water and it shows up as a wider pattern than you are spraying, unless you are too far away and that is the problem. I would have the needle about 1/2" away from the surface or less to get the finest lines, but be careful and don't let let the needle tip crash into the surface as it is exposed on the Anthem.

Mike

i will try shooting some poster colors today, thanks for the advice mike