Need to buy a compressor

If you go to www.badger-airbrush.com, almost at the bottom of the page on the left side there is a button that says garage sale. At the bottom of the page is a Thayer and Chandler AirStar V compressor for $99.00 and it is a very quiet type of compressor to boot!

It would fill your needs perfectly! And it comes with a 6 month warranty...

I never bought my compresser there I just went to my local hardward shop and bought a two gallon compressor for 99 bucks. It is quiet and does a beautiful job.

Hasty has a point, I did the same thing. But if noise is an issue because of other people in the house or living in an apartment the one I listed would be good. Otherwise the ones at Lowes, Wal Mart and Home Depot work fine!

Hey rayers, I recently bought an airbrush ( model GD 102 ) from Airbrush City and it looks beautiful. Haven't had a chance to use it yet. For a compressor, I agree with the other guys. Go to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or Lowe's and get that $99 one. It has a 2 gal. tank and turns on & off by pressure switch. It even powers my nail guns for carpentry work around the house. It was recently priced a $89 at Wal-Mart. Have fun!!

Thanks guys -- the Badger garage sale is great. I may wind up getting one of those Thayer & Chandlers because my work space is the spare bedroom and my wife would freak if I brought one of those big Wal-Mart compressors into the house (that's the only reason why I haven't already bought one). She's not real happy that I paint inside, so a unobtrusive compressor that looks like a shoebox and is about the same size is perfect.

Rusty

My Testors mini blue works fine for me. My airbrush hose seems to have a moisture trap built into it; I don't know about a pressure regulator, but the compressor was well worth the $50 or so I spent on it, if you ask me. It seems to work for what I need. And it's oh-so-portable!

Hello,

I hope I don't offend anyone, however, I would never recommend purchasing the small hobby compressors.

You are better off geting a Compressor/Tank combination. The home stores (Home Depot and Lowe's, etc) sell a self contained unit encased in an attractive housing with the gauges on a face plate. Tough, reliable, decent warranty and yet only costs a little more than one of the small "high end" hobby compressors.

If you're skeptical, check it out at one of these stores.

Hope this helps.

Martacus

I have the mini blue too. I have just bought a 2 gallon compressor from Wal-Mart and the improvement in my airbrushing is quite amazing! The problems i've had with my airbrushing can all be pinpointed to the weak pressure the Testors puts out.

Sorry - no offence - but in my opinion the Testor mini blue is junk and I wouldn't recommned it to anyone. Consider replacing it!

Hey Guys....

New to airbrushing here myself. Aside from the usual "what type of airbrush do you reccomend" question (which I will be doing some reading and search here for an answer).. I have a compressor Q...

I see most of you reccomend a compressor from Lowes, SEARS or Wal-Mart.... My question is:

1) DO you have to buy any special adapters to connect your AB to a standrad home compressor?

2) What about your pressure regulator and moisture trap??? Where can you get these and how do you hook them up to a standard home compressor?

Thanks!

Hey!

First - depending on the airbrush hose you may need an adaptor, but most hoses use standard size couplers so finding an adaptor would be no prob, you should be able to get it at the same time as your compressor. My Badger hose has a 1/4" connector on the end which is the same as the compressor comes with. Some of the hoses use a 1/8th coupler which can be bought at Lowes or home Depot etc...

Second - the regulator can be got a the same place as well, it's about $25.00 tops, water trap about $12.00, The regulator comes with 2.5 PSI graduations so if you want more control over what PSI you set it at you can order a hobby style regulator and water trap combo at www.dixieart.com or various other online airbrush sites for about $50 to $60.... they have 1 PSI graduations. I've used both and they both work great so if you don't want to spend a lot of cash out of pocket right up front the Lowes or Home Depot ones will do...

Oh yeah, you might need to buy an extra 1/4" male to male adaptor when you get your compressor to come from the regulator to your airbursh hose.. (or 1/4 to 1.8 is the hose needs it) it's only about $1 for the fitting so you may want to get it "just in case"...

and teflon tape too... wrap about 5 or 6 rounds around the threads before you connect the regulator to the body, and same for the adaptor you put the hose on...

Thanks Tom! Those Hobby compressors are just as expensive as a full size household comp. I figured if I can use a household comp. all the better (easier to justify to the wife ).

Now the question is which airbrush to buy...have heard good and bad about Aztek/Testor. But I have heard little negative about Badger, IWATA, or Paasche. And also dual action/single action, and internal/external mix... ughh so many choices.

But the airbrush topic has been beat to death and is for this thread...so I'll search/browse this forum and see if I can answer my own questions before asking for opinions (gee imagine that...a nub that uses the SEARCH function )

Thanks agian and look forward to learning/sharing my results from all you vets here!

Claude - you really can't go wrong with any of the brushes you mentioned. Iwata, Paasche and Badger are all fine brands. You might want to check this out, a run down on buying airbrushes done by a member here (Music City)

http://www.craigcentral.com/models/ab.asp

Depending on what you model your airbrush needs might be different. If you mostly do armor a single action would fit your needs. If you do mostly aircraft, and have an eye for those snazzy German camo schemes with the squiggles (or think you ever might get a hankering for one) then a double action gravity fed would be the key...

Read around and come back and ask all the questions you want! A lot of people will tell you what works for them, from that and other online info you can make up your mind! Buyinf your first airbrush is about as frustrating as buying a new car!!! Hang in there and don't make any rushed decisions... the answer will come to you!

P.S. are you active duty or a federal employee? I did 11yrs in the Navy, mostly up there at sunny Bethesda! (I was a corpsman)


--edit--

check out www.dixieart.com, you'd be surprised how inexpensive an airbrush set is! dixieart is very reliable and shipping is free on every order over $45.00, which is almost any airbrush you can buy!!

Thanks again tom. I have been doing A LOT of reading for 2 days now... and think I have a better understanding of airbrushing in general. But I will post another thread with specifics like type of modeling I want to do and the AB I have narrowed down to.

I am a federal employee. I currently work as the Logistics-Operations and Supportability analyst on the AH-1W/AH-1Z upgrade and UH-1N/UH-1Y Upgrade for the USMC. But as you may be able to tell by my screen name, I used to be a civilan aircraft mechanic.

Claude - wanna be a hero? go into the helicopter topic and post just what you posted in the last message haha... a lot of die hard Cobra lovers there!!!

Well if ya have more questions you know where to come!

Roger Tom.... already asking away in another thread on what types of AB do folks reccomend. That way I dont hijack this one too far

AS far as H-1 (Cobra and Huey)...I wouldnt be able to answer too much. Gotta watch the Security Clearance ya know