If you want a general duty compressor for use around the house as well as airbrushing, then skip the Badger types. Go ahead and buy the biggest compressor you can afford, whether it be one of those $50 “pancake” compressors, or the $100 “hotdog” compressors, or a $200, 20 gallon 5 hp job. I found that once you have a good compressor, and the tools to go with it, you’ll use it for all kind of things, and having the extra capacity sure comes in handy. Mine (Husky brand) came with 2 gauges, one for tank pressure, the other for line pressure (for when you lower the regulator). It did not have a filter or moisture trap (yet), and I find when I use tools for an extended period of time I feel moisture coming from the tools during use. You can buy regulators, filters, moisture traps all separately, or as a combination. Most regulators have a gauge built in so you know what pressure you’re setting. My personal recommendation is that if you don’t have any of these on your compressor, simply get an all-in-one unit, with the reg., trap, filter, and guage all in one. If you plan on using your air a lot, you may want to consider getting a trap with an automatic drain. Otherwise, simply empty it when you see mointure in the bottom of the bowl.
As far as what order to put the regulator and moisture trap (aslo known as a “water separator”), I don’t think it makes any difference (in any
I can almost hear myself explaining to the railroad detective saying “Sir, I wanted to paint this train model see… that big engine sure had alot of air for this brush.”
I wont get away with a long enough hose to be on public property will I?
=)
Ok, Im sold. All I have to worry about is selecting the all-in-one regular/filter and drain for the output line. Ive already decided that the 6 gallon model will fit nicely for rather quiet operation of the airbrush and still have the beef for the other stuff that might call upon it’s capacity.
A family member once told me never buy anything you cannot lift. =)
The internal bleed is for the pressure, like a relief valve to let the pressure out if you release the trigger on your airbrush and make the pressure build up in the compressor. Remember, this type has no pressure tank and feeds the compressed air directly to the airbrush. At that low of a pressure, and the low volume that an airbrush will use, you probably won’t need a trap unless you’re working in an extremely humid area.
I also have this Sears compressor, but haven’t used it for airbrushing. It’s a rather loud compressor and i wouldn’t be able to use it inside after the kids have gone to bed because i’m pretty sure it would wake them.
My thought was to go out and buy an air tank, pressurize it using the compressor and then use it for the airbrush. Does anyone do this? if so, how often do you have to refill the tank?
For most of my airbrushing, I just cycle the compressor once, then do all the painting, plus cleanup on the single charge. The automatic switch on this thing cuts on around 95 to 100 PSI, far above what you need for airbrushing.