AWGB Woodturning Forum
General Category => Tool tips & reviews => Topic started by: John D Smith on January 08, 2012, 09:50:01 PM
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Hi Everyone,I have today had my first try at Air Brushing one of my turnings I used an Acrylic paint with only a little success.Does any one know where I might find some tutorial info on the internet.Regards John
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John,
I've looked everywhere on the internet for how to use an air-brush. There is lots but of course it's all biased to custom paintjobs on cars or other art type use.
however, there are some good pdf download lessons from this site, http://www.createxcolors.com/ (http://www.createxcolors.com/).
The other thing I can tell you is a new forum member Robin Goodman (of my club) is very good with an airbrush on his turnings, so you might ask for more from him.
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Hi dr4g0nfly, Thanks for the information.Regards John
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Hi John, It may be worth looking at Joey Richardson's site or possibly Bihn Pho.
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John, if you go on You Tube and put in airbrushing there are lots of clips to watch. Best of luck.
Roger
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Hi Roger, Thanks for the information I will look at you tube later Regards John
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John ... wait till the wife finds out what you've been doing with the hair brush... ;D ...
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Hello Phillip, Thanks for your reply, This was my first attempt at air bushing, I had turned a hollow form which I textured then I wanted to give it a Copper like finish I mixed the Acrylic Winsor & Newton copper paint which I thinned down with water it seemed to keep clogging the jet the paint looked like it had metal particles in it but I am sure it wasn't metal.
The two Airbrushes I have are the BD128P with a .35mm nozzle the other is a BD 134 with a .3mm nozzle.Thank you for the links I will look at these later,maybe I should do a few practice/trials. Maybe I should try different paints.Regards John
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John, you may also find it better to use acrylic thinners. You can thin and clean with water but the paint particles tend to seperate out more in water for some reason.
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Thank you Philip & dr4g0nfly for your help and answers I will try using the acrylic thinners also doing the adjustments you suggest
I have looked at the links and there seems to be a lot of information for me to digest.Back to the drawing board.
Thanks Woodndesign she will never notice.Regards John
Thanks for the warning about using a mask
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That's a good job, John, it's like using the microwave to dry a piece ... >:( ...
Take care, an how's Bryan.
Cheers, David
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I am late picking up on this thread about airbrushing, but in view of dr4gOnfly’s kind compliment above, I thought I would add a few general comments about starting airbrushing and my experience.
I started with a basic Badger airbrush kit with gas canister from Halfords and had little success with it. Following a recommendation, I then bought a better quality Evolution airbrush (top loading gravity fed) plus small compressor. As has been mentioned in postings above, there is plenty of info & clips on the internet. There are also one or two DVD’s such as ‘How to begin Airbrushing’ by Peter Lind and ‘Introduction to Airbrush’ by Debbie Eastlack, I decided I would make better progress with a little tuition. Even re-assembling the airbrush after essential thorough cleaning is not that easy.
There seems very little practical tuition available in UK, but I attended a 2 day weekend course run fairly locally by Artimagination Airbrush school in Gloucestershire. I found this introductory course excellent and would recommend it. They also sell all equipment and paints relating to airbrushing and will give advice over the phone. ‘everythingairbrush.com’ also has a good range of stuff.
Readymade acrylic airbrush paints are much the easiest, no fussing around trying to get the right consistency by mixing - the airbrush blocks up very easily if not adequately thinned. Although a set of airbrush colours may seem expensive to buy, if you have a gravity fed airbrush then you only need a few drops at a time, so the paints normally last for years. For woodturners, I suggest best to go for a set of transparent colour paints plus separate opaque black and white. You can add metallics, irridescents etc later, if you so wish.
Trial and error will get you a long way with the airbrush, but using the info and help out there will speed your progress and competency.
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Hi Robin,Welcome to the AWGB Forum.Thank you for your input and the advice on airbrushing I have found out a lot of information from members and the links they posted Regards John
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Hi John,
There have already been several replies to your original question, and I agree there is a lot of information on the net, but there is one key point when using acrylics with airbrushes that is easily missed.
Thinning the paint will enable it to 'flow' through the tip of the airbrush but both the thinners and the paint are designed to dry quickly. This leads to another problem called 'tip dry' where the paint is actually drying on the tip of the needle. Eventually that builds up sufficiently to restrict and eventually, block the flow.
So if you start painting ok, but then the flow seems to fall off or stop, I virtually guarantee this is the cause. of your problem. Thinning the paint further, and increasing the pressure won't make any long term difference, the paint will still dry on the tip. What you need is a 'retarder' which slows down the drying time of the paint. This is added to the paint, along with the thinners so you have a mixture that flows easily and doesn't dry in the airbrush. I have used the name 'retarder' but each paint manufacturer seems to use a different name. I recommend contacting your supplier for his recommended product. I use Liquitex Airbrush Medium. (http://www.liquitex.com/airbrushmedium/) but there are many others.
Hope that helps,
Paul
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Hi Paul, Thank you for that additional information I will get some of that Retarder. Regards John