New Krome

I love the case! when I opened it I noticed it didnt actually fit in its cutout and the were no cutouts for the other needle and tip. So i extended the hole near the tail end and also at the air fitting to accomodate putting it in there with the adapter on it since It will likely always be on there.
Then I check to see If my metal cap from my Harbor Freight brush would fit..... Nope. But after measuring I found i just needed a small thin tube to stuff in there to make it fit. What do you know the tube that held the extra regulator and tip was just right. and the .22 regulator didnt fit in that tube anyhow.
So I cut down that tube, glued one piece In the HF cap and used the rest to hold the tip. While the regulator now occupies the tube with the black cap. Now i can easily get it out when I need it and my unused tip and regulator are in two seperate containers so they wont be rattling against one another.
I still need to make the cutouts for the needle and tip holders.

First thing I noticed was how long and heavy this thing Is, Which Is fine with me.
Next thing I notice was that the external finish quality Is actually quite poor.
I was expecting a beautiful jeweled finish like an S&K wrench or a Starrette Micrometer Or at least like any halfway decent streetbike brake lever..... The tail isnt finished a whole lot better than a dollar store ratchet. With very clear tooling marks and even some gouges near the cup that were obviously made before the chrome plating took place. Also an obviously poorly prepped Braze area on the cup to body joint. It's not terrible but by comparison the finish on my HF brush is nearly flawless so by that standard (yikes). I hoped this wasn't Indicative of the rest of the quality.

20171005_203857.jpg 20171005_203914.jpg 20171005_203947.jpg 20171005_204000.jpg 20171005_204115.jpg 20171005_204154.jpg 20171005_204154.jpg 20171005_204206.jpg

Now anyone who's done a lot of mechanic work or machining can tell you that a few minutes ( or seconds ) with something metal in their hand can basically give them a very good Idea of how quality the metal is...... ( I can't explain how but it's true).
I will say It's made with a good grade of materials and I'm betting it can last forever even with a fair amount of abuse.

The finish must be about the end of the cost cutting, because the performance is spectacular. Tons of control. Even a noob like myself was able to pull this line!
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Yes that thing next to it is actually a human hair!

It happily runs at half the PSI I was used to having to run.
Though this means I'm going to have to put a tank on my little airbrush compressor to use it when im not at the shop because the compressor cant give stable air at that low of a pressure.

So thats as far as I've got with it. It's made very happy and I don't really care that much about the finish because well It works beautifully and it was $90.
 
Sweet ...
It's nice to get a new brush in the mail. It's kinda like Christmas :)
Congrats on the new brush
Anytime I get a tool that isn't bottom of the line just to get a particular job done type thing, It's like xmas!
This is one area I could afford something that seems to be among the best so I just had to, plus my wife got sick of me talking about it and one night I was showing it to her on the phone and she took the phone and looked for a couple minutes, handed the phone back and said "It'll be here on on thursday"
 
Oh and Btw I highly recommend these clip on lenses made by Vivitar that are sold at walmart, micheals and lots of other places. They clip on over your phone and come with a "macro" lens , a Wide angle and a fish eye plus theres a combination that makes a 2x optical zoom. The macro lens was how i was able to get these close ups.
It's like 6 bucks for the set and I've seen a thousand "Help!" threads that probably could have been solved quickly with the the use of a macro lens.

https://jet.com/product/detail/4131...UsCYE4adqMcWEGEVqgPoqWDx_Yk-YhXMaAmqHEALw_wcB
 
Isn't the HF tip cover pretty on her.
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I'd buy an HF gun just for this tip cover LOL
Oh and I think most of the loose cap reports might just be the fact that the lid fit is almost too tight but has a steep taper. If you just kind of slap it on there haphazardly than it's loose, if you push it all the way flush it's almost a press fit and hard to remove. A slight rotation as you put it on or take it off makes it perfectly tight, though nowhere close to sitting flush so that leaves plenty of room for wear.
Oh and out of the box the trigger had a very hard pull and crunched near the end of the pull. several turns out on the tension adjustment fixed it right up.
 
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Congratulations! I see you had quite a few issues with this. Was it bran new? And if so, would you like me to get ahold of Ken for you?
 
Yeah it's brand new. I'm actually really happy with it. The function is gorgeous! The cosmetic finishing stuff would be more like something to throw in the suggestion box.

Maybe they could run em through a vibratory polisher before they head off to be plated or something.
Thank you though!
 
Anyone know if a velocity tail will work on this guy, I'm not really seeing the point in the exposed needle holddown and it bugs be slightly.
 
I'm tempted to say yes, because the Krome AFIK is part of the Renegade line, so in theory the body is the same only with plated instead of patina finish, but I don't actually know for sure.

I have two SOTARs, and my experience with them is very similar re: the finishing vs performance. I like say they're like Kalashinikovs (a weird comparison coming from me as I'm not a gun guy): simplified and rough where ever they can get away with it, but precise where the need to be. They are a little fussier to keep clean in some areas because of this, but they deliver good atomization with a very nice trigger response curve.

One thing I did with mine was to use a little fine polishing compound (Flitz) to lap the threads on some of the parts (particularly the spray regulator and hold down ring). Made things fit together smoother.
 
I'm tempted to say yes, because the Krome AFIK is part of the Renegade line, so in theory the body is the same only with plated instead of patina finish, but I don't actually know for sure.

I have two SOTARs, and my experience with them is very similar re: the finishing vs performance. I like say they're like Kalashinikovs (a weird comparison coming from me as I'm not a gun guy): simplified and rough where ever they can get away with it, but precise where the need to be. They are a little fussier to keep clean in some areas because of this, but they deliver good atomization with a very nice trigger response curve.

One thing I did with mine was to use a little fine polishing compound (Flitz) to lap the threads on some of the parts (particularly the spray regulator and hold down ring). Made things fit together smoother.

Good Idea! I've noticed my regulators threads are a little rough and it makes it hard sometimes to take just the reg off without the holddown ring coming too
 
the handle should fit, no problem. Been my experience that Badger uses the same threading on the handles for most models... I have a Sotar handles on a Renegade Spirit, as well as an Xtreme Patriot - but even the old 100 series handles screw right on.
 
Oh cool! thank you!
The threading on my .21 regulator stripped out the second time i took it off so I may order a handle when i order a regulator.
The .33 is a little tight to go on and the .21 went on easy but stripped. Actually I think ill snag up a holddown ring too. The top thread of mine is incomplete and has segments around the end. Might be the cause of both ailments.
 
Well', I knew the finish on the handle looked bad but I really wasn't expecting this
krome tail.png

The "krome" is just peeling off in sheets.
Anyone had this issue before?
This I'll probably get in touch with badger about.
 
Badger needs to get their crap together, IMO. It's sad we (USA) can't design and build an airbrush that is a true Micron killer. It's like the Japanese invented the SR-71 and all we have are bi-planes.
 
Well, this is the only name brand brush I've owned and Ive never tried to do much true detail work. So I can't really speak to that.
I'm not expecting a $500 brush for $100 But I expected it to easily beat a $20 one.

All the airbrushes I've used have been just to do slightly more detail than a detail gun Like get a dark line down in a crevice or something. That being said, It seems great on even really small detail.
Still, The chinese $15-20 stuff that was hanging around the shop saw far more use and even abuse before it started falling apart. I never saw the plating just peel off.
I think I'm Actually gonna snag one of these and try it.
https://www.amazon.com/PointZero-Dual-Action-Gravity-feed-Airbrush-2mm/dp/B004KNHGG4/ref=sr_1_2?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1508556478&sr=1-2&keywords=point zero airbrush
If I get it spraying as well I may just stick with it.
Heck, I can buy four for the price of the badger.
If I had paid $20 for this I'd be thrilled with it.
but I'm hoping the couple Issues I had with this are just a fluke.
The peeling chrome and the instantly stripping .21 regulator.
 
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Im not sure how old mine is (it was a gift from Herb) but I'd say the fit and finish is at least good, and its a very nice spraying brush. I don't think it would have been a first choice for me to buy, but hey you can't beat free! ;)
 
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