DaveG
Airbush Analyst
Assembled another interesting little airbrush to try out - I'll call it a Badger Sotar 20/100 SF
I purchased a Badger 100-1 off of Ebay, and when it arrived I used Sotar 20/20 fine head assembly to replace the standard 100 head. I took one of my spare Sotar needles, and cut it down to fit inside the handle, as it stuck way out before clipping. I also used a small, short trigger button I had in my parts box from an original generation Sotar, along with a Sotar's longer needle chuck and chucking guide, and handle to wrap up the assembly.
What a great little airbrush - If you look at the comparison picts (with an Iwata Eclipse) you can see how small, and compact the brush is. It takes a bit of adjustment, as the trigger is so far forward in comparison. I much prefer the very small trigger button I used on it vs the larger, taller OEM of the 100.
Two things that surprised me - the first is that Badger has gone to making the 100-1 body ambidextrous, in that there is a hole on both sides of the brush (right and left) to plug the color cup in, as well as a filler plug for the opposite side. The other is that they now supply a larger 1/8 oz color cup - which for me is a draw back. I prefer the smaller 1/16oz cup. A quick look at "webairbrush" - Badger's official web store indicates that the smaller cup has been discontinued. Luckily I found some in stock at another online retailer, and ordered a few. With how short this build is, especially in front, the larger cup will get in the way.
The other negative (for me, anyway) - it has been quite some time since I had a Badger side feed. But, I seem to remember that at one time I had many - Badgers, Iwata and even Aztek brushes, and all the stems on the color cups were the same diameter. I ordered several Aztek cups in anticipation of building this little ditty - but, they do not fit. The Badger cup/brush has a smaller/thinner stem... I do have the capability to taper ream the hole in the brush to the correct size for other cups, but will hold off till I have some more time under my belt with it...
Performance in my initial testing has been good to very good
. Looking forward to using it more... will follow up with more as I have more time to play with it, for those interested.
I purchased a Badger 100-1 off of Ebay, and when it arrived I used Sotar 20/20 fine head assembly to replace the standard 100 head. I took one of my spare Sotar needles, and cut it down to fit inside the handle, as it stuck way out before clipping. I also used a small, short trigger button I had in my parts box from an original generation Sotar, along with a Sotar's longer needle chuck and chucking guide, and handle to wrap up the assembly.
What a great little airbrush - If you look at the comparison picts (with an Iwata Eclipse) you can see how small, and compact the brush is. It takes a bit of adjustment, as the trigger is so far forward in comparison. I much prefer the very small trigger button I used on it vs the larger, taller OEM of the 100.
Two things that surprised me - the first is that Badger has gone to making the 100-1 body ambidextrous, in that there is a hole on both sides of the brush (right and left) to plug the color cup in, as well as a filler plug for the opposite side. The other is that they now supply a larger 1/8 oz color cup - which for me is a draw back. I prefer the smaller 1/16oz cup. A quick look at "webairbrush" - Badger's official web store indicates that the smaller cup has been discontinued. Luckily I found some in stock at another online retailer, and ordered a few. With how short this build is, especially in front, the larger cup will get in the way.
The other negative (for me, anyway) - it has been quite some time since I had a Badger side feed. But, I seem to remember that at one time I had many - Badgers, Iwata and even Aztek brushes, and all the stems on the color cups were the same diameter. I ordered several Aztek cups in anticipation of building this little ditty - but, they do not fit. The Badger cup/brush has a smaller/thinner stem... I do have the capability to taper ream the hole in the brush to the correct size for other cups, but will hold off till I have some more time under my belt with it...
Performance in my initial testing has been good to very good