Amazing cheap airbrush

A

Arent Jack

Guest
Hi guys,

I like trying out cheap airbrushes once in a while. I ordered an Agora-Tec airbrush from Amazon and it arrived yesterday! It cost 29.32 pound. The last two days I have been painting with it and I am flabbergasted by its quality! Beautifully made, feels awesome. I took it apart, lubed it and polished the needle. I am just amazed by its performance! It’s way better than my Infinitys, Veda’s and Sotar 20/20! Loving it!
 
I can check that when I get to my studio this afternoon. Does that make a difference?
 
It's a build quality thing. I think what you have there is basically a master G48
All of the other agora-tecs i could find a picture of showed an oring at the nozzle base and at the head base.
The actual japanese stuff it's copying (micron in this case) has no o-ring because the tolerances are tight enough they don't need them.
If so and you like that...you should try a real japanese brush. :)

I'll agree though, Because In a lot of ways my point zero ( somewhat related to the master) is better than my badger krome was
 
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Interesting! Well I’m gonna check as soon as I get to the studio! Two Microns on the way which no doubt will be superior but that won’t stop me from ordering a few more Agora-Tecs before they are sold out!!!
 
Hmmm, aside from the blue handle, looks very familiar ;)

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I would hazard a guess the a head from one of your to arrive Microns will also fit the Agora-Tech brush body like a glove. I have the same brush with many different names. I would agree, they can be right up there with the Sotar in terms of feel and performance, and then some. Trigger can be made fantastic in comparison.
 
This is yet another variant of the Chinese Fengda BD-180 and co, sold under 1000s of different names. Manufacturing precision and quality control is basic at this price point, so some are OK, some are useless. All have O ring behind the nozzle. Weak points are the MAC valve, and durability.
If you are keen on trying cheap Chinese airbrushes, look for the less complicated designs. Like BD-130, which is a copy of Oly HP-100, Iwata HP-B.
 
This is yet another variant of the Chinese Fengda BD-180 and co, sold under 1000s of different names. Manufacturing precision and quality control is basic at this price point, so some are OK, some are useless. All have O ring behind the nozzle. Weak points are the MAC valve, and durability.
If you are keen on trying cheap Chinese airbrushes, look for the less complicated designs. Like BD-130, which is a copy of Oly HP-100, Iwata HP-B.

All input is very welcome, but as a newcomer can i ask you to pop along to the introduction section and tell us a little about yourself EG: where you live on this big old planet and what got you started in airbrushing, what you currently like to paint on and with. Folks like to welcome newcomers.

Introduction section can be found here:

http://www.airbrushforum.org/introductions/
.
 
This is yet another variant of the Chinese Fengda BD-180 and co, sold under 1000s of different names. Manufacturing precision and quality control is basic at this price point, so some are OK, some are useless. All have O ring behind the nozzle. Weak points are the MAC valve, and durability.
If you are keen on trying cheap Chinese airbrushes, look for the less complicated designs. Like BD-130, which is a copy of Oly HP-100, Iwata HP-B.
I have three Microns, Sotar etc etc but still this Agora-Tec is a really really good airbrush that I use on a daily basis alongside my microns etc!!!
 
This is yet another variant of the Chinese Fengda BD-180 and co, sold under 1000s of different names. Manufacturing precision and quality control is basic at this price point, so some are OK, some are useless. All have O ring behind the nozzle. Weak points are the MAC valve, and durability.
If you are keen on trying cheap Chinese airbrushes, look for the less complicated designs. Like BD-130, which is a copy of Oly HP-100, Iwata HP-B.
By the way there is no O-ring on the nozzle and the MAC valve works great. Buy it first, then try it, then write about it!!!
 
By the way there is no O-ring on the nozzle and the MAC valve works great. Buy it first, then try it, then write about it!!!
Are you sure? all pics of agora-tecs show an o-ring. I'd be very surprised if yours didn't have the o-ring at the base of the nozzle.
and it's not that the mac valves don't work, It's that they have sloppy screws. Which You can actually see the gap and taper on the nut that causes that in the pic you posted.
I'm not convinced @Janos got anything wrong on that, and he wasn't saying anything bad about it.
I'm very happy with mine too btw, They do have their weakpoints though.

This is yet another variant of the Chinese Fengda BD-180 and co, sold under 1000s of different names. Manufacturing precision and quality control is basic at this price point, so some are OK, some are useless. All have O ring behind the nozzle. Weak points are the MAC valve, and durability.
If you are keen on trying cheap Chinese airbrushes, look for the less complicated designs. Like BD-130, which is a copy of Oly HP-100, Iwata HP-B.
I've seen quite a few people like the better made versions of the 180 style.
Haven't seen anyone find a good version of the 130 style yet.
 
Not all chinese ABs have an O-ring on the paint nozzle, I mean threaded nozzle. And not all of them are crap. Besides, they are not manufactured at the same factory and the quality is different. Some of them have overall quality and such quality of spraying, that I see no reason for me of buying Eclipse series. Again for the reason of quality, spray pattern, reliability and, of course, prices for AB itself and parts for it. But yet, Microns and HP beat their knock offs and will beat till Chinese start making the same quality threaded nozzles. How it works @Robbyrockett2 has shown in another thread (his drawing), I guessed that long ago, though;) But even with these nozzles they produce highly atomized spray pattern, but aren't able to produce such a thin line due to the nozzle end. I'm not talking about all the knock offs definitely, some of them are still crap that I wouldn't use.
Airbrush is just a tool and for me brand name on the AB body doesn't matter much. While buying japanese AB one can be always sure what it will produce on the surface, but for chinese one need to have some experience with brands and models to be sure these ABs would produce equal or similar results as japanese would do.
It's from my experience:)
 
I'm not knocking em. I like mine, I wouldn't trade my Japanese made GSI for it but I would take it over some name brands. Spray-wise Crisp clean hairlines is the only thing it struggles with, and it's not struggling much.
It did take a little tweaking to get it to perform right though.

I guessed that long ago, though;) But even with these nozzles they produce highly atomized spray pattern, but aren't able to produce such a thin line due to the nozzle end.

To my thinking those nozzles make them atomize better ,they more closely resemble a spraygun nozzle.
It's kind of a handicap that the chinese brush needs in order to overcome the poor precision on the other parts.

Swapping nozzles for me seems to show it.
The japanese brush with chinese nozzle makes fuzzy fine lines, still a little cleaner than the chinese brush though.

The chinese brush with the japanese nozzle doesnt atomize very well or do fine lines very well.

There are some other factors involved there but seems to be about right.
 
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To my thinking those nozzles make them atomize better ,they more closely resemble a spraygun nozzle.
It's kind of a handicap that the chinese brush needs in order to overcome the poor precision on the other parts.

Swapping nozzles for me seems to show it.
The japanese brush with chinese nozzle makes fuzzy fine lines, still a little cleaner than the chinese brush though.

The chinese brush with the japanese nozzle doesnt atomize very well or do fine lines very well.

There are some other factors involved there but seems to be about right.

I think atomizing depends on the pressure at the nozzle. Air flow, while pressure's been set up with the regulator, depends on the gap between paint and air nozzle. It's like HP and HVLP technology. For better atomization HP is better. I think you understand me, as reading your post I could say you've got huge experience in using different tools. In ABs, I'd say, it would work this way: High Performance and Micron are "HP" and Eclipse is "HVLP", due to these models of different AB series have very different space sizes between paint nozzles and air nozzles (caps), thus atomizing is very different. Some chinese AB have small gap and atomizing real well.
So, we talk about the same things?:)
Shape of the nozzle also works. But again, chinese nozzles are also very different in quality. Some of them are only unable to produce thin consistent line, line looks just wider, consistent and evenly atomized. It's because of the things said above (your drawing concerning the nozzles).
Even slightly longer/shorter air nozzle that looks the same from different brands work different.
Dave also shown his experiment with different air nozzles and even within one good japanese brand you can get different spraying patterns and atomization.

It would be interesting to experiment with brushes with such people as you and some from the forum in reality, but not on the forum, unfortunately we're ocean apart:)
 
I am not saying Chinese ones are all useless. There is simply no free lunch, you get what you pay for.
There are 2 Chinese heads on the picture, perfectly fitting into my CMC+. Head cost 30 Euro cent, the 0,2 nozzle 3 Euros. For the fraction of the Iwata spares' cost, you can build many variations, fine tuning your brush to maximum level possible /as DaveG does in his experiments/. It might not come trough the picture, but the Chinese ones surface not as smooth as the Iwata, the chrome plating seems to be thinner. Do they work? Absolutely.
Durability. On the second picture a chinese 0,3 nozzle, broken into 2 parts. For the 3 Euro, we shall not expect that these parts will last forever. I also noticed that the Chinese nozzle, needle wears of quicker, slowly changing the spray pattern/ atomaization performance.
I am willing to praise the original designer of the Micron series anytime, because his brilliant work is the real reason all these cheap copies could work quite well.

There is a real alternative to the Micron CMC+, the GSI PS770. Parts are manufactured in the same Fuso Seiki plant, where Oly, and Iwata. PS770 follows the same Micron design, and many parts are interchangeable with Iwata. The complete Head assembly of the PS770 cost 65 USD only.
 

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