3mm vs 5 mm needles.

D

drobbins12

Guest
So my question is when do you use a 5 mm over a 3 mm needle. Can you do the same stuff with a 5mm as you can a 3 mm needle.
 
I`m a newbie my self but in my short experience with an AB i can and do pull the same lines with my .3 and .5 set ups . What the sizes are for is really a combination of spraying variations in viscosity of paint and volume of paint when fully depressed is normally greater with a larger needle /nozzle combination .Generally the finer the needle the finer and more intricate the work can be and the thinner your paint should be .With all my full size spray guns the system works the same except for the fact that there are more variations in air caps to aid atomisation of high solid paints and as an addition you often have a pressure feed to the paint cup that also assures a constant paint presence at the the tip .
 
I`m a newbie my self but in my short experience with an AB i can and do pull the same lines with my .3 and .5 set ups . What the sizes are for is really a combination of spraying variations in viscosity of paint and volume of paint when fully depressed is normally greater with a larger needle /nozzle combination .Generally the finer the needle the finer and more intricate the work can be and the thinner your paint should be .With all my full size spray guns the system works the same except for the fact that there are more variations in air caps to aid atomisation of high solid paints and as an addition you often have a pressure feed to the paint cup that also assures a constant paint presence at the the tip .
You know, I am digging the 5 mm needle. I don't know why but I feel like it I have better control with the paint flow.
 
To answer yes and no. I know a artist who can get as good if not better detail with a .5 than some can with a .18 But he has been airbrushing for over 30 years.
As far as the main parts of a painting yes you can do the same work with either needle size. Where the big different is say when you want to paint 3 ladies on the rear fender of a motorcycle. The smaller the tip the better detail you can get.
Most t-shirt artist use a .5 set up.
But bottom line is How you your self teach your self control over the airbrush. That is where the dots and daggers and fade and blends come in. The more you build the muscle memory from doing the where you are no longer thinking about them the better you can use almost any airbrush you pick up and get the same result.
So as you see there is not a right or wrong answer to your question it is what works for you.
Hope that makes sense.
 
I use both of them according to fabric. You can't do same stuff, but you can use 5mm for the fabrics in which we have to use 3mm in rare situations.
 
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