Multiple cups for gravity feed airbrush

[Arron]

Hi. Firstly my apologies if this has already been covered - I did a search but no result - maybe the question is just too basic.

Anyway, my problem is that I have bought a couple of gravity feed airbrushes but now I'm thinking that they don't really suit my requirements. The problem is that I need to spray small quantities of different colours - alternating. This means I'm continually cleaning out the airbrush cup, mixing up new colours and transferring. This isn't good because there is a lot of handling time, paint wastage, and the colours are not repeatable like I'd like them to be. I noticed today that in an hour long session I only did three minutes of actual spraying - the rest is cleaning, frigging and colour mixing time. It doesn't help that I'm not much good at colour mixing either.

So I'm thinking maybe I should buy a gravity feed airbrush, and a lot of spare bottles - the ones which attach straight to the airbrush. That way I could fill each bottle up with colour, either straight white or black or the mixes which I use, and just snap the bottles on or off as I need them. The mixed paint would be stored in the bottles, with a drop or two of thinner added each time I open them.

I'd probably buy a siphon feed airbrush and a dozen or so of the bottles - maybe ones with the little suction tube in, or maybe ones with a plain lid to be able to seal them up 100%.

I'll keep the current gravity feed brushes for detail work.

I expect this is a common way of working. Are there any problems with this ? Can anyone share advice on what they use, problems I might expect etc. I'm wondering about things like whether the paint dries out in the exit tubes in the bottles when not in use etc ??

I'm thinking of buying this http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/iwata-airbrushes/eclipse/hp-bcs/ and these http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Airbrush...-Air-Brush-22cc-Jar-Bottom-Feed-/121429674179 .

Is this going to work ??

cheers
Arron

 

[haasje dutchairbrush]

That title is so confusing

Just to get the terminology straight.

-Gravity feed: airbrush with the "cup" on top
-Side feed: Airbrush with the cup attached to the side (this is siphon feed)
-Bottom/Siphon feed airbrush with a bottle beneath it
-Cup: holds the paint in general used in regard to top and side feeds
-Bottle: holds the paint generaly used in regard to bottom feed.

A lot of people (especialy tshirt artists) use bottom feeds with a lot of botlles to quickly switch colors. As long as you make sure the bottles are closed when you put 'm away this shouldn't be a problem (unless you don't touch them for a realy long time ofcourse). Keep one bottle with water (if using waterbased) to quicly flush between color changes.

Another option might be a side feed with a couple of cups (bottom feeds are generaly larger nozzle sizes, side feeds most of the time are detail brushes) this also enables you to quickly change paint, storing paint in these cups over a prolonged period of time is generaly a bad idea though

 

[Arron]

Yeah, sorry, didn't notice the error in the title. I meant to say 'multiple cups for siphon feed'.

When using multiple bottles with the siphon feeds, do they usually leave the little tubes in. I can see problems with paint drying in the tube ?

Cheers
Arron

 

[Malky]

Hi Arron, I totally agree that constant colour changing is a pain and very time consuming, it is unfortunately something the biggest majority of us have to put up with, I have personally switched to side feed airbrushes because the clean out between colours is far quicker than gravity feed.

Depending on what you call small quantities of different colours the brush in your link as well as the bottles could be overkill, if your talking tiny amounts like for example enough to paint a small circle about a half inch in diameter, the bottles and brush would be too big for it, the brush has a 0.5 nozzle and would be great for blasting t-shirts but for smaller stuff you have would little control.

I have the Iwata Eclipse HP-SBS which has 0.35 nozzle, this is a great all rounder and can do almost anything,, Iwata do make different cups and bottle for this model but they can be very expensive, but to save money you could use the side cups made for Aztec airbrushes instead which are around $8 a piece and fit without modification, from what you describe I think this brush along with the side cups from Aztec would better cure your problem and you can use one cup specifically for flushing between colours.

As far as colour mixing gows, it isn't wise to mix colours and store them too far ahead of time, the differences in some pigments when mixed sometimes cause the colours to separate at an accelerated rate making your paint useless, I would recommend you buy a decent colour wheel to help with your mixing and mix your colours as close to the time you expect to use them as possible, the more advanced your colour wheel is the more you will get out of it, if you mix a colour and want to use it the future, write down how you got it.

I hope this helps, I just noticed my friend Haasje has also chipped in while I was still typing.

Note: the side cups for Iwata airbrushes fit all Iwata side feeds, so if you upgrade to a detail brush in the future, you can still use your present cups/bottles .

 

[haasje dutchairbrush]

Yeah, sorry, didn't notice the error in the title. I meant to say 'multiple cups for siphon feed'.

When using multiple bottles with the siphon feeds, do they usually leave the little tubes in. I can see problems with paint drying in the tube ?

Cheers
Arron

If you are going to leave the paint standing for a couple of day's I'd remove them (but as I hardly ever use them except for large areas I tend to do it by default as they where alway's clogged by the time I needed the bottom feed again)

 

[Arron]

Depending on what you call small quantities of different colours the brush in your link as well as the bottles could be overkill, if your talking tiny amounts like for example enough to paint a small circle about a half inch in diameter, the bottles and brush would be too big for it, the brush has a 0.5 nozzle and would be great for blasting t-shirts but for smaller stuff you have would little control.

OK, thanks, I can see it was a poor choice now.

I have the Iwata Eclipse HP-SBS which has 0.35 nozzle, this is a great all rounder and can do almost anything,, Iwata do make different cups and bottle for this model but they can be very expensive, but to save money you could use the side cups made for Aztec airbrushes instead which are around $8 a piece and fit without modification, from what you describe I think this brush along with the side cups from Aztec would better cure your problem and you can use one cup specifically for flushing between colours.

Yep, that looks like a good recommendation, and I like the price too.

A typical situation for me would be to have, say, 7 colours, and use each from once to 4 times in a session. Each time I would be doing small areas, from the size of a small coin to perhaps the size of a credit card. They are small areas but it doesn't require much accuracy. What I had in mind was to fill the bottles up, use them alternately throughout the session, then seal them up till the next session which is usually a couple of days away.

Then there is some detail stuff, which I expect to spend a bit of time over so will continue to use the 0.2mm setup gravity feed for that. It would be nice if I could just pinch some of the colour out of the siphon bottles for them.

My colour mixing skills are improving slowly, but its a long learning curve.

cheers and thanks for the replies
Arron

 

[AndreZA]

I'm with @Malky on this. The Eclipse HP-SBS would be perfect. The nice thing about the Aztek cups is they come with lids. You can just stick a toothpick in the breathing hole and the feed tube. You can not store paints that has special mediums though. Otherwise you can go to the Eclipse-BCS bottom feed. If you use the same colour a lot you can mix and store them in Iwata Big mouth bottles. You do get little covers for the feeding tube and you then just plug the breathing hole with a toothpick again.

 

[Malky]

OK, thanks, I can see it was a poor choice now.


Yep, that looks like a good recommendation, and I like the price too.

A typical situation for me would be to have, say, 7 colours, and use each from once to 4 times in a session. Each time I would be doing small areas, from the size of a small coin to perhaps the size of a credit card. They are small areas but it doesn't require much accuracy. What I had in mind was to fill the bottles up, use them alternately throughout the session, then seal them up till the next session which is usually a couple of days away.

Then there is some detail stuff, which I expect to spend a bit of time over so will continue to use the 0.2mm setup gravity feed for that. It would be nice if I could just pinch some of the colour out of the siphon bottles for them.

My colour mixing skills are improving slowly, but its a long learning curve.

cheers and thanks for the replies
Arron

I wouldn't say it was a poor choice, just not a suitable one for what you want to do

If you are using up your mixed colours within a few days of mixing them storing them won't be a problem as along as you can seal up whatever bottles or cups they are in, but as I mentioned some pigments are heavier than others, particularly darker greens and blues, so they have a tendency to separate quickly when mixed with lighter colours, some colours even require stirring every few minutes, olive drab green is a bugger for it as can darker greys, so long term storage isn't wise, and as @AndreZA rightly pointed out adding mediums changes any paints properties of your paints, to avoid disaster I generally put my mediums directly in the brush and then add my colour/s so that neat colours will stay good, if you leave your mixed colours overnight be sure to stir them before you start

If you end up with a new brush and cups, post them up and let us know where you got them and if you had any special deals, it's always handy info for members in your neck of the woods

 

[Phaze]

I had the same idea as you and bought a bottom feed airbrush. If you don't mind buying a lot of bottles for almost $10 each then it would be ok. I'm cheap so I made my own which is just as annoying. I found it almost as fast to use my gravity feed and a lot less headaches. I wouldn't recommend getting a bottom feed brush.

I buy hand sanitizer bottles at the dollar store 2 for a buck and rinse them out and use those for premixed color. I am getting better at using less paint in my cup and I just quickly rinse colors on the fly with a good cleaning at the end. It only takes less then a minute to clear out the previous color and get the new one in.

With a bottle feed you still have to clear the paint from the bottle to nozzle so you have to have a bottle of water or cleaner to rinse colors anyways. So it's about the same time difference when painting

One last thing, cleaning out bottles is terrible and if paint dries on the sides and then gets in the airbrush, it clogs up the brush wasting even more time

 

[Arron]

Ok, thanks for your note of caution. Replacing cleaning the airbrush for cleaning out grungy bottles may not be that smart.

Cheers
Arron

 

[Phaze]

I should also say that the airbrush I got only came with 1 bottle so I was only using that one. The straw doesn't go right to the bottom other wise you could create a vacuum and not get any paint up, so you would have to put more paint then you need. Then you need to clean that bottle out and the paint would stay on the sides and I would waste way more paint then I ever do with my gravity feed (Iawata Eclispe.... love it!). Cleaning the bottle takes more time then cleaning the cup.

I do like Maple Air's set up for quick color changes. Multiple airbrushes each with their own bottle. Not as cost efficient though I think. But she was using that for her airbrush tattoo setup so it was essential to change colors fast.

 

[AndreZA]

With a suction feed gun you can also get multiple Badger, Paasche or Haarder & Steenbeck cups. Iwata does not make those cups. With those you will need a bit more paint and pressure than with a side feed.