So frustrated... oh, and a picture

S

Squidge

Guest
So, I've been practicing a little more, and I discovered something that really grinds my gears tonight...
But first, a small piece. Yea, yea, it's chicken scratch, but it's getting better.

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Anyway... So when I first tried to learn airbrushing a couple years ago, I went the cheap route and wasted a whole bunch of money. I started with a $20 Chinese Veda gravity feed airbrush and standard createx paints. Well, after having no success (wish I had known those paints weren't good for beginners xD), I decided it wasn't for me so I put it all up.

Now I've done more research, spent the money, bought a decent beginner setup, and I've started moving forward. However, what I discovered tonight, is that I'm STILL wasting my money. My setup is the Iwata Eclipse bottom feed with a sparmax airstream compressor (supposed to shoot 30-40 psi working, but really only gets about 15-20) and every time I start to do 'the eye' tutorial, it devolves into sheets and sheets of daggers and lines because my brush is completely unpredictable. Yes, I can get fine lines, but sometimes the paint starts at position 2, sometimes it won't flow till position 4 or 5, and sometimes it just spits at me and tells me to quit. It does this right after I clean the brush too. I'm pretty sure the answer is higher psi because it is a siphon feed, but that will have to wait as the compressor I'm using now is about the limit of what my living arrangements can tolerate in terms of sound, space, and budget.

The main point in all this garb is that I got my old gravity fed cheapo out again tonight... I put a few drops of comart in it and it instantly had more control and predictability than my eclipse. Ex: I can pull it back to the .5 position and still get a nice line. it's still a cheapo after all so it's got its problems, but in general, I could have stuck with it as my first brush and learned long ago.
If I'm correct in my assumptions, I believe I'll buy a couple of gravity fed Neos for color changes and put my eclipse up until I can get a better 'presser. Anyone care to comment?
 
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What i can add in my experience is too pre-mix your colors . Take an old bottle from one of the colors . Comart is ready to shoot even under really low pressure . I find its most likely over reduced .

However i really enjoy the comart . Clean and clean again , i find my eclipse harbors crud in unknown places . Finally tried an overnight soak . Dirty it was . But runs great now .


Can't is not an excuse .
 
I love the comart paints. I haven't soaked it over night, but I did run some cleaner through it and let it soak for a minute or two and rinsed it out. I also have water mixed with cleaner that I spray through the brush every time I change colors. It sprays well when I want to do quarter inch lines, but like I said, I can't do an eyelash because I spend a minute doing the dagger stroke over and over again while slowly pulling the trigger back until paints actually comes out. It never comes out at the same position either. It does help a slight amount when I rub off the tip, but it's still not accurate. I'm not trying to blame my shortcomings on the equipment, but I know I have better control than what I'm getting out of the brush so far (as evidenced by the cheapo gravity fed brush)
 
Hi Squidge, a couple of things here - it MAY be that there is a small bit of paint in your nozzle, you might need to clean it again carefully, the other alternative is that (IF it is a finer nozzle) some paint particles get stuck in the nozzle, but wont get stuck in the bigger cheesy nozzle. solution there is to strain the paint before putting it in the AB, with stockings or other suitable straining material :)
 
The comart imo separate quite fast. I used them in a siphon feed and had to shake/stir in between. Otherwise I felt after some time the colour got too thin or thick. Black and especially white I was no fan either. I would try for practicing a nice monochrome transparent colour. Sephia, grey, umber etc are nice and imo easier to use.

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Hi Squidge, a couple of things here - it MAY be that there is a small bit of paint in your nozzle, you might need to clean it again carefully, the other alternative is that (IF it is a finer nozzle) some paint particles get stuck in the nozzle, but wont get stuck in the bigger cheesy nozzle. solution there is to strain the paint before putting it in the AB, with stockings or other suitable straining material :)

I don't mean to sound like that guy that always has his own answer for everything, but the veda airbrush I have has a smaller tip size (I think .2 or .3 mm, can't find any specs on it) than my eclipse (.5 mm) and it shoots so much better. I'll give the overnight soaking a go one of these days and see if that helps though. But even so, I never took very good care of the other cheapo and it's still got good paint flow. It sat with paint residue for years and all I did was drop a drop or two of cleaner into it and it sprayed like new
 
LOL squidge - no problem at all, we are trying to help with as many options as possible. another possible issue MIGHT be that your needle in the iwata is bent?
try giving that nozzle a soaking clean :) see what happens
 
It's great that your old brush is working fine, but in my experience it possibly may not hold out for the long haul without frequent replacement parts, and as the quality is so much poorer, those parts may not fit the brush well, and o-rings and springs are likely to give out. In my experience those kind of brushes are hit and miss. You may be lucky though, and have a good one, and now that you have a bit more experience, are able to get more out of it.

As for the eclipse, as it's siphon fed, it will need a fair amount more pressure than a gravity fed brush will. If your compressor isn't giving you good psi, which will get reduced even more by the time it reaches the gun,(unless you have set it with the trigger on) the brush will struggle which could be your problem. If your brush is spotlessly clean (triple check lol, paint is a bugger for hiding, and what you think is clean often isn't. When I think I'm clean, then I'll clean again, and sometimes again if I find out the second clean showed up anything), and your nozzle isn't flared form being a bit too agressive, or cracked or mis=shaped in any way, and the needle is good, then it is possibly the psi that is the issue. If you have a mate who has a more powerful compressor, try it at higher pressure, it should make a difference. With a .5 nozzle you should be able to spray fairly thick paint, which is why T-shirt guys can use createx paint no problem.
 
It's great that your old brush is working fine, but in my experience it possibly may not hold out for the long haul without frequent replacement parts, and as the quality is so much poorer...

As for the eclipse, as it's siphon fed, it will need a fair amount more pressure than a gravity fed brush will. If your compressor isn't giving you good psi, which will get reduced even more by the time it reaches the gun,(unless you have set it with the trigger on) the brush will struggle which could be your problem. If your brush is spotlessly clean (triple check lol, paint is a bugger for hiding, and what you think is clean often isn't. ... and your nozzle isn't flared form being a bit too agressive, or cracked or mis=shaped in any way, and the needle is good, then it is possibly the psi that is the issue. If you have a mate who has a more powerful compressor, try it at higher pressure, it should make a difference...

Yea, the 15-20 psi is what I get with the air flowing. The old brush has a strange vertical shadowing effect (from my lack of care I assume) so I'm going to replace it anyway. I've got the nozzle (the little cone-ish piece that comes out from the tip?) of my Eclipse sitting in a capful of cleaner so when I get home in about 10 hours, that part should be clean. As far as damage goes, I've only very lightly hit the paper (with the cap off, *facepalm*) a couple of times so I'm not sure that would have caused major damage. I might be able to hook up to an old work compressor that my grandpa had and see if that helps.
 
I've only very lightly hit the paper (with the cap off, *facepalm*) a couple of times so I'm not sure that would have caused major damage.

But it might be enough to affect your spray pattern in a way that increases tip-dry ten folds and makes your brush unpredictable. The needle tips are very fine and soft and can be damaged easily, check the tip of your needle with a magnifying glass to see if it's bent. If so check this thread: http://www.airbrushforum.org/general-airbrush-discussion/6290-needle-repair.html

Hope it helps. :)
 
But it might be enough to affect your spray pattern in a way that increases tip-dry ten folds and makes your brush unpredictable. The needle tips are very fine and soft and can be damaged easily, check the tip of your needle with a magnifying glass to see if it's bent. If so check this thread: http://www.airbrushforum.org/general-airbrush-discussion/6290-needle-repair.html

Hope it helps. :)
Thanks for the video. Pretty nifty idea to turn an old hard drive into a sander. I think that would be too delicate for me to try though (new needles are only like 7 bucks at hobby lobby). I feel like my main problem is the air pressure. I'm pretty sure I was having problems straight out of the box as far as the eclipse flow goes
 
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