Air brushing help

[Kardar2]

Hello,

I was looking for the right forum  like the "painting booth" for this question and did not see one so I placed it here. Sorry if I posted in a wrong forum.  Anyways I was looking at what I needed for a painting booth set up. I have a huge compressor it has a pressure  regulator on it so I can adjust it. I thought I saw a video of someone had a small moisture  filter that fit just below the air brush. Am I  right? I could get one from HF that mounts on the wall. (But I really don't have a wall by my compessor) but the little on the airbrush looked like it did what it needed to do. I am going to build my own paint booth out of 1/4 ply and plexiglass. And mount a far fan. Thanks for the advise. Karl

[Mike Chernecki]

I have a separate moisture trap and regulator coupled together with a male hose end on it to connect to my main compressor hose on the input side and my airbrush hose on the outlet side. This allows me to have the regulator close to the airbrush for accurate pressure adjustments (pressure will drop at the airbrush if you adjust it at the compressor and have a long hose) and I can move the setup around as needed (I can have the compressor 50' feet away, but my regulator is always within 10 feet of the airbrush.). I just prop the regulator/moisture trap against something, I need to mount it to a small bracket or stand so I can set it on a table when I move it around. I have an Iwata moisture filter that mounts under the airbrush but never use it because it makes the airbrush to clumsy to handle. 

[Miatatom]

Here are some pics of my booth.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/baddogracing/library/Glove Box Paint Booth?sort=9&page=1

I used a bilge blower to move the air (eBay) and plumbing parts for the air outlet in the bottom and the arm holes. I've made several changes to it since I took these pics. Mounted 4 flood lamps on the top where the filter was for more lighting. The pics don't have captions so let me know if you need any descriptions.

[Triple Nickle]

I would consider that you may have issues with static electricity if you build your paint booth out of plexiglass. You might consider plywood instead.

[Skip]

I would consider that you may have issues with static electricity if you build your paint booth out of plexiglass. You might consider plywood instead.

I was just going to mention that, I've had static electricity pull paint right off of a paint brush, string together atomized paint off of an airbrush nozzle so that it cobwebs the paint onto the surface being painted.  Unless you have some sort of elaborate grounding system dreamed up I wouldn't even consider plexiglass for an enclosure.  Just pulling air across the surface of plexiglass or even fiberglass will build up enough static to cause problems.  The more air you pull the higher the chance you're going to build static.  One major problem not mentioned yet with the static is attracting tons of dust that can get transferred to the fresh paint!

if it were me building an enclosure to spray paint in I would consider using plywood, MDF, or sheet metal.  I am running a Paasche sheet metal paint booth, I run a ground strap off of the booth itself, since doing so I haven't had any issues with static while spraying any plastic, fiberglass or plexiglass items.

Pressure Regulator, consider adding an inline type regulator with gauge just before the reducer to the smaller airbrush line for fine tuning without having to go back and forth to the compressor.

Water Trap, add one just ahead of the pressure regulator.  Even small amounts of water in an airbrush will give you fits an hour extra water trap is cheap insurance.