Airbrush water problems

rgv

rgv

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I'm using a hobby type airbrush with its own compressor for applying Cerakote.

I'm having a heck of a time trapping water. After spraying for more than 20 minutes, I get squirts of water out of the gun that built up in the system somewhere.

I've used the 1/4" dessicant chambers that Princess Auto sells, but basically they allow me to spray for 25 minutes instead of 20 before water makes it to the gun.

Can someone suggest a make and source for a quality dryer?

Thanks
 
Have you tried a water filter

ht tp://www.princessauto.com/pal/product/8185068/Filters/1/4%22-Air-Filter

or getting your compressor off the basement floor

Might not fix your problem
 
Is there a drain #### in your compressor tank to drain the water out of it?
I use an inline water separator on my air brush line and don't have any issues with water.
 
this is my brush and compressor setup

DSC06013.jpg


The compressor has no model or mfg markings, but a little googling shows it is a 'tankless' model, so nothing to drain. It gets pretty warm when it runs and I guess thats a lot of the source of the problem.

The upright separator gets droplets building up at the bottom, but not enough to drain out. The inline clear filter in the pic is the Princess Auto dessicant dryer (less dessicant) that helps, but in the humid cold I'm still getting random squirts of water.

Very annoying when midway through a barreled action.

I might try just running off my 60 gallon shop compressor and see if thats any better.
 
When I was airbrushing years ago, I bought a small air tank (3 gal. or so) from canadian tire, removed the tire inflator hose and put on an adjustable regulator. Attached the regulator to the airbrush and painted away. No problems with water for me. Filled the tank off my compressor in the garage. A small tank with 90 psi goes a long ways with bleeding the air off at airbrush pressures
 
might be that your dessicant is "full".
I run my airbrush off my compressor in the garage. Inline water separator and draining the tank works for me.
I also have 25" plus of line between my air brush and compressor..
 
Air comes out of the compressor warm to hot, as it moves down the air line it cools and water vapor condenses.Install your water trap farther from the compressor and it will catch the water.
 
RR has nailed it from my experience. You can feel this for yourself by feeling the separator. It will feel warm or even hot after some run time. The air has to cool down enough to allow the water to condense out of the compressed air.

So what's happening is that your separator isn't doing anything for you where it is. Instead the air is going down the line and the moisture is separating out in the line to the airbrush.

With a regular reservoir tank compressor the air in the tank cools and the moisture condenses out unless you're using the air in huge volumes and not giving it time to cool. In a way the tank acts as a cooler AND condenser.

But all isn't lost. As RR suggests you want to move the seprator further from the compressor. But you can do this with about a 6 to 8 foot length of flexible copper line left in a coil. The copper will act as a cooling condenser so that the air and moisture reaching the separator will be closer to room temp and the water will be trapped by the separator.

To avoid water pooling in the coils I'd set it up so the coil looks like a coil spring sitting on one end. That way the water will run down to the bottom of the coil. Feed the hot air into the top and put the separator at the base. To do this you may have to make up a seprate assembly and connect it to the compressor using a flex line and quick connect. Or maybe you can build the condenser coil and compressor all onto one plywood bracket or something. You'll likely want to use tubing which is around 1/4 diameter. Then you'll need the fittings and may need to do some soldering unless you buy compression fittings.
 
thanks guys

From the replies it seems I'm fighting a losing battle with the cool humid shop, the tankless compressor, and the short line to the airbrush. The little compressor gets hot to the touch after 5 minutes of running.

I'll round up some fittings and try running off the 60 gallon compressor with all my 1/2" hose hooked together,and then my 1/4" water separator at the end of that, and then my brush.

A friend with autobody experience even sugested I throw a couple coils of my 1/2" line in the deep freeze overnight and put them in-line, but from the sounds of what you guys are saying, the tankless compressor combined with the short line is the main problem.
 
Try gettin a 5 gal air tank and filling it and runing your airbrush off there with your compressor filling up the tank, that should allow the air to expand a bit before entering the airbrush.
 
I was in Crappy Tire today and noticed that they have two or three small home style compressors that have 2 to 3 gal tanks on them for around $60 to $70. It may be worth it to just upgrade rather than buckshee around with this issue. Put the water trap you have on the output of one of those and the tank they have on them will work to condense the water out initially for you.
 
Assuming all the threading works out, it should be as simple as buying and adding another hose to your compressor.

I have a similar compressor, and in my factory setup they first ran the air through a ~10' coiled lightweight pvc hose. Then they hooked up the regulator/water trap. Then they hooked up the normal hose to the airbrush.

They key is that first 10' or lightweight hose allows the hot air from the compressor to cool down, and allow the humid air to condense the water vapour and drop it into the water trap.

Having a piggyback small tank is probably a good idea, but not necessarily a solution. The tank should allow your compressor to store up some air volume, allowing it to shut itself off while you spray, keeping it cooler. If you don't have an auto-off pressure switch on yours, you could do this by hand. However, if you simply hook the tank up to your compressor with a T fitting, then most of the air will bypass the tank and still go straight into your airbrush, not really using the tank as a heatsink. It would only work if you had a flow-through setup, with a seperate air-in and air-out port.
 
Sorry to post on this thread but rgv your mail box is full. I was hoping to talk about the 22 mag barrel you had for sale. PM me if you see this. Thanks.
 
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