68KingFisher

Now the real fun can begin....lol. You'll enjoy the new toy, and i'm sure we'll be hearing from you again once you kinda get goin.

I don't know if I can help or not, but I will say that I built my own side draft booth this past summer to paint motorcycle parts in mainly. I posted some built pics on this forum so you should be able to find those if you wanna see it. I was not able to put my intake directly across from my exhaust as i'd of liked, but instead had to install them in a side wall, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything other then it caused a bit of a circular flow of air thru the room instead of a straight flow.....Irreguardless, it'll clear the 10'X12' room in just a few seconds after spraying with a full size paint gun, so it does what I needed it to do. One of the things I learned was, that air tends to act like water in that it takes the path of least resistance.....you can put all the intake filters you want behind you on the wall, but if there is a gap under the door next to the exhaust, then as much air as possible will come thru under the door instead of going thru the intake filters. Once I sealed up the threshold below the booth door I found air being pulled into my booth thru the light/fan switch box and recepticals....even around the light fixture in the ceiling....Once I get all those little holes sealed up then hopefully"ALL" incoming air will get filtered thru the intake filters, but untill then air takes the easy path to the exhaust fan....lol. My exhaust fan is mounted on the outside of the shop, and blows straight down on the ground from about 2ft above it.....My exhaust filters do a good enough job that I never see any signs of paint colors or clear being deposted on the ground....Yeah you can stand next to it while i'm painting and smell paint fumes but you don't see overspray or anything coming out.

I know it changed my attitude towards polishing my needles, and that alone was worth the read.

When you look at various threaded parts on airbrushes under high magnification you'd be surprised how ragged the threads actually look most of the time. I've had alot of handles start binding up with the body suddenly.....I just lube the threads real good and screw the parts together and take them apart repeatedly....you should feel the binding threads start to smooth out.....if they are really damaged threads and you don't have a file small enough to work on them you can take lapping compound used by mechanics to seat valves in car engines, and apply some to the threads and repeat the assembly/disassembly routine till the bad threads smooth out....rinse the treads with solvent and brush them with something like a toothbrush to remove all the compound....add a drop of lube and you should be good to go. To answer your original question....Yes, you can modify the handle on your airbrush to suit your needs....I've seen guys machine cutouts, and even add knurling to their airbrush handles and so on....You can customize most anything....airbrushes included.....Personally for the reason you asked, I think you should just fix the thread problem and then if you still need a cutout handle then make one....otherwise its alot of effort for a "work-a-round"....you'll still have binding threads on the newly modded handle!

Anyone who uses any brand of airbrush could most likely find the following info very informative.....I know I did. http://www.ing.unibs.it/~zkovacs/color/eds.htm SEM/EDS Analysis of an Iwata CM-B and an HP-B http://www.ing.unibs.it/~zkovacs/color/prototypes_E.htm Modern airbrush improvements. http://bsing.ing.unibs.it/~zkovacs/color/needles_E.htm Notes on airbrush needles. http://bsing.ing.unibs.it/~zkovacs/color/clogging_E.htm Airbrush clogging.

The ability to paint fine details with any airbrush is more a product of trigger control, and learning the characteristics of the paint products used. Naturally, a .2 nozzle should produce a finer line then a .35 nozzle, but you'll be surprised how fine you can get with the larger tip size as you gain more experience with it. Painting details with the airbrush is all about trigger control, paint viscosity, air pressure, distance from the surface, and the speed you move the brush....when combined correctly detail is achieved....usually....lol.

You can clear over Createx without any problems as long as you'll heat it up good and make sure its completely dry before clearing......I've used both regular Createx and Createx AutoAir on many motorcycles and helmets and covered them with Automotive clear without issue.

As Frank pointed out, it'll be the catalyst that ya gotta worry about goin bad. I will say that i've kept clear as long as 6 yrs from the time I purchased a gallon, till the time I used it completely up, and never had an issue.....but i've also had a can of catalyst go bad within weeks for some unknown reason, but for the most part i've never had any issues with old product. I do keep all my paints inside climate controlled areas year round so they never get too hot or too cold, and i'm almost OCD about wiping excess material from the lip or threads of the cans I pour the product from.....by doing so, i'm getting a good solid seal when I put the lid on, plus it makes it a zillion times easier to remove the lid the next time.....I learned the hard way that a little dried catalyst can make a lid almost impossible to remove from some of these cans...lol.

I own two Peaks airbrushes at this time, and i'm concidering another, only I want one of the "hotrod" versions offered thru Learnairbrush dot com this time around. The first Peak I got was the X5 and some 3-4 years later I have nothing but good things to say about this airbrush....its every bit as good as my Iwata Eclipse hands down. I also have the X3 that I won in a contest several years back.....its not near the airbrush the X5 is.....for one its powdercoated black with is cool, but it doesn't hold up like the chrome finish, and all its little trigger parts are also powder coated which causes them to bind up I think....they just don't work as smooth as other parts. Its an inexpensive brush and feels like it.....I suppose it'd be ok in possibly a classroom of students....you wouldn't be worried about them damaging a high dollar airbrush, yet it plenty good enough to airbrush tee shirts with for beginners....if your a seasoned airbrusher you'll want to pass on the X3 though. I do not own a Richpen at this time, but I plan on buying one....mainly the "Mojo" modified version that Mike Learns airbrush website offers......Mike is a seasoned veteran airbrush artist and stumbled across one of the Richpen airbrushes that struck his fancy and he eventually modded it and created an airbrush that is causing Iwata Micron users to drop their tools and buy his.....its supposedly THAT much better as a detail gun over the Micron. All I know for sure is folks have been raving about his modded Richpens ever since he started doing them and I see no end in sight, and i'm eventually going to buy one just to see what all the fuss is about....just need $300 extra....lol

Well, actually those parts are "metal to metal" so what you feel may be correct....I personally like to have a film of lubrication between those trigger parts because it is just raw metal to metal contact, so I use airbrush lube or glycerin and apply some to those parts succeptable to the most wear....I just want a good film of lubricant on those parts....I think it makes the trigger action a bit smoother also and has to help cut down on wear and tear of those metal parts. Replacing the O-ring may or may not change anything for you. I know alot of folks that have needed to change them out, but after 30+ years of airbrushing i've never changed one on any of my airbrushes, and i've never understood why others seem to need to replace them so often and I never do....lol. Go figure.

Hey Ben, I've seen several DIY blasting cabinets made out of either microwave ovens or full size kitchen ovens....they already have a sealed glass door, and adding a couple of arm holes with rubber gloves to the side makes a simple, yet effective blasting cabinet.....I know of a few bike painters that use them for sandblasting motorcycle parts.

When any of my airbrushes begins to hang up, and continue to blow air after i've let off the trigger, I do the following. I remove the needle and trigger assembly, and the airhose so that I can get to both sides of the airvalve.....Holding the airbrush upside down I put a drop or two of airbrush lube into the valve where the airhose attaches....While still holding the brush upside down i'll take the needle and using the butt end of it, i'll begin working the plunger from inside the airbrush body....moving it just like the trigger plunger would do. As you do this the oil will work its way thru the airvalve and you'll feel it begin to free up.....I repeat this process several times then I flush some lacquer thinner thru it to clean out the lube so it doesn't contaminate my next project. I've done this for many years on Paasche, Badger, and Iwata airbrushes, and its always fixed the problem. If you don't have airbrush lube on hand, I have subsituted "Glycerin" which you can get from the local drug store....In fact I think a few so called "airbrush lubes" are nothing more then repackaged glycerin. I have also used 3-n-1 type oils, as well as sewing machine oil and even hydrolic transmission fluid when I didn't have anything else on hand.....just make sure you flush the valve with thinner or alcohol or something equivelent when your done using the oil so it doesn't wind up contaminating your next paint job.

Alot of airbrush guys also use a product from the sign industry commonly referred to as R-tape or Transfer tape.....its whats used to apply vinyl decals, and is the thin film you peel off and throw away. It comes in somewhat of an opaque tan color that you can see thru, but not very well.....it also comes in clear and various width rolls and might work well for lures since the roll widths start at an inch and quarter by 100 yards and cost something like $3. Check it out here. http://www.signwareh...ry_Code=A-RAT60

That same technique can be used with plastic bags, bubble wrap, sea sponges, to give a variety of textured effects.

I use a fair amount of liquid masking on my helmet and bike jobs, and it works great when using with urethane. I might be somewhat reserved about using it over Createx since most liquid masks i've run across were water based, and you'd run a risk of it bonding with the Createx and pulling it off along with the masking material......I haven't tried it, but thats what I see happening. It might be worth trying just to see.....heck even using plain old rubber cement as a mask might work for certain applications....i've used it in a pinch, just not with waterbase paint.

Just remember that when you paint a crankbait bill, you add to the overall length of the lure.......A 2" lure body with a 1" clear bill is considered a 2" lure....but paint the bill and you now have a 3" lure.

I must have missed it.....PM sent.

Why....What happened?

You can still heatset them...no need to repaint.

Well when it comes to Bear Air its possible you could get either one.....they had their Iwata dealership revoked for awhile and sold a line of knock off replacement parts during that period, but recently they've resumed their roll as an Iwata dealer and they're selling the real deal again.....So it might be worth a phone call to them just to make sure your getting OEM parts.

If your already wearing a good quality respirator with long sleeves and gloves your basicly doing about the same as most backyard painters that paint cars/trucks or motorcycles from his family garage. Your actually one up on me, cause I can't do squat in gloves so I never wear them......I do have a shoot suit and I will say that its a definite step up from just wearing long sleeves....its about like puttin on a space suit...lol....we'll, maybe not that bad.....but it is a very tight weave material and it does offer much better protection from overspray then regular street clothes.....They are not very expensive and might be worth looking into if you shoot much clear, or if you just want that added piece of mind.

You said your first step was to sand a white lure body with 600 grit....are you talking about sanding a newly molded white plastic lure body?

Frank, in the past 10yrs i've thrown the so called "window" out the window so to speak....hahaha....I have done projects that literally took months from the basecoat to the clearcoat and never had one delamination problem with any brand of paint I've used..."knock on wood"...and I won't even mention the taboo stuff such as mixing PPG, Dupont and HoK together within the same project....lol....Shhhhhh.

I use to paint alot of RC bodies and used mostly Parma and Createx paints.....Parma was said to be made for the lexan RC bodies,so I would imagine it'd work well on plastic lures and probably as good on wood. My first questions when dealing with any wrinkling problems are "What was your prep, and what primer was used".....many times wrinking can be from poor prep or primer incompatibility problems.....in the case of urethane clears, applying coats too heavily and too close together can cause some of the same problems your experiencing.

Frank, the first time I used a catalyst in basecoat was when took on a large graphic project on the sides of a semi truck....the guy asking me to do the artwork was a good friend of mine and he had much more automotive painting experience then I had at the time, and he suggested using the PPG products he was familier with. Since the project called for a fair amount of airbrushing on top of the solid base, and I didn't know if I could do it and clearcoat within the 24hr window PPG required, the paint rep recommended that I add a catalyst to the base, and to any midcoat clear that I was planning to use during the course of the project should it run into several days....which it did.....I was new at this and did what they recommended without any problems. Since that time i've learned its easier and wiser for me to base and clearcoat 99% of my projects(motorcycles)....then come back and add any airbrushing or pinstriping...then clearcoat again....the results are much better and I have a buffer zone to work on should I have a problem during the artwork phase....lol. Kris, you can definitely use a ziplock to keep your mask stored in.....large freezer bags work great for that....smaller Ziplocks work well for keeping rolls of foils or masking tape stored in so they don't collect dirt and debri along the sticky edge of the roll.