Greaity feed vs. the bottle

[lostfisher]

I am looking of a airbrush and i was wondering which is better the gravity feed or the one where u screw a little cup on and use that?

[clamboni]

I've only heard good things about gravity feed. Seems like everyone on here that usus gravity feed won't use siphon feed again. I just bought a peak c-5 and in the 5 minutes I played with it, I think I'm gonna like it. Seems like a little more work to change colors, but that's the only downside I see. Seems like it should work better for us spraying on smaller workpieces and fine detail, I was spraying earlier today with 5 psi, no way you could do that with the siphon feed.

[benton B]

gravity feed IMHO, I will never go back to a siphon feed again. Use less paint and very easy clean up.

[clamboni]

very easy clean up.

I literally only cleaned two colors out of it, but clean up is easier? How do you clean the paint out of the cup quickly between colors? I think I liked painting with it better the little bit that I tried, but I cab't figure out how it's quicker changing colors than a bottle.

Maybe they're not all the same as my new brush, but it has a pretty big opening from the cup into the body of the brush. Seemed like it could definitely be a lot smaller opening, it's more of a slot.

[BobP]

I use a spray bottle of water. Spray the paint out of the cup and run a cup of water through it between colors. Much faster than cleaning out a syphon cup. The grav feed brushes have much less paint inside them when you stop spraying so there's not as much to clean out.

[benton B]

I use windex to clean and I run 1 cup of windex thru the brush and then a little windex with hand over the cup and shake. I usually paint 3-4 baits using that method of cleaning, then take the needle out and flush the brush with windex.

[clamboni]

With my siphon feed brush, I still think it's quicker than spraying a while cup of whatever you use. I just backspray, pull the bottle off and use a syringe to drop water into the intake. One drop at a time and time it so the next drop is going in when the last drop is done spraying. Literally takes 5 seconds, whatever color you were using. This is obviously done with the brush upside down. Little hard to describe, but it works great. Works much faster one drop at a time than it does with a constant flow.

[BJ Smith]

Gravity feed... JMHO.......

[RiverMan]

No question........gravity feed.

[HAWGHUNNA]

Hello guys,

I SCRATCHED MY HEAD AND WANDERED AROUND THE HOBBY LOBBY LAST NIGHT WITH AN IWATA ECLIPES (siphon feed-.5mm needle) IN MY CART FOR 30 minutes.

I HAVE NEVER HELD AN AIRBRUSH...And after reading through some post here on T.U had about decided to purchase a gravity feed model.

NOTE...the siphon feed was on sale through today for 25% off,in short...I settled for the siphon feed due to the discount and picked up a set of 6 opaque and 6 neon colors with the savings.

Am I going to regret not holding out for the gravity feed?

P.S. Hobby Lobby has 25% off all airbrushes and accessories through 12-15-07.

[quick20xd]

Hawghunna- I have used both gravity and siphon feed airbrushes for years. While I perfer the gravity feed. Its more about what you get use to using. There might be a couple minutes difference in clean-up and color change. But that is the trade off for versitility of being able to use different size bottles and prepared multiple color bottles for batch jobs with the siphon model. Buy some extra bottles or buy the siphon adaptor for the createx size bottles and have at it!

You didn't make a bad choice! Now that you have it. Make it work for you!

Ernie

[clamboni]

With the siphon feed brushes, I found a much cheaper alternative to buying airbrush bottles or adapters. Go to a medical supply and get soft suction catheters. A bunch of size 10Fr and a couple size 12 Fr. The 10 fits nicely in the hold that's already in the createx bottle lid. Cut that to length and cut about a 1/2" section of the 12. The 10 fits tightly inside the 12 and the 12 fits the inktake on the airbrush. If you spend about They're less than a dollar each and each size 10 will make 3-4 tubes. Some bottles will very slowly slide down on the tubing so you have to keep an eye on them and I usually loosen the cap to vent the bottle but it's a great and inexpensive bottle adapter as long as you don't mind the bottle not being rigidly attached.

[fatfingers]

The use of stencils and the ability to control how much paint you apply are two important keys to airbrushing anything.

By default siphon feeders require a bit more air pressure because the paint must be pulled upward into the brush (as opposed to allowing it to simply fall into the brush by way of gravity) and even pure water would require more pressure to pull upward. Of course the viscosity of paint increases the need for additional air pressure for the siphoning action to a degree which increases as the viscosity increases.

Without a big debate about physics, that is the only difference aside from the different ways the two types of brushes must cleaned between colors (and the cleaning difference is negligible).

But...because additional pressure is required to siphon the paint upward, you would probably find that you need more pressure to operate a siphon feed brush as opposed to a gravity feed brush (all other variables being equal). Additional pressure generally equals more paint being applied at one time.

The main advantage of the gravity feed is the ability to shoot with lower pressure, which translates into the ability to shoot finer details with less overspray.

Controlling the air pressure by way of finer adjustments to the air brush and utilizing smaller needles with less air pressure is a lot of way you're paying for in a top of the line airbrush.

With all that said, you can still do great work with either brush; its a matter of practice...but greater control over the rate of paint being applied is a nice variable to have at your fingertips.

[deepsessions]

great breakdown fatfingers....I've been using siphon fed bottles for bulk spraying and gravity fed for thinner material and smaller details. Now all I need is another moisture trap!

[Lure--Prof]

Gravity Feed! For all the reasons Fatfingers detailed. Having used both, I waste less paint with gravity feed, and spend much less time cleaning, as I have no siphon caps to clean when I'm done painting. Having done most of my painting with a siphon feed, I'd pay twice as much for a gravity feed if I had to...color changes are at least as quick with the GF for me.

[clamboni]

Painting wise, in the last couple days I've come to like my gravity feed much much better.....I think the siphon feed is going to be used only for basecoating from now on. The color changing takes a little longer, but it's definitely not bad. I have a sink right by my bench so I've just been rinsing the cup out, spray a little water and new color in. The low pressures I can spray with are just awesome. The only downside I see is the cleaning time, and it's not bad at all.