Air Compressor Question - I'm finally going to buy one!

[Anonymous]

I’m going to be buying an air compressor to power a nail gun for work on a house my wife and I just moved into. I’m hoping to kill two birds with one stone and get one that I could also use for an airbrush. (Sneaky, huh?)

The nail gun wants a 75-200psi supply. Would a 200psi compressor with a regulator work well for airbrushing? Or should I get something beefier? Or should I tend towards the lower 150psi - ish side? Or is this just way too big and I'd need a smaller one for airbrushing?

Thanks

[orsonroy]

You can use a general purpose air compressor for airbrushing, so long as you have a decent regulator and a moisture trap. I use Polly Scale paints, and rarely airbrush above 20-25 PSI. Most other paints require no more than this pressure range, or at most 40 PSI. A decent regulator will allow you to choke down the air flow out of the airbru***o where it needs to be.

Don't forget the airbrush air hose adapter from Badger!

[Anonymous]

Wow,

200 psi?! Like Orsonroy said, the pressures you will be working with on an airbrush will be in the neighborhood of 20 or less. I only got up to 20 psi when I used the old floquil lacquers back in the day. Even the testors enamels can easily be sprayed at 15-20. You will need to get a really good quality regulator, and I mean one that can read 1 psi or 2 psi increments. Personally, if you are serious about this, I would consider a two stage regulator when airbrushing. One to get down into the ball park then one to make minute increments. Plus, make sure you use a braided airbrush hose and not those cheap plastic/rubber ones.