Airbrush and Scuba help needed from the experts!

[james croft]

DA Aquamaster beat me to the punch. I find it a lot cheaper to buy adapters from a local shop dealing with hose connectors as opposed to dive shops. I have gotten OPVs from Northern tool and use a two buck adapter to fit them into the first stage.

 

[james croft]

Here is a link for an OPV for under 7 bucks. Darn good deal !
Piranha Dive Manufacturing

 

[S. starfish]

As others have said a diaphragm first stage and a low pressure hose with whatever attachment you need on the end. Other things you might want to consider are an over pressure valve (OPV) and a small button style pressure gauge. The OPV is a good thing to have as should your regulator develop a leak causing the intermediate pressure to rise. the excess pressure can then escape out of the OPV rather than building up until it explodes the hose attached to your reg.

Edit: I see i was beaten to OPV advice will I was posting (and being distracted by other things)

 

[knotical]

I'm glad the overpressure valve has been mentioned. It is an often overlooked consideration in do-it-yourself rigs such as these.

One caveat is to choose the over-pressurization set pressure appropriately. We scuba folks are likely to steer you toward something that works well in scuba systems, perhaps with an over-pressure set pressure of around 185 psi. However that might be too high for your purposes. Since your airbrush uses such low pressure, I suspect it might explode at a fairly low pressure. I'm sure relief valves are available with lower set pressures, I'm just not sure where.

Another option is to use a scuba second stage and de-tune it to relieve pressure at something a bit higher than your working pressure.

I am going to be spraying anywhere from 10psi-20psi. Do you think a scuba tank that big (80 cu ft) would be enough for a good spray time?

Yes

 

[JKPAO]

For my system I used an old scuba regulator with a low pressure inflator hose screwed into a low pressure port. I then have an adjustable air regulator ($20 @ Home Depot) (google air regulator) with 1/4" National Pipe Threads. On one side I installed an inflator barb (again a Home Depot part), on the other side I screwed in a standard shop hose good to 300 psi.(you guessed it HomePO) 25' long (Both ends of the hose have 1/4" NPT) I do all the adjustments at the adjustable air regulator! I have not detune or played with the scuba reg settings. worse case my adjustable air regulator gets what ever the intermediate pressure is set to. (145psi on my old piece of ship)
The adjustable reg is good to 200 psi (they come in many ranges) and the hose as I said is good for 300 psi. You could still dive the scuba reg and not have any issues with paint getting on or in the reg because you can set the tank and reg as far away as your hose alows. I was trying to get pics for you but I can not figure this camera out!
See you topside! John

 

[blatter]

Yes - good point about the OP valve - definitely a good idea to have a way to release excess pressure from a leaky seat or overenthusiastic pressure adjustment. I just kept the standard downstream second stage attached - it also makes for a quick way to depressurize the system.

 

[gotarheelz14]

Hey!!!

Thank you so much for all your help you guys. I really appreciate it. With this information I am now armed to the teeth when I go shopping for my set up!

 

[herman]

Hey heelz, I am in Raleigh. If you need some assistance drop me a PM. We can get together and get you set up. I would suggest you have the regs dissambled and cleaned if nothing else just to make sure it's working properly- we can do that in a few minutes and I have most of the repair parts on hand if needed....Just don't tell my wife where you go to school. ....maybe a red shirt would help too. Another suggestion would be to slide a garbage bag over the tank and reg while you are painting to keep the spray off of it.

 

[gotarheelz14]

Hey all,

After much thinking I decided to go with a Co2 tank set up instead. Not only was it cheaper than a scuba set up but I knew a lot more on what was needed.

Regardless, you guys were a lot of help. You really have a great forum here and everyone is so nice and helpful. I even had a guy tell me he could help me in person!!! That was real cool of you Herman, even for a wolfpack supporter ;p

I think a scuba tank might hold a little bit more total "gas". Even if it didn't the fact that the refills were so cheap would have been awesome. Alas, the price I got this thing for was a joke and I had to jump on it.

Thanks a lot guys, God bless!

Carlos

 

[herman]

Not me, the wife was who you had to avoid.
Happy to help any time- the offer is good anytime if you need something.
Come go diving with us, the NC Divers group has our 5th annual gathering planned for Oct 3 at Rolesville Quarry, about an hour from Chapel Hill. Several of the names you see fairly often here will likely show up...I am sure Babyduck will make DA come with her.