airbrushes

[24warrior]

What is better a siphon feed or gravity feed airbrush and im using a passche what is a good psi to be at?

[air_fx]

Siphon feed requires more air to pull the paint up to the airbrush.....gravity feed allows you to use alot less air pressure since your not having to pull paint up from the bottom of a cup hangin below the airbrush......Air pressure varies alot depending on the viscosity of the paint you use and what your doing at the time......using something like Createx and a VL you could find yourself using anywhere from 20 psi all the way upto 65 psi or more.....there is no single pressure setting that works for all jobs.....mess around with pressures to see how they effect how the airbrush works with any given paint brand.

[24warrior]

Thanks air_fx.

[air_fx]

Anytime.....

[AndyW]

One advantage that syphon feeds have over gravity feeds is that they do allow for quick colour changes.

[draggin81]

in a nutshell.....

Gravity feed airbrushes have faster trigger response, use less air, and are better for detailed work or work where precision control is a must. Obviously, some gravity feeds perform this better than others. They also tend to atomize the paint better, and suffer less from tip dry (less contact with air=less dried paint)

Siphon feed airbrushes have the advantage of faster color changes, which especially comes in handy if you only have one AB. They are also capable of holding as much paint as you can find a jar to fit it. On big projects this means less, or no, stopping to refill halfway through.

I tend to use siphon feeds with tip sizes of .5 or bigger, use around 35psi, and use them for painting backrounds or color washes or anywhere a broad, soft transition is called for.
My gravity feed airbrushes I use tip sizes ranging from .15 to .35, depending on the AB. Psi is usually set around 30, and I have a Grex G-MAC unit which allows fine pressure adjustments. My Iwata HP-BS seems to like higher pressures, though. Ususally 35psi or more.

As a general rule, I start at 35 psi and do some test patterns and adjust from there.