August 6, 2011. Bill Szydlowski
credit: WallTeaWith the recent economic downturn, I’ve had a lot of trouble finding work as a custom home builder, so I’ve been forced to look for work in other venues as well as a lot of time to pursue other hobbies of mine. Since I’m familiar with pretty much all the different processes in the construction process, I did a little bit of research and I found that of all the different subcontractors, painters had the most business.
Armed with that knowledge I set about getting into the painting business. Fittingly, the hobby that I had been spending the most time on of late has been airbrush painting. A friend of mine from college was the one who had gotten me into airbrush painting, so I called him up because I’m so out of practice with it. He told me a few tips about how to get an airbrush painting business set up, but I wasn’t really that interested in selling my stuff; I was just doing it for fun. The information that he gave me that I found was most helpful was what he said about picking a good airbrush air compressor.
He told me that there were a few keys to picking a good airbrush air compressor. First, he said it was smart to get an air compressor with as big a capacity as possible. This is for several reasons. With higher capacity air compressors you have the ability to work with more viscous paints because there’s more air stored. Also, you can work longer with the higher capacity air compressor. Another key he told me about in looking for a quality airbrush air compressor was to look for one that wasn’t noisy. Air compressors in general are known for being really loud when they kick in. Because the noise is so intermittent, and because doing airbrush paintings is such a delicate work, any disturbance that startles you can mess up what your doing. So he advised me to look for a compressor that was as noiseless as possible. Another key he said that I had to be aware of was oil-lubed compressors.
Apparently these compressors, if not taken care of and if they don’t have adequate filters, can project oil onto your wok itself and can have very detrimental effects on what you’re trying to produce. Unfortunately going oil-less will mean using an airbrush air compressor that is noisier and runs hotter, so it’s just important to make sure that you choose an air compressor that doesn’t have those oil issues. Along with the oil problems is the fact that air compressors will often build up water condensation in the hose and in the tank which can sometimes project out onto your project.
As with the oil, water is something that you can’t avoid when dealing with airbrush air compressors, so it’s important that along with a compressor you get a point-of-use dryer that ensures no water gets to your piece. He gave me a few other tips as well, but these were the ones that I found to be most salient for my needs. As I went about doing my air brush paintings I had a lot of friends and neighbors ask if they could buy my paintings off of me. I was kind of stunned at first but flattered as well. As time went by, word spread and I was getting a lot of calls asking me about my work. I had just started doing this as a hobby to keep me busy while I was out of work, but I ended up making more money out of it that I ever had as a contractor.
Updated August 6, 2011. Published August 2, 2011. Bill Szydlowski
