Airbrush painting, not really about painting. OT

[The Artful Bodger]

Roadside signs are 8x4' and to be read by passing traffic so there are very few words and the lettering is quite big, letters are 250- 300mm high.

If I can get the fine lines to do the text outline and airbrush to fill the letters that will be fine.

[jcfx]

Please refer to post #6. There is this I found on-line....

My post did quote your post #6, all I'm pointing out is that you will not
get a sharp line that a brush or pen will give you, if that's what you're after.
The picture you found online the lines look soft to me because it's sprayed.

[J Tiers]

That's a lot better than most. But is it going to work for your application?

As I recall, this started as sign making. Usually text of any sort is best with very clean lines, and no fuzzy edges. Can you get what you want from the airbrush? Is what we see in the pic you attached good enough for your signs?

To me it looks like it could be.

[The Artful Bodger]

You do know that the airbrush will not give you a sharp line ?

Baz has already pointed this out, and the suggestions of using plotter pens are probably the best for fine sharp lines.
The needle sizes do affect the finess of the line but it'll still be a soft line, on the Passche VL airbrushes I have there is a 'lock'
for controlling the needle distance.

Please refer to post #6. There is this I found on-line....

[jcfx]

I am not sure an airbrush is what I need but it will be interesting finding out. What I am initially interested in is painting fairly fine lines on flat surfaces, say 2mm wide.

The airbrush I have has .2, .3 and .5mm needles but I still have to mount it on the CNC head unit and organize the CNC control of the paint needle. Maybe a few days yet!

You do know that the airbrush will not give you a sharp line ?

Baz has already pointed this out, and the suggestions of using plotter pens are probably the best for fine sharp lines.
The needle sizes do affect the finess of the line but it'll still be a soft line, on the Passche VL airbrushes I have there is a 'lock'
for controlling the needle distance.

Molotow is a paint company that sells refillable markers, I've only used some of their products but they do have a line
called Blackliners, they may work better -

https://www.molotow.com/en/product-series/marker-refills/professional/

[wmgeorge]

The air brushes I have used if you lay them on the side they tend to leak and the paint would move away from pickup tube.

[Baz]

For thin lines I'd use a Rotring pen or make the equivalent. I wonder how wide the principle works for. But I like the idea of a full CNC airbrush on a transportable XY frame that I could hang against a wall to do murals.
I don't see how an airbrush ever makes a thin line, as almost by definition they have sort of fuzzy edges to the spray pattern. I thought the art of teh airbrush for an artist or signwriter was as much about the masks as the paint application.

[The Artful Bodger]

Even better value and does not need a compressor..

[Noitoen]

This type of spray gun doesn't use needles.

[J Tiers]

The one in the background? OK.

We'd like to see what you come up with. Looks interesting.

[The Artful Bodger]

Machining content possible here....... you might have to make an adapter for the pen.

See that white thing, looks like a cage or somesuch? Thats the parallel link module for carrying a pen and it works well too with felt pens and paint pens.

[J Tiers]

Yea, a plotter would be nice but could I afford one that would take 2A0 size paper or 8 x 4 plywood? Anyway, this is a Home Shop forum where making stuff is the focus, not to say that a big plotter would not be a desirable thing to have.

I think the idea was to use the PEN from a plotter in the machine you have. From your previous posts it seems that there is a way to lift and lower the markers you apparently were using, and that would work with the plotter pen.

Machining content possible here....... you might have to make an adapter for the pen.

[The Artful Bodger]

There are many available with a wide range of prices. I put a search link in my post above but here it is again:

https://www.google.com/search?client...q=plotter+pens

Apparently people are still using them.

A plotter IS a CNC pen.

Yea, a plotter would be nice but could I afford one that would take 2A0 size paper or 8 x 4 plywood? Anyway, this is a Home Shop forum where making stuff is the focus, not to say that a big plotter would not be a desirable thing to have.

[The Artful Bodger]

Ya, probably wouldn't work for all situations, but might work for large colour fills. Just thinking out loud trying to think of easy to adapt consumer grade solutions.



Sounds like you've got a good plan. I'm looking forward to see how this pans out for you, it sounds really interesting.

I have made the mount for attaching to the machine and the servo is all connected up. I have a bit to do installing the Arduino on the machine proper and just three wires to connect to the airbrush.

[The Artful Bodger]

Me as well. I don’t know how far down the rabbit hole the OP is going to go with this but a cnc airbrush could get quite interesting.

Relax! Progress is being made.