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Space needle


Robbyrockett

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5 hours ago, little-cars said:

So what brushes and nozzle sizes are the needles compatible with ?

Paul

The first set I'm making for .18 iwata micron and gsi 770's.

After that I'll expand them to demand, provided the first users actually like them and confirm I did a good job :) So ..? 

 

I know this wasn't part of the question but to expand...

I had raw material created and treated by a specialist powder metallurgy company. Only way to get hardness and flexibility. After that I use my own machining equipment to shape and super finish the point, then final polish.

 

I use an overlapping microphoto comparison to make sure it matches the profile of the original needle for the intended brush.

 

50-60hrc hardness but done in a way , and to an alloy combination that actually makes it quite flexible. 

Properties go all the way through so while a repair done with a sharpenair may not give the original smooth finish it will still maintain it's properties if ever it does need a repair.

The whole thing is patent pending now so I felt alright sharing some early tests.

 

Hoping you guys would feel its novel enough to not be construed as pure advertising garbage.

Edited by Robbyrockett
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Your video would be more convincing if you also showed the brush still spraying nicely.

 

Not saying it doesn’t,  just that the video just shows you brushing a piece of metal against a piece of paper and it appears not to bend.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

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1 hour ago, nheather said:

Your video would be more convincing if you also showed the brush still spraying nicely.

 

Not saying it doesn’t,  just that the video just shows you brushing a piece of metal against a piece of paper and it appears not to bend.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

The needle does in fact bend if you look closely, but it springs back to it's original shape once the pressure has been released.

Sounds like a damned good idea to me.

 

Chris.

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2 hours ago, stringbag said:

The needle does in fact bend if you look closely, but it springs back to it's original shape once the pressure has been released.

Sounds like a damned good idea to me.

 

Chris.

That was exactly my goal.which to be honest took a lot of educated guesswork but finally worked out.

 

Thanks !

 

 

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3 hours ago, nheather said:

Your video would be more convincing if you also showed the brush still spraying nicely.

 

Not saying it doesn’t,  just that the video just shows you brushing a piece of metal against a piece of paper and it appears not to bend.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

Yeah, this was just some early testing.

This is definitely not the promo material or intended to convince anyone. Just kinda sharing what I've been working on.

 

The rest won't be released until the thing is actually available here in about a week.

 

Anyway, it's not indestructible or anything....just a whole lot more resilient than factory stuff, just keeps those accidental drags from causing any headache.

 

Holds a polish for a long time as well.

 

Anyway if the first few people like it as much as I do then hopefully it'll make a little wave.

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6 hours ago, stringbag said:

The needle does in fact bend if you look closely, but it springs back to it's original shape once the pressure has been released.

Sounds like a damned good idea to me.

 

Chris.

Yes I can see that, looks good from that aspect.  Just saying that it would have more of an impact if it started showing the brush spraying a beautifully sharp line, then abusing the needle and then spraying a beautifully sharp line.

 

Then you would have loads of people queuing up to order.

 

Out of interest, is the needle metal, or some form of plastic, polymer or fibre - or is that a trade secret?

 

And finally, just for a bit of fun, what would happen if you tried to airbrush in space?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

Edited by nheather
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9 hours ago, nheather said:

Yes I can see that, looks good from that aspect.  Just saying that it would have more of an impact if it started showing the brush spraying a beautifully sharp line, then abusing the needle and then spraying a beautifully sharp line.

 

Then you would have loads of people queuing up to order.

 

Out of interest, is the needle metal, or some form of plastic, polymer or fibre - or is that a trade secret?

 

And finally, just for a bit of fun, what would happen if you tried to airbrush in space?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

Lol , well... It's metal. A combination of alloys put together through powder metallurgy.

 

I've got some video like that actually. Which I'll bundle with a press release I'm gonna submit to some magazines and such....see what happens.

 

As for airbrushing in space...I guess if you were in the space station it would work....if you could get the paint to seal off the cup and get sucked in initially...???

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9 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I like the looks of this but what are we looking at $ € £ ¥ wise ? Thats the trick, if its too expensive customers would probably stay with traditional needles ? If its in a realistic cost range you’ve got a hit on your hands.

 

Dennis 

For someone like myself, who Is very comfortable reshaping and polishing needles. I'd personally be on the fence...maybe buy one for my main brush just for convenience.

For the cost, for my other brushes I'd probably just buy a bunch of Chinese needles...rework them... toss the ones with inclusions and have plenty of needles not to have to worry about it.

That's assuming my others were 1.2mm shafts that I could buy Chinese needles for.

 

Which is why I'm looking into exactly what brushes to expand availability to next...after the microns.

Infinities maybe, they suffer from a weak needle. Maybe an olympos grind as their needles are becoming less and less available and are super weak.

Eclipses perhaps, they use a 1.4 shaft and are basically the tank of airbrushes, often used by those who would have a finer brush destroyed in short order ....

 

Currently there's a needle on the market that's case hardened to 33 microns depth and polished that sells quite well at about $100. I looked into that, it's actually quite cheap to produce.

 

Another goal was to beat that by quite a lot. Both in price and in the fact that you can re sharpen this to your hearts content and never lose the initial properties. Where with the other needle if you do damage it ..that's all, it's either trashed, or becomes a regular needle after repair.

 

I won't give the actual cost just yet but more than factory, less than that other high end needle.

Edited by Robbyrockett
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I actually have some pre orders already.

The first I was really happy about.

An older guy who has trouble with his vision except with certain colors. So he paints in a limited range of color.

He can't see his needle tip so he can't make repairs very well.

 

A friend of mine made a low trigger that inadvertently helped him continue to airbrush despite some movement issues with his fingers.

 

So, these were some unforeseen benefits to some mods that were really cool and even if it's not real successful it's fun to have accomplished helping this guy continue to paint.

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Have you seen the SharpenAir needle repair station.  Advertised as "stick the needle in the slot, a few turns, repeat with the next slots and out puts a perfectly straight and polished needle".

 

Sounds good but I wonder how well it actually works.

 

It also costs as much as five needles (depending on airbrush make) so I'm not sure I would get my money back from it.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

 

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6 hours ago, nheather said:

Have you seen the SharpenAir needle repair station.  Advertised as "stick the needle in the slot, a few turns, repeat with the next slots and out puts a perfectly straight and polished needle".

 

Sounds good but I wonder how well it actually works.

 

It also costs as much as five needles (depending on airbrush make) so I'm not sure I would get my money back from it.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

 

Sharpenair is a great product.

For artists who do a lot of painting with no needle protection it's pretty much guaranteed to pay for itself.

Also anyone making money from their painting...as even a trip to the local supplier could cost way more time wise than a needle is worth.

 

Part of what I wanted to accomplish with this needle was being able to use such a device, should it ever need repair.since the other high end needle can't be repaired properly because it's only case hardened.

 

The sharpenair works very well for all but the most high performance $500-$1500 airbrushes designed for the absolute utmost in detail performance. It isn't absolutely perfect but it does do a close second of a job.

 

I have nothing to do with the sharpenair but I can say it's a really great product.

Edited by Robbyrockett
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15 hours ago, nheather said:

Have you seen the SharpenAir needle repair station.  Advertised as "stick the needle in the slot, a few turns, repeat with the next slots and out puts a perfectly straight and polished needle".

 

Sounds good but I wonder how well it actually works.

 

It also costs as much as five needles (depending on airbrush make) so I'm not sure I would get my money back from it.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

 

Btw it might be cheaper than you think.

https://airbrushes.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=sharpenair&osCsid=arkm2806q27d8rjrvmiltccdi1&x=0&y=0

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7 hours ago, Robbyrockett said:

It looks interesting, but needles have different tapers on them. I can;t see how it can get that right.  

 

Paul

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56 minutes ago, little-cars said:

It looks interesting, but needles have different tapers on them. I can;t see how it can get that right.  

 

Paul

Actually they are generally the same main angle, just some are carried further into the depth of the needle before rounding out the tip so to speak. They appear to be different because of shaft size or the depth the main angle is carried to , but when measured are in fact the same main angle.

The depth variance accounts for different profiles and nozzle sizes.

 

Also there are 4 angles in the runners of each of the tool so essentially you are doing a 4 way grind to match your particular needles profile then polishing it out.... instructions for different profiles are included.

 

I can tell you I've not ever heard anyone have anything but praise for them.

 

The results are not perfect, but usually at least as good as factory standard needles when carried out correctly.

 

Personally,  no factory needle performs well enough for me without a good polishing, same goes for many artists. Sharpenair gets me a needle that will do all but the last 5percent of finest details I need from a micron.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

It looks a good product, and your video shows quite a lot of abuse, and the needle pops back straight, not sure what the nozzel would be like though after that, but your showing the strengths of your needle not the nozzel.

Looking at the sharpenair video the needle after the repair still looks bent to me, but hard to tell against the white background

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On 12/15/2018 at 4:28 PM, colin said:

It looks a good product, and your video shows quite a lot of abuse, and the needle pops back straight, not sure what the nozzel would be like though after that, but your showing the strengths of your needle not the nozzel.

Looking at the sharpenair video the needle after the repair still looks bent to me, but hard to tell against the white background

It actually helps to keep the nozzle from damage. Its not nearly as stiff as a standard needle.

In the testing so far dropping the brush of course still bends the needle but only a mild curve rather than the 90 deg angle a standard needle gets.

 

So I can only guess that the combination of not transferring the sudden impact so suddenly plus having less of the deformation that makes a bent rod become wider around the bend site is basically saving all the nozzles tested.

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