Spitting water - water traps?

[Si2]

I have spent a number of weeks getting to grips with my airbrush.

My main issue has been paint, I've been fiddling with viscosity, thinners, flow improver, water, etc.

I ended up with a good recipe that I was progressing well with.

 

 

I got very focussed on the spraying, really concentrating on fow control and line width and then WHAM! a giant splat of water came flying out and scared the heck out of me.

I have an AS15 compressor with a pressure regulator/water trap.

DO I need to add anbother trap at the brush end?

I have realised my pipe lays on the floor, so I'm raising that up with a bit of wire first so it's not the lowest point.

Anyone else seen this issue and how did you get rid of it??

Thanks for reading

[Mike]

Sounds like your trap might be full.  There's usually a relief valve on the underside you can open to remove the water - with something underneath it to dump the water into, of course

 

Unless you're working in a very humid environment, or it's particularly cold, you shouldn't really need two traps.  Last I looked, Portsmouth wasn't a jungle in the literal sense Empty your trap and think about whether there's a lot of humidity in your work area.  You can get cheap humidity monitors these days off amazon, so if you're not sure grab one.  Heating up the room to "normal" 20c type temperatures also helps, but if the room is too hot (happens mostly in the summer), the paint will dry on the way to your model, but that's a whole new problem!

 

Incidentally, if you do want to get another trap in the end, they do little ones that are referred to as "bullet traps", or "inline traps".  They're quite small and won't annoy you too much.  I think we reviewed one sometime, so have a search in the review area

[Giorgio N]

I have one such setup, as for some reason I kept having water when I changed the flexible hose, even with the water trap of the compressor regularly checked and emptied. In the end I attached one of those small inline traps that Mike mentioned, right under the airbrush. Problem solved and I'm now spraying with no moisture related problem. These inline traps are small and light enough that mine does not affect the handling of the airbrush at all.

[Si2]

HIya, my trap is empty

In fact it never seems to have anything in it at all...

I loked at the little clear traps for under the gun and they look neat.

And for £3 I really shold give it a go, it will give the brush a bit more of a trigger style grip too.

I have gone from 15 psi to 25 though recently, not sure if that causes more of an issue..

thanks for the tips

 

[Giorgio N]

25 psi sounds quite a lot to me, what paints are you using ? As you mention flow improver I guess water thinned acrylics ? Personally I very rarely go above 20 psi, most times I spray between 15 and 17

[Ray_W]

I have only struck this problem when I have had water condense in the hose. This issue was discussed recently here:

 

 

The other scenario is not related to water in the line at all. It is when some paint accidently spills out of the top of a full paint cup when angling the brush and gets in the spray path. This behaves as if you had a sudden and dramatic rush from within the brush WHAM! Sounds just like your problem. Thin paint, full cup. Any dribbles over side?

 

Ray 

[gcn]

I paint in the garage and I find when we get to this time of year there is much more moisture in the air and I need a trap at both ends otherwise I get the same issues as you are describing. 
 

in the summer I can get away with just the compressor’s moisture trap. 

[Si2]

Many thanks for taking the time to respond, I appreciate the input.

I was running at 25PSI after watching a video where a painter using Valejo acrylics worked at this pressure. I normally use 10 to 15 before.

I turned it up and I got good results, but I was also tweaking the mix too, so I'm not 100% sure what change worked.

What I did do was get very focused and intense on my brushing, I forgot where I was and got really in to the painting.

Which is why the spurt of water shocked me so much

I had also been painting for about 30 minutes, with the complressor on pretty much constant all the time.

I use the air to dry off the paint as I add it. So the air is on almost 100%.

 

I've ordered a couple of the cheap chinese brush mounted plastic water traps, they will be a few week getting here.

I've used a bit of wire to hold my pipe off the floor, so the lowest point is not the water trap...

 

I'll be trying to paint a ME109 mottle finish soon, so I need it to work well...

regards