# Harbor Freight Air Brushes



## PaJay (Dec 15, 2012)

I see Harbor Freight has Air Brush kits starting at $8.99 and up. Anybody know anything about these? This will be my first AB so I am new to this.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

What will you be painting and what kind of quality are you hoping for? I used one of those cheap type when I was a kid painting model cars. For that, it worked just fine. If you want any sort of detail, or something that will last for years, they aren&#8217;t what you want.


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## PaJay (Dec 15, 2012)

Mostly painting spoons and blades. I'm not even going to try crankbaits yet!!


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

For that it would work, as long as you&#8217;d just be doing primarily solid colors. I can&#8217;t say how happy you&#8217;ll be after a couple weeks, because I think you&#8217;ll start wanting to do more details and you won&#8217;t be able to. You won&#8217;t be out much, so that&#8217;s a plus. I think you could probably find one local, but I don&#8217;t know if they&#8217;d be that cheap. Most places that sell model cars/planes etc will carry them, and most hobby stores do as well.


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## PaJay (Dec 15, 2012)

Thanks alot! I'm looking at a Badger brand online now. They look a little better.


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## turkeyt (Apr 13, 2006)

Ok, I have 2 of those Harbor Freights and i have an Iwata HP and a Neo for Iwata. The Harbour Freights are siphon feed and they are the ones that cost about 20 bucks, or 14 if they put a coupon out for them. That 9 buck one would be like spraying a Windex bottle. I do not like the siphon feed Harbor Freights. They are ok to do a bait as long as you use thinner paint. You have to shake them sometimes to get the paint to keep coming. I use them some to paint a base coat since the jar holds more paint. They are just a second thought brush to me. If you want to get a cheap decent spraying brush get the Neo gravity feed brush from Hobby Lobby and use the 40% coupon. They have 2 paint cups and a large enough cavity to just add a few drops of paint also. I got one for around 43.00 dollars shipped. If you want to get in deeper, get an Iwata Eclipse or Pasche brush. I feel the Neo would do you fine. The Harbor Freight will work but it is more touchy and you have to play around to make it work better and then clean the jar after every color change. Main thing you need to think about is a compressor and it needs to be small enough to work at 15 to 30 lbs. pressure. You have smaller fittings (1/4") on airbrush hoses too. Like posted before, you might as well spend your money and get what you want. You will do so later on anyway. Hope any of this helps.


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## rjbass (Aug 1, 2007)

Do yourself a favor and buy an Iwata. You won't be sorry. Trust me.

Rod


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

The cheap airbrushes from HF got some pretty horrible reviews that I read when I was looking for my first gun. I did a lot of research and ended up going with an Iwata Eclipse but I bought the cheap compressor from HF to go with it. (model number 93657). So far I have no complaints at all with my compressor. It keeps consistent pressure and is very quiet compared to others. How it will hold up over time remains to be seen but so far so good after 9 months or so of pretty regular use. 
Also I would recommend a gravity fed brush over the siphon fed ones for small jobs like lures. Again, this is information that I read and gathered from friends and online sources. I have never used the siphon type but people in the know steered me away from them for what I wanted. Hope this helps.


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