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Anyone do this?

I was considering an air eraser, but my iwata compressor doesn't have the flow for it. Wondering how to set up a workshop compressor and route the air to my desk.

How would I regulate flow, how terrible an idea is this, what am I clearly missing with this?

Thanks in advance!

I used to use a full size compressor. As long as you have the appropriate connectors, regulator and moisture trap, it's no different, if much noisier.

I still do.

Moisture/oil trap is needed more so than with the little ones. I use a two step regulator system like what you use for pressurized gases...one on the compressor that drops it down to less than 50 PSI, than a second regulator on my manifold that is designed to regulate lower pressures which has a lock and micro-adjust feature.

Noise...yes, if it is right next to you. My compressor is an 80 gallon upright. It is in my shop - or more precisely, it is in a small building on the backside of my shop (along with other loud stuff like my cyclone dust collector). I run an air supply line through the attic of the house to my miniature room and have a stub out with quick connects to hook up my airbrush station. Perfectly silent.

My airbrush station has a manifold that has several other quick connects on it - that way when painting, I can hook up a blow gun (clean dry air), a couple brushes, my sand eraser or whatever else. No need to switch stuff around while working...it all stays hooked up, all the time.

Thanks for the responses guys, I was hoping you two would respond.

I was definitely going to be putting the compressor as far away as possible, potentially even setting it on a timer so it only refills during the day - just need to make sure I have a tank big enough, though 80 gallons seems excessive for my needs

Thanks guys, I will look into it further and work out how I am going to do this.

I have a craftsman, 3 gallon at home for filling my car tires and blowing debris out of my garage.

could I use one of these as a compressor for painting models?

if so, what kind of air brush should I look for? what pieces and connectors would work.

mind you I know nothing about air brushing but have been interested in starting up.

Yah - the 80 gallon is a bit much for most people...but I use a lot of pneumatic tools in the garage and an HVLP that, while it doesn't need much pressure requires a lot of CFM that smaller compressors have a hard time keeping up with.

The amount of air stored, and the speed at which they refill the tank means that in most cases - for airbrushing - you are only looking at a few minutes of run time for an hour or so of spraying (depending on the tank size of course). For added volume, you can daisy chain pressure reservoirs (they sell them for filling up car tires without a compressor).
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The 3 gallon should work fine. Most likely it will be an oil less compressor. You will still want a moisture trap, and the built in regulator can dial it down enough. Because of my setup though - running back and forth isn't really convenient...and I like a more reliable reading.

In terms of the fittings - most the lines for a regular compressor will be 3/8" NPT, while most airbrush fittings are 1/8". You will need to reduce down. Easiest way is to take your compressor fitting and your airbrush fitting to a hardware store and show it to one of the people there. They can sort out the path from point A to point B without much difficulty (hard to say without knowing for certain what you will have - I have seen NPT, BPT, Flared and even Swagelock fittings on both compressors and airbrushes).

You don't need a specific special brush to work with it. Where the air comes from isn't super critical to how a brush works (there are better supplies and worse supplies - but the big issues tend to be pressure and volume...both of which a 3 gallon should be able to supply in adequate amounts for airbrushing).

One other thing -- you will almost certainly need to have 2 regulators. The second one (near your airbrush) will be something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Paasche-R-75-Regulator-Moisture-Trap/dp/B000BR2STI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411975795&sr=8-1&keywords=paasche+regulator

The moisture trap is really critical, because otherwise, water can accumulates, and in the middle of your nice job, you get a big glob of water that just messes everything up. You can fasten it to your table, to an airbrush holder.

Anyhow, my point is that almost all the regulator & moisture traps that work like the ones that hobby compressors use will use a 1/4" NPT connector. If you buy a braided airbrush hose, it will almost always have a 1/4" female connector on the compressor end (the exception is that some of the cheapie all-in-one kits come with 1/8" on the compressor end).

Plus, the last thing you want to do is attach an adapter to your airbrush that fits a gigantic air hose that leads to your full size compressor, because the hose just be too unwieldy.

So, I would suggest buying an adapter to connect the regulator on your compressor to something like the Paasche Regulator and Moisture Trap, and then connecting that to a standard airbrush hose.

Paasche makes good "first airbrushes", in my opinion, because they are a decently manufactured product and come with the hose and for less than $20 more, the full set of 3 needles and aircaps plus a fan cap.

One thing you might want to keep in mind is that once you start adding up hoses, regulators, adapters and all the little things, you're just about at the same price as a cheap airbrush kit, including compressor, like that $70 Masters Airbrush+compressor that was reviewed here yesterday.

I already had a 3hp compressor so I moved the moisture trap to my painting bench and connect my airbrush directly to the moisture trap. Moisture traps should be close to the tool for all air tools, having it on the front of the compressor is pointless for all but the shortest of hoses.