Airbrush Connection to CO2 Tank

Paul Scherer wrote:

Paul - I also use CO2 for my brush but it's not sharing anything - I buy my beer! Unless you're blessed with a 20+ pound cylinder, you may find yourself running out for refills regularly. Anyway, I'm using a regulator/gauge combo used for beer/soft drinks. There should be a tap on the side of the regulator with a setscrew on three sides of the regulator - at least mine does - they're at 9, 12 and 3 o'clock when viewed from above.. FWIW, the brand of my regulator is TapRite or somesuch name... So, at the 12 o'clock position is the pressure gauge. That's best left alone. The screws on either side of that can be removed and pipe nipples can be threaded into the hole, allowing you to tap into the pressure stream. What I've done is to get a secondary regulator (from Sears, ~$20) and use this to sub-regulate the gas to a finer degree than the TapRite regulator. The TapRite steps the pressure down so the Sears unit can drop it further for airbrushing. The Sears unit also has setscrews to connect another pipe nipple and then attach a reducing fitting for the airbrush hose. IIRC, it's 1/4" NPT down to 1/8"NPT, all connections with Teflon tape, of course. I've got a picture of it somewhere if you'd like me to illustrate my rig. It sounds a little Rube Goldberg but it's not bad at all. Been using it for years without issue. I got several CO2 fire extinguishers changed over with a new valve so I have backups to boot. Please let me know if I can offer anything else.

Frank Kranick

I've got two Norgren regulators and I just bought a new one for a friend who's getting a CO2 setup. I've looked all over, the best place to buy one is your local beer distributor. They'll have the two gauge type. One reads the tank pressure and the other the delivery pressure. This was $40 and I didn't have to chase around. Odd that the industrial gas supplier doesn't sell these, isn't it? Couldn't find anyone to repair my broken Norgren for less than $60 either. hth The Keeper

Don't know anything about what is on a CO2 bottle, but most of the airbrush hose adapters I've seen go on a quarter inch pipe fitting, so you need an adapter for whatever is on the bottle regulator to 1/4 pipe fitting. As a matter of fact, aren't all regulators standard pipe fitting? If there is a regulator on it, the output of the regulator should be a pipe fitting, and you just need an adapter from that output to quarter inch.

Don's reply indicates I might not have understood the problem. Paul, do you already have a regulator? If so, the adaptor to go from the 1/4 inch NPT thread at the end of the regulator to the airbrush hose is usually supplied with your more expensive airbrush hoses. If you need one, check local art or craft supply stores. hth The Keeper

My first airbrush, which came with Propel cans, did NOT include such an adapter (1/4 inch to 1/8 inch, but my local hobby shop had them).

shouldn't we use Oxygen in our tanks - help the air in our homes! [;-)

Even Nitrogen is better than CO2 in an enclosed room.!

I simply use a portable $20 tank from walmart that I fill to 120psi using my house compressor [that I use for tires, etc] - I then run it at 20-30psi using the Rube Goldberg devices descrbied by another poster

- actually, an adapter to get the fitting to work and then a gauge with a needle valve to pressure. Pretty simple - oh, yeah, you need a water trap when not using a dry gas. . . too bad argon is do expensive and helium does such a crummy job in an airbrush . ..

joe

Great idea, as long as you ignore the fire/explosion hazard!

Bill Shuey