Airbrush on ShopBot??

[andrewm]

Has anyone ever rigged and airbrush system up to a Shopbot for painting? If so, how successfull was it and what type of setup did you use?

Andrew M

[gbatten]

Good question Andrew. I have thought about the same thing but never posted a question about it. Maybe someone will reply with advise on an airbrush attachment.

...Gene

[oddcoach@aol.com]

NORDSON MAKES ALL KINDS OF AUTOMATIC GLUE AND LIQUID APPLICATION SYSTEMS. THEY AREN'T CHEAP BUT THEY ARE VERY GOOD SYSTEMS. I HAVEN'T PUT ANY ON THE SHOPBOT, BUT HAVE USED THEM INOTHER INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS.IT COULD BE ASTUATED WITH A MICROSWITCH ON THE Z AXIS. AS THE AXIS MOVES DOWN THE SPRAY IS ON UP FOR OFF.THERE SITE IS WWW.NORDSON.COM

[M. Holm (Unregistered Guest)]

My reaction to this suggestion would be that extraneous glue/liquid residue would get on the exposed S.B. mechanism itself and affect it adversely

[andrewm]

I am not looking to do large scale painting of whole parts, but the highlighting of details with a focused fine airbrush. The kind of detail work that would be done by an airbrush artist not a house painter.

I remember seeing a robot doing airbrush t-shirts at Disney's Downtown Disney about a year ago. Theirs was very theatrical in its presentation, but its movements were very similiar to those which can be achieved by a ShopBot. There was very little if any overspray. It was a very clean operation being performed right in a store.

In my case I am looking for a way to reproduce fine detailed work that I need to be replicated over numerous peices without depending on an artist each time.

[Brady Watson]

Andrew,
It is *possible* to mount and use an airbrush on the Bot. However, you have to figure out if it is going to be worth it to you or not. You would have to stick to a single action airbrush with a basic on/off configuration. Trying to manipulate a dual action brush would entail a lot more ingenuity and a LOT of programming time for each design.

Theoretically if you are just going to do fine lines you could get away with using a relay and some type of servo to press the brush/gun trigger. You could use the output switch to control the off and on in software. Make your "profile toolpath" and then add a line to the code after each section to turn on or off.

You will of course be spending a lot of time experimenting. Find a single action brush with a side cup that can be rotated parallel with the body (so that it will hold paint). Then make a mount that will attach the brush to the Z. Add a pressure regulator and gauge to your gantry. I would advise using magnets to hold this onto the gantry. Old harddrive magnets will take your finger off...they are so strong. Do this as close to the brush as you can because pressure at the compressor is higher than at the location of the brush...there is a substantial drop in pressure at the head because of the rubber lines.

Search the archives for how to hook up a relay and use the output switches.

Get to it!
Let us know how you make out.

-Brady

PS- You may also be able to use an electro-pnuematic switch if this doesn't adversely affect the finish (like sputtering etc) You could simply send the swith a signal from the output switch and it will open the valve and activate the brush...turn it off and pressure is off.

Also, it dawned on me that you will need a 'purge area' to get the paint flowing properly and dialed in.

[billp]

At the Atlantic City Sign Show 2 years ago they HAD a vertical CNC "auto painter" which was doing exactly what you are desctibing. During the course of the show it painted a mural on the entire side of a van and it was composed of MANY colors.. I have NO idea of who manufactured the machinery but you might try the USSC sign council web page or member listing to get the info..

[Lee Cheney (Unregistered Guest)]

There is a small company here in Utah that has been developing and marketing a couple of machines that "print with paint". I have been following them for 4 or 5 years. Their technology is unique but more expensive than Shopbot. Their web address is:
www.pixation.com/
I hope you find this helpful.
Lee

[K Simmerer (Unregistered Guest)]

A few years ago someone was selling an airbrush setup that used a manifold that standard airbrush bottles screwed into. It used like 10 colors and a bottle of water. It fed the paint under light pressure down a cable-like array of very fine plastic tubes to a selector valve, and then a single line to a standard siphon feed, internal mix, single action airbrush pickup. There were a few common airbrushes that it worked with (Pasche comes to mind). You select one color, flush with water to clear, select the next color. Aside from that neat ability, with the pressure feed and hoses with remote paint supply it might be easier to adapt and would work "out of position" i.e. brush verticle, material horizontal. I don't know if it is still made. I think it was called "Color Changer". I wish I could give you more specifics but I haven't touched an airbrush in about 2yrs. If it's not still made you might be able to dig up a used one.

Keith

[stevenseim]

An airbrush mount for my Paasch VL is going to happen, but I've not started it as yet.

One mounting option would be to have it point down to the table of course, and that would work for large block areas, but if you remove the stop bolts on the z axis, you could just 'z' the router holder out, and 'z' in a real long one, especially if you have sufficient clearance near the end of the x axis rails. Roller mounted counterweights could use the interior of the z axis tubes as a guide. Grainger sells the gear track.

You'll need azimuth adjustments (if vertically aligned) and/or a follower to keep the brush planar, regardless of vertical or horizontal orientation. A contact that maintains a connection to one of the outputs, or a laser diode and detector, or ideally;

---planar correction built into the bots controller software!!!---

Another alternative is a vertical easel that has planar correction available through adjustments at each corner.

I'm afraid that given the manner in which the bot moves now, keeping a consistant distance from the workpiece while maintaining fidelity would be difficult, unless (once and yet again) planar correction was built into the software.

At the maximum, a plug in could table color saturation to distance from the workpiece, but as it is now, the software does not even handle long file names! oh well.