Overspray

Overspray is simply aerosol spray from your airbrush somewhere you don’t want it to be.

In-Depth

Airbrushes always create overspray.

There are actually two different kinds of overspray.

There’s the overspray that lands on your work in places you don’t want it to go.

You can use objects to block it…

• Freehand shields
• Frisket film
• Masking materials and compounds
• Stencils
• Various objects

Or you can change your technique.

• Spray with less pressure
  Less pressure means bigger aerosol droplets which, in turn, means they hit their target more often instead of flying away with the air stream.
• Move in closer to your work
  The closer you get to the needle the more intense and quicker the spray builds up on your work.

Then there’s the overspray that hangs in the air.

When spray equipment creates an aerosol it atomizes the liquid into tiny droplets of various sizes. Some of those droplets are small enough to become subject to something called Brownian Motion.

Brownian Motion basically means that particles ‘float’ with air currents instead of falling with gravity. It’s like the dust in your house on a bright, sunny day. It floats and hangs in the air and slowly, very slowly, settles.

This ‘mist’ of spray is the biggest safety concern anyone using spray equipment faces. Period. You breathe it. It settles. You stir it up again. You breathe it more.

How do you deal with it?

You wear your mask or respirator.
You seperate your work area from other living areas.
You ventilate your work area very well.
You might even wear special clothing to keep the paint seperate from you.