How I Made My Copic Air Can Refillable

I like the Copic airbrush I bought recently, but the idea of having to drop $12 each time my can of air runs out, or buying an air compressor, just isn't that appealing to me. So, I tried to make the original can I bought refillable.

This photo shows what my original $50 investment got me. 1 D60 can of compressed air, one grip, and 4 markers.

Disclaimer: Many reviews of similar ideas done to other canned products online shows that this might be dangerous, so I'm telling you here to not do this at home, school, church, or the river.....do this at your friends home!

My wife and I thought it would likely be possible to fill the can with a bike pump. First I had to get a valve into the can so I could have a hole into the can.

I decided the cut the valve out of an old soccer ball and use that in my can. Using a razor blade I cut the piece out around the valve, then cut the valve out of the air bladder.

Cut the piece first

The valve before it was completely removed.

Trimmed up the edges.

At this point I wanted to see the inside of the valve as it was in use so I put the inflation needle into it and showed it off to the kids so they could learn how it worked.

Clear through

Then I took the empty can to work and asked my friend Dave to drill a hole in the bottom. This hole had to be bigger than any drill bit I had so it could accommodate the valve I stole from the soccer ball. 

The can's hole and soccer air valve

I decided to wash out the inside of the can to remove any dust or metal filings from the drilling. I heard that water inside the can might cause rust so I dried it out in the sun and used a hair dryer. However, moisture in the air that I plan to put inside the can might cause rust in the end anyway. We'll see.

After it was cleaned I roughed up the can and valve with sandpaper and used JB Weld to seal it shut.

Ready to mix the two parts

Applied some to the inside of the valve

Applied some to the can

The squeeze out

Cleaned up the squeeze out

 I let this sit for almost 24 hours before I tested it by filling it with air.

Bike pump and refillable can

I inserted the inflation needle to test it. Removed it and put it inside a laundry basket.

Inserting the inflation needle

The reason I put it in the laundry basket, through the side, was in case the thing blew up, the hose would be restricted in it's movement, and the blanket would hopefully absorb most of the shrapnel. 

Laundry basket testing safety system. Patent Pending.

After I pumped it up with one pump of my floor stand bike pump (measuring about 20psi) I removed it from the needle, resulting in a little air release sound....likely from the hose, not the can.

1 pump = 20psi

 I loaded the airbrush with my black marker and gave it a test spray. You can see the black mist in the image below.

My first proof that it worked!!!

 Pumping it once, to 20psi, gave me about 5 seconds of spray. Not that much spray time. Since the official air compressor setup can Copic sells states to set the air compressor for 30-40psi I thought it was safest to stay in that range, or under it. So, I pumped it twice and got just a little over 40psi into the can.

2 pumps = 40psi

With about 40psi I got about 8 seconds of spray time. Still not any remarkable length of spray, but workable for sure.

Some of my kids initials for the test

Only getting about 8 seconds of air out of each fill of the can, I thought I could just keep the needle in the can, and the pump going. My very eager to help (at least this time) 4 year old son started pumping and providing a much more constant stream of air. He couldn't pump it too well, so there was no concern of going past the tested 40psi. Since there was no concern of running out of air, I often took the marker out and ran it with just air to help quickly dry the popper before the next color.

Putting the kid to work!

I found on 2 pumps, 40psi, I could paint around the whole popper. When changing markers I pumped it again, even if some air was left.

My first bike pump popper

After testing the setup, and being extremely pleased with the results, it was time to paint the rest of my poppers. I was able to paint about 25 with the original air in the can, so I painted the remaining 25 with the bike pump system. Here are some of the favorites from the night.

I see frogs in my future

I got the spots on these by wrapping the popper with some fish net material from my wife's fabric stash. You simple wrap it up and spray through it. Keep in mind, if you pull too tightly on the fish net it will stretch and give you a slightly different shape.

Next up, eyes, epoxy, feathers and legs!

Copic Airbrush and Fly Tying

After seeing other posts online about using a Copic airbrush to paint poppers I thought I'd have to try it myself.

First - The Copic airbrush is a system that uses markers as an ink source, and this allows the changing of colors to take literally only a few seconds. Clean up of the system is likely not necessary, and I've done nothing to clean mine yet.

It comes in a few setup ups. I got the one with the grip and an air can. Other setups are available with a grip and a can (without compressed air in it) that can connect to your own hose and air compressor. A third setup comes with the grip, the can to connect to a compressor and the hose and a base to hold up the can when not in use.

Of course the cans of compressed air have a time limit to their use. Mine is rated to have about 7 minutes of continuous air. If you connect it to your own air compressor then your air supply is unlimited.

My investment consisted of the grip and air can and 4 markers. At a local art supply store I bought all these items for about $50.

1 Grip + 1 Can + 4 Markers = $50

First I had to super glue the hooks to the popper head. Then I put some Elmer's wood filler in the slot. I did most of them first, then remembered I had heard that thinning the wood filler with water worked well. I did that and found it much easier to push it into the slot than when it wasn't thinned.

Glue hooks to heads

Glued

After the wood filler dried I took a nail file and sanded it smooth.

Top hook slot filled. Bottom hook slot sanded.

Next, I painted the bottom of the popper white. This covers the wood filler and gives an even white color if you want to leave it white on the belly.

Now comes the Copic airbrush. This isn't too hard to use. I just load up the first marker and hold it back a few inches from the popper and make short bursts with the air. Just like spray paint, if you hold it in one spot too long it will get darker and even build up to the point where it will drip.

Light colors first

 I typically do the lighter color on the bottom first, then a darker color on top second.

Dark colors second

Using a piece of fish net material (raid your wife's fabric supply) you can make a nice patter by spraying through it.

Once I'm satisfied with the airbrush results, I switch to another source for color. I use markers or acrylic paint to make eyes and other patterns on the popper.

I put the eyes on in 3 steps. First I put black, let it dry, put a smaller white dot, let that dry, then finally a smaller black dot, and let that dry. I use the back end of drill bits for different sizes. I found that dipping the bit into the paint to get a drop on the end, then gently pressing that drop on the popper slowly works best. I don't really try to get the bit to touch the popper, but let the paint spread out gently, which it does uniformly. I found trying to rock the bit back and forth to get it to touch the rounded edge of the popper resulted in poor results. Letting the drop just press itself out worked well and gave good round results.

First black drop

Second drop in white

Third drop in black. A group of poppers just hanging out.

A few more details put on with a marker

 After I'm done painting the bodies I put on some 5 minute epoxy to help protect all the work and provide some durability while fishing. Next up, feathers to decorate the tail end!

Overall I'm really please with both the Copic Airbrush and the eyes. Many people that have seen these have asked me if you can use other markers. I do believe that I saw somewhere on the internet where someone said there was another brand of marker you could use, but I don't remember that source. The grip that holds all the stuff together does have a specific shape and size, so the marker has to fit. I did hold a different marker outside of the grip, and it did blow the ink out....so there is some potential. I think having the marker fit into the grip would be the easiest approach. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has success with other (cheaper) markers.

Stay tuned to learn how to get more out of your can of air. Coming soon!

Copic ABS

This past weekend I found a local source for a Copic Airbrush. Rochester Art Supply had them in stock and ready for me to check out. Although it was a few dollars more than online, the lack of having to pay shipping, and waiting, was worth it.

Maybe you've heard of them, or maybe this is something new to you. Basically, it's an airbrush that uses markers as an ink source, instead of....well, whatever other airbrushes use. You can see I don't have much experience with airbrushes. However, having researched this product I was impressed that by using the markers you can switch between colors in seconds without any issue.

One of the 3 setups you can get

They have a few different types of sets you can buy to get ready to use the system. I bought the Airbrush Starting Set ABS-2. This comes with the grip and a D60 can. Other setups come a grip and a can that allows you to connect your own hose to your own air compressor, and the third setup comes with a can of air, a hose, and the connector can for use with your air compressor.

I decided to go cheap and see what I thought before buying a more expensive option. If you are interested in getting one of these, keep in mind that the setup I got I believe ONLY allows you to use the D60 can of air, not the larger cans of air. I'm ok with that for now, since I haven't even put it to use yet.

I have an order of popper heads coming from J. Stockard that I hope to paint up before the Fly Tying Symposium this Saturday. If you are at the show, stop by and check out the Copic airbrush, and any heads I've painted with it.

Check out this video on how this airbrush is used.