I've been collecting vintage striping equipment and airbrushes for quite awhile now and decided to post a few of them for your viewing pleasure. Some of these were gifts and some were acquired in exchange for work and still others were purchased on e-Bay. Of the two striping kits;one was in exchange for lettering and striping a friend's Corvette.and the other was bought from someone on here.Other stuff was acquired at swap meets and yard sales and antique shops while a couple items were purchased on e-Bay. The 1900 Wold airbrush I bought at an art store in 1968 and used it a couple times but paint didn't work well in it;it was originally used for photo re-touching apparently. The 1925 era DeVilbiss striper was a gift from a friend who found it at a swap meet. I have more stuff but am still in the process of photographing it so I'll try and get more up soon. In the meantime if you have any vintage striping stuff please feel free to add to this post.
As a sign painter that stuff is as cool as it gets.old sign painting brushes and boxes are my second favorite box to look at/in.......... And the pounce wheel of death!!! Awesome We've got an old electric Pounce machine at the shop. Right of passage to get the shit shocked out of you! Ha !
I've earned my"rite of passage" many times with my Electro-Pounce! Arm usually isn't useable for a couple hours after that. The pounce wheel is the only one I've ever seen like that. I think I paid 50 cents for it at an antique shop. Here is some more stuff from the accumulation: The first item is something I am still trying to figure out: It is marked The Sterling airbrush Co. New York with a patent number.. There is a place for air to enter but none for color. Next is a little spray gun marked Atomist Jr. that is designed to operate from the air pressure in your spare tire.This was a common method of touch up on early cars and likely dates to the 1920's. I also have several similar guns made by DuPont. Next up is a tool for cutting neon tubing and other glass tubes.Fits inside the tube with a small cutting wheel and a guide on the outside. Next is another touch up gun with disposable color cups;probably from the 1950's. Next is the Hootnanny Magic Designer which is essentially a 1930's era SpiroGraph. If you don't know what they are it was a toy in the 1960's. Next is a pair of striping tools that were supposedly used on the Chrysler assembly line. To operate them you lay the wheel against the surface and push in which starts the paint flowing. They are marked Aero-Nat and Upper B.S. and Lower B.S..They came with 6 extra heads and were bought at an auto swap meet. Last for this post is a DeVilbiss Model AGA spray gun;supposedly the first robotic gun used. It weighs a ton and is designed to mount on something and has remote air and color feeds. Bought on e-Bay for $15. Guy had two;I should have got them both.
Here is some more stuff: Vintage paints and varnishes and bronzing powders and liquids. Willey's lettering enamel;supposedly the forerunner of 1-Shot. Gerstendorfer Brothers(became Sapolin in 1915)bronzing powder and liquid. Veco striping lacquers.The taller can has bronzing liquid on the bottom and powder on the top. Dutch Boy White Lead.Heaviest little can I've ever seen. Webb Shellac for clear coating. Filigree bronzing powder Real Coat enamels from the 1930's Mountain Varnish and Paint Co.Would really like to find info on this product made in Toledo Ohio in the 1920's.Came out of an old sign kit from that era. Dupli-color touch up paint made especially for the spray gun shown last here. Hagenmann paint and bronzing powder. And last and certainly not least the Dupli-Color touch up gun. This kit contains the spray gun;the diaphragm compressor with 10mm;14mm;and 18mm adaptors to allow it to screw into a spark plug hole in your engine. You start the engine and the piston pumping up and down actuates the diaphragm.The contents of the combustion chamber are vented out of ports in the compressor! Can't wait to see what happens when a stray spark from a disconnected plug wire ignites this vaporized gasoline. A bomb waiting to explode! Alternatively you can also run the spray gun from your spare tire(adaptor included).
It is called a pounce wheel and is used not only in the sign industry but in dress making as well.In making signs the old way a pattern is drawn up on paper and then the wheel is run over the lines to perforate the paper. When the pattern is put on the job,the lines are gone over with a pounce bag;usually a sock filled with talcum powder or charcoal powder depending whether you need white or black. This transfers the pattern to the job and allows it to be duplicated exactly on both sides. On a sign this particular pounce wheel could be used to create a border of varying width or even a double stripe. These were supplanted by an electric pounce some years ago. To make a pattern with an Electro-Pounce you draw the pattern on paper as usual and then affix it to a board that has a metal surface. The board is grounded to the machine and uses a pencil like device that burns a series of holes through the paper as you trace the design much like the wheel does manually. There is a guard on the tool to prevent your fingers from sliding down and contacting the point and if you do you get a VERY strong belt of electricity. I wouldn't recommend using one if you have a pacemaker installed.
As an aside; the box art showing the guy blowing into the tube to spray paint the model airplane;even though that was from the 1960's the basic concept goes back about 10,000 years. I recall seeing pictures of cave paintings in France using this technique that were carbon dated to that era. It is the basic premise that all siphon-type spray guns work on. Blowing air across the top of a tube that is immersed in a fluid creating a low pressure area which causes the fluid to rise into the air stream. The Chinese used bamboo in this manner. Here are some more older ones shown folded in the first picture and opened for work in the second. These were very popular with photographers for re-touching or adding color to photographs they had created. The 1900 Wold airbrush I pictured earlier was used for just that;there were signs of India ink residue on the needle. EDIT: As I posted this I noticed that someone had posted before me showing a mouth airbrush in use. THANK YOU!
I just picked this up. And I am unable to find any information about it. The wheels are froze up, I'm assuming from not being cleaned well. The casing on the larger of the wheels is split so that it is not usable. Would like to find a replacement. If anyone has any info or parts of this kit, help me out......thanks
Looks similar to a Beugler. Soak it in some laquer thinner for a while, then try working the wheels. Usually does the trick. As for the broken wheel, good luck.
As Gearhead Graphics said a soak in either lacquer thinner or MEK for a couple days will do wonders. Periodically take it out and try working the wheel back and forth GENTLY to break it loose.As for the broken case;you might be able to repair it with a 2-part epoxy. Soak that one in lacquer thinner or MEK for awhile and then use compressed air to blow out the crack. If you have access to a sonic cleaner that uses mineral spirits try running it through that for awhile and the use the compressed air.Most 2 part epoxies are very solvent-resistant when set so a little paint wouldn't present a problem. Haven't seen that set before.If you ever decide to sell it let me know.
I wonder if some Easy-Off oven cleaner would free things up. I've used it in the past to soften up and remove old lettering enamel on truck doors and such to do some new lettering. Though I've seen mention that the newer formulations of Easy-Off don't pack the punch that the old stuff did... Those old airbrushes are real gems. The only thing I've got close to that is an old Paasche H that's old enough to still have the marbled pink and white plastic handle... So... you still coming down to Muncie Saturday for the free Junior Brown concert? Like I mentioned in the other thread, wear a funny hat or something so I can look for you in the crowd!
Thanks guys. I kinda thought it looked like the Buegler too. I think I'll them in some thinner for a while. I was a little afraid of the chrome flaking off the die cast wheel holder. I'll use the cracked one first as its unrepairable. I might try to make a replacement out of stainless if I have time and really wanna use it. This is a cool thread, lots of neat collections here!
The Easy-Off should work but it probably won't penetrate the insides as well as lacquer thinner or MEK. I'm not a big fan of Easy-Off anyway mainly due to it's toxicity. I have a couple of old Paasche brushes including one with an ebony handle that looks like an old Mack striper. A lot of people don't like single action brushes but I watched one guy work one at a panel jam a long time ago and he was an absolute wizard with it. When I was doing airbrush work my favorite was a cheap old Aztek that was a gift from a friend of mine.Worked great;was ambidextrous and was easy to clean. If the nozzles clogged too badly you could throw them away and buy new ones cheap. Most of the better double action brushes are really sensitive to paint consistency and are a PITA to clean. Probably will have to pass on the concert as mama isn't doing too well and I'd like to stick close to home.
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