Rajala

No, I didn't. I never do that. Maybe I should try that a bit. I have one, guess I'm a bit lazy, huh?

I've had it happened with other moulds as well, but not this much - so it's possible that this one is more prone to have this happen - as we've discussed.

No, it gets between the moulded shell and the mould when capping. Look at the picture, you'll understand what I mean. When the shell including the coloured cocoa butter together contracts, there's a tiny tiny amount of room between the shell and the mould, allowing some chocolate to slip in.

I have it standing on some styrofoam at the moment, but I don't believe that it's enough. I should probably, as you suggest, put it on a chair or so as well. I have thought about asking him next time i run in to him, but I hardly ever see him. I can hear him play his guitar occasionally though. But as long as I do this lifting thing, I couldn't be bothered to go knock on his door - he might hear a sound for around a minute maybe four five times over ten minutes(?). I've been using it once a week since I bought it, so it's not like I'm spraying 50 moulds at 11pm on a Tuesday evening.

I have no idea how much he can hear it. I actually do it like this at the moment; lift it up - start it. Put it down when it's filled and unplug. Then spray a layer and start it up again holding it in the air, to refill the tank. It's like 56 dB or so, so it's not super noisy, but the vibrations is probably a problem.

Yeah, it's a demisphere. When you mention it, I never had as much chocolate showing on the edge as with this one. I thought it might've been that I scraped some of etc, but it doesn't seem to be the case - and the suggestion I got was that small amount of chocolate manages to get between the mould and the chocolate shell. It kind of make sense, and if you look at the picture below (right side), you can actually see that there's a small layer of chocolate on the edge of the shell. It wasn't dislodged easier than usual this time, but I've had times where the shell moves around when capping.

So I've been trying a bit with spraying my moulds and an issue I have, that isn't related to the mould spraying itself, is that when the shell contracts from the mould, I get chocolate over my cocoa butter when I cap my bonbons. Any suggestions how to avoid this? I got the suggestion to cap earlier, before the chocolate contracts too much - but when would that happen? What's your experience with this? See the image, this is what I'm talking about, around the edge of the bonbon.

Ah, I was in a rush. Forgot to mention that I live in an apartment, I'm thinking that my neighbour below me don't want to hear a vibrating sound all the time. But with the 1 gallon tank, I think that would be enough without going below the wanted pressure - since you need to wait short moments for the layers to dry.

After getting a compressor which seems to be made for a spike gun (you're welcome to correct me, it's probably called something else), I would argue that one of the most important thing except the noise it makes, is the tank volume. You can follow my old posts and see that I write that it's no problem if you need to wait a little bit etc. But truth be told, you don't want to wait and you don't really want the compressor to start working when you've sprayed for a few seconds. If you're super patience, sure go ahead and get something small, but if I upgrade in the future I will go for something with a big tank. The 1 gallon I have today should be at least 2, maybe even 3 or 4. But I wouldn't really need that unless I start some kind of production. However, the 1 gallon tank is a waiting game even when spraying a single mould. Just so you know. Based on your budget, however, I would follow Kerry's suggestions.

Okay, thanks. Need to learn how fast each layer set I guess. I did four layers the other day, but still not a solid color (used titanium dioxide and moulded with milk chocolate -- so white). Maybe I should spray closer to the mould when I'm using 30 PSI? Have to experiment a bit during the weekend.

How are you guys spraying your moulds? Do you just "blast" your mould in one go? Or do you spray a nice layer, let it dry and do that until you have enough butter in the mould?

I'm a beginner, but can chime in with the group; I've read from pro's that you should never clean it with water. Warm it up before next use and spray the old color out.

So, I sprayed a little petit gateau I made with a 50/50 mix of cocoa butter and white chocolate, with a HVLP gun at 0.8mm nozzle, and had NO issues at all with that. Just for future reference. I even did it below 30 PSI, maybe 25-ish? Here's the result;

They look amazing! Is it the color of the chocolate that you see as well? The darker parts.

Small update: spraying at 60 psi, at least with a HVLP gun is crazy. Way too much for my kitchen. I tried to cover up my countertop with plastic and more, but that cloud of cocoa butter just got everywhere. Good thing I wore mouth/nose protector so I didn't breath the cocoa butter. I just ordered an airbrush, I think that will be enough for me - but we'll see. Again, thanks for all the help guys.

I ended up buying a pretty cheap compressor. 1HP. 4 liters tank. The tank could've been a little bit larger, can't do 60 fps for very long, but I'll manage. It was kind of "cheap" at $150. It even came with a nail gun, not sure what to do with that, except nailing stuff? I do need to pick up a moisture separator for it, which I'll do tomorrow and try spraying my first mold after that. Can't wait to see how much I'll mess up my kitchen. Maybe my dog will turn red as well?

I hear you. Don't really need that much output though. But I might buy a Bosch paint gun just for this, anyway. We used one at a course I attended.

@Jim D. Thanks. I actually looked at the Fuji earlier, more out of curiosity than wanting to buy. I don't really understand them, seems to be a whole different kind of compressor? This is the plan for me now; I'm going to buy a cheap air compressor this weekend, see if it's enough and if not return it for something like we've discussed. I just want to get started with this I found what seems to be pretty much the CA Air in Sweden, but it's so much more expensive here. Maybe I can find something similar in Germany, as mentioned earlier. We'll see!

You could say that I'm "mechanically challenged," as well. No problems with computers etc, but these things? My dad would look weirdly at me if I asked him about this. I'm starting to change my mind, as in the last post. I think I'll go for one of these - at least something similar, that I can find in Sweden or from Amazon Germany etc. I guess the most important thing isn't the max PSI, but that it can hold around 60 psi for at least a couple of seconds, before it needs to recharge. Can yours do that? Overall, how satisfied are you with your compressor? Does it feel like you got what you need? Does it ever feel like you would need something more? I guess the spray gun / airbrush is a totally different thing, but I know that I'll go for something mid range at first for that. I sent an email to a couple of Swedish vendors (probably rebranded Chinese products), stating that I needed 60 PSI for 5-10 seconds (might be too much? Not sure), and that it should be able to give me that to a spray gun/airbrush with a 0.8mm nozzle. Oh, and before I forget. I'm happy to get a copy of that scheme on how to connect the moisture trap etc.

Oops, I wrote a looong reply and I accidentally reloaded the page. https://www.amazon.com/California-Air-Tools-CAT-4620AC-Compressor/dp/B005SOD08M - Is this the compressor you've got? It's not THAT big, but a little bit too big for my taste. The 1 HP looks acceptable to me. I could just make space for it somewhere I guess. The price for this unit is totally within my budget though. https://www.amazon.com/California-Air-Tools-2010A-2-0-Gallon/dp/B00TDNKBMC/ - Do you know if this is the 1 HP you were supposed to buy? Price wise it's really good, not sure why the two models with less hp's are more expensive? I probably misunderstand something here. All in all, it seems like a compressor which is more "industrial" is the way to go. You get more "bang for the buck". Do you happen to know why these compressors which seems to be suited for paint spraying models are more expensive, but offers less power? I would guess that they're more designed for precision than the CA Air Tools ones? Maybe I'm wrong, you might know - you seem to have really done your homework here. I'm truly grateful for your replies, I'm so lost at the moment. Thanks!

It's about money, of course. But it's also about space and sound. I'm not sure what to do. In regards to 60PSI. I can probably find a compressor which is not that more expensive, but it would be so much larger and I live in a one room apartment. I guess that I would have to mount a moisture separator manually etc if that's the case though. But maybe I'm wrong? You're saying that I can get something much better for not that much more money, do you have any suggestions? I'm not sure what to do, as I wrote above. I'm going to restate what I wrote earlier; it will be maybe 2 molds each time, maximum. Most of the time probably just one. But I do think as you write, in regards to that it might increase if it turns to a small extra job or something like that. What I also think is that it would be nice to have a machine that I can use for both cocoa butter for my molds, and one that can manage to spray cocoa butter over my frozen entremet. From what most people say; it seems like a cheap one will do. I might get a bit frustrated over that the spray is kind of weak. I should go with at least 0.5mm in nozzle width. For a lower viscosity liquid, like a cocoa butter and chocolate mix - I should probably have a bit more, maybe 0.8mm. I know for sure that the one that pastrygirl have, can manage the velvet "spray" as well, with a 0.8 nozzle. I think I should look at what a bigger and stronger one would cost me, and see if the difference is too much or not - and see if I have space for it as well. Any other suggestions are welcome, and thanks for taking the time to reply.

@leopardotsHow has the Sparmax been working for you? For everyone else who might read; I'm currently looking to get a compressor and some kind of paint gun / airbrush. However, I'm not sure exactly what to get. So far, by reading this thread, it seems like I should use a .5 mm nozzle for cocoa butter. However, will this be able to handle something with higher viscosity, like a mixture och chocolate and cocoa butter for spraying froze mousse to get the velvet effect? Or would I need a wider nozzle for that? I also read some comments that I need 60 PSI to get the high gloss shine on my chocolate bonbons. Is this totally true? Will it be dull and lifeless(lol), if I'm working at 40 PSI? There are lots of compressor claiming 60 PSI, however, they won't last long at all at that number. One thing to note is; I'm doing this as a hobby. I will not spray more than 2-4 moulds at a time. So it doesn't have to be a crazy expensive compressor just to be able to spray 15 of them in a couple of minutes. I've been looking at https://www.air-craft.net/acatalog/Sparmax-TC-610H-Airbrush-Compressor.html#SID=2025 and think that I will get it, but some input from you guys regarding nozzle width, PSI and shine would be really helpful. @pastrygirl How has the compressor you bought from Amazon been working for you? Have you bought something new or are you still working with it?