Airbrushing cocoa butter on a budget; equipment information

[Becky R]

In case there are other folks like me, just getting started with molded chocolates, (or if others want some inexpensive back up tools that actually work) I figured I'd share some feedback on equipment I've tested.

 

I have a Grex TG7 with a .7mm needle as my main brush, but quickly became frustrated with how slow it was to change colors and decided I needed more brushes to work with multiple colors.  Clearly I wasn't going to buy very many of these as they are expensive!  Happy to report that the Neoeco SJ83 Airbrush ($40 on Amazon) does a really nice job with CB with its .5mm nozzle. (it comes with a .1mm and a .2mm also but I think those are too small for this project.  For newbies, the Grex has a couple of fan nozzles for wider areas, whereas these inexpensive brushes just have round, but they are dual action so you do have air for patterns in addition to a nice even distribution of color.  Both are simple to heat with the heat gun if the CB becomes less fluid.  The only issue is it is recommended to use the included stainless steel (or plastic) cups with the Neoeco, because many reported that their main colored cups chip off at times and you certainly don't want that mixing into your CB.

 

The Vevor spray booth is very powerful and works great for chocolate molds, you'll just never fit a large cake in it.. but it is fully worth $82 to get started!  I also took a chance on their compressor - 4.8 Gallon, 900W 2.2 CFM @90PSI 70 dB Ultra Quiet Oil Free.  It has a tank, is small and is pretty quiet for under $120.  It has more power than you really need, but that's kind of comforting.  The larger tank means it doesn't come on very often.  Their chocolate warmer is inexpensive also and comes in 1-4 (maybe 6) cavities.  I'm having a little bit of difficulty keeping the temperature consistent, but will report back if I figure it out.  So far, I just use it to keep CB and airbrushes warm, as I've been working with smaller amounts of chocolate until I figure out what I'm doing.  I have the three 1/3 pan version so each compartment would hold a lot of chocolate, and you can certainly stack various containers of colors in there to maintain temperature; it's just not quite as precise as I'd like (probably user error). My bread proofer/fermenter does a nice job of keeping things warm as well and has a nice consistent temperature. 

 

My other favorite thing to use is the Oxo squeegee to scrape the molds.  Since it is silicone, it really cleans them well without feeling like you are scratching the surface.  It is also super easy to remove residual chocolate, and since it is not metal, you don't have to worry about keeping it warm during use.  The chocolate doesn't tend to cling to it at room temperature.  I just grabbed a few more so that I have a few shots before having to stop and clean any blades, as for me, trying to get the molds emptied and clean is still quite the juggling act.  I'm good at making quite the mess!

 

Hopefully this will help someone else! I'd love to hear about other tools that folks find particularly helpful.  Since this post is not just about guns/airbrushes, I hope it is appropriate to have started it as a new topic.

 

[Dark side]

Did you se your set up over the busy christmas season? Still feeling good about your equipment??