Making a POS airbrush work like a million $$s

Got a question about painting or decals? Using an air brush or rattle cans? Wanna learn how to paint flames and take a good picture of it? It's all in here.
Post Reply
User avatar
crazydave
bitPimp
Posts: 6874
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2003 9:05 am
Location: Koolsville

Making a POS airbrush work like a million $$s

Post by crazydave »

Just a disclaimer, I'm not saying Badgers or Crescendos are POSs. I really believe because they sell these in unsealed boxed, and Tower Hobbies return policies, that someone pulled the old switchoroo on me. The reasons I think somebody switched t he body on my airbrush is because it was water spotted when it was new, it has a few surface blemishes, all the brass inards were tarnished black, the tip was wanked on, paint has backed up in the trigger assembly at one time, sign of a bad needle bearing, something that has to be factory serviced, and it just never worked all that great, now that I know how it should work. It's my first airbrush, so I wasn't sure if it was just me, but now it seems obvious.

So I had wrapped the threads on the head assembly in teflon tape, and that would work, temporarly, but it was a band aid fix. I got some bees wax to seal the threads, but before I did that, I used some Wright's brass polish to clean the threads. Its amonia based, and water soluble, it should be safe around airbrushes. I polished the threads because a smoother surface has more contact area, and should seal better, but it made it so much smoother the head assembly tightened all way the down with no effort what so ever. That combined with the beeswax, fixed my back pressure issues permantly, for now.

Clint reccomended I pick up some Medea Super Lube, but before I applied that, I polished all the moving parts, even going so far as to polish the inside of the chamber where the spring rubs. I coated everything with the Super Lube, and hol-ee-crap is this thing smooth now.

So yeah, Wright's Brass Polish, beeswax, Medea Super Lube, a little TLC, and I think you could get any airbrush working awesome.
...crazy man, crazy...dig it.
crazydave's Gallery
Ratfink says: "Man, it's the craziest"
User avatar
hue35
bitPimp
Posts: 2244
Joined: Tue May 20, 2003 3:03 pm
Location: all up in ya fuckin' mind, yo.

Post by hue35 »

Nice set of tips. I know that when I dig my airbrush out again it's gonna need this treatment. I didn't know about the lube, but I know my trigger needs the shit outta that shit. It gets all sticky and pisses me off, but this sounds like it will totally solve that problem. :-o
Image
evoraptor
bitNinja
Posts: 631
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:59 pm
Location: SoCal

Post by evoraptor »

hue35 wrote:Nice set of tips. I know that when I dig my airbrush out again it's gonna need this treatment. I didn't know about the lube, but I know my trigger needs the shit outta that shit. It gets all sticky and pisses me off, but this sounds like it will totally solve that problem. :-o
Same here man, mines gotten all grimy from the years of work it's been through..
Image
User avatar
crazydave
bitPimp
Posts: 6874
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2003 9:05 am
Location: Koolsville

Post by crazydave »

The Super Lube will definately help you guys with the trigger action. Mine was sticking really bad too. After all I did all that, I sat and went through through the range of motions with the trigger to get it all worked in, it felt great, but it wasn't until it sat overnight, and the lube soaked in, that it became buttery smooth.

My wife got a hold of a Iwata manual for me, and it reccomends that after a days work you pull out the needle, clean it and recoat with the lube.

This stuff not only makes the trigger action super smooth, but it helps paint flow off the needle, and makes clean up faster. Good stuff. :-o
...crazy man, crazy...dig it.
crazydave's Gallery
Ratfink says: "Man, it's the craziest"
User avatar
Clint
bitPimp
Posts: 519
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2003 7:20 am
Location: Albany, NY
Contact:

Post by Clint »

crazydave wrote:
My wife got a hold of a Iwata manual for me, and it reccomends that after a days work you pull out the needle, clean it and recoat with the lube.

This stuff not only makes the trigger action super smooth, but it helps paint flow off the needle, and makes clean up faster. Good stuff. :-o
glad to hear you got the airbrush all sorted out. :-o

I've noticed that if you use cleaners that are specifically for airbrushes, they dont dissolve the dried super lube coating off the needle as quickly. For a while was using ammonia(windex) to clean the AB and i noticed that "bare metal on metal" feel sooner than when using airbrush cleaner(water diluted Createx). So the bottle of windex went back under the sink.

acrylics arent solvent based, so i dont even think the paint eats the lube off the needle.
User avatar
crazydave
bitPimp
Posts: 6874
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2003 9:05 am
Location: Koolsville

Post by crazydave »

Clint wrote:
crazydave wrote:
My wife got a hold of a Iwata manual for me, and it reccomends that after a days work you pull out the needle, clean it and recoat with the lube.

This stuff not only makes the trigger action super smooth, but it helps paint flow off the needle, and makes clean up faster. Good stuff. :-o
glad to hear you got the airbrush all sorted out. :-o

I've noticed that if you use cleaners that are specifically for airbrushes, they dont dissolve the dried super lube coating off the needle as quickly. For a while was using ammonia(windex) to clean the AB and i noticed that "bare metal on metal" feel sooner than when using airbrush cleaner(water diluted Createx). So the bottle of windex went back under the sink.

acrylics arent solvent based, so i dont even think the paint eats the lube off the needle.
My interpretation of a "Days work" is in a professional enviroment, like a T-Shirt shop where it be getting constant use for a day. I don't think we'd really need to clean it as often, but I figure its probably a good idea to pull the needle and clean it before your store it away.

The first cleaner I tried was Parma's airbrush cleaner. I figured since I was using their paints, and it just worked kinda ok. It seemd like it was just a mild detergent, took a lot to get everthing out. Then I tried Badger's cleaner, and it worked best for me. It seemed like a mild detergent, but I could smell the amonia in it. The Badger stuff wasn't really cheap, so I figured I'd try straight up amonia, because I could get a big jug for a $1. That worked well, but not as well as the Badger stuff. I tried Windex, and that works pretty good, and is not too expensive, so that's what I been using.

I did read on an AB forum several people reccomended a spoonful of dish detergent, with I think it was 15 parts water to one part amonia. I'm gonna try that next time.
...crazy man, crazy...dig it.
crazydave's Gallery
Ratfink says: "Man, it's the craziest"
Post Reply