Crown Caps

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

Hey all,

I ordered this very nice crown cap for my airbrush to help me get some fine camo painting done, especially on German and Italian planes, and I’m having one hell of a hard time getting this thing to work…and I mean work at all! After I get my paint ready and begin to spray, nothing happens. I tried loosining it up and that did’nt help either. What the heck am I doing wrong? [cptn]

2

Try spraying straight thinner through the airbrush, if nothing happens there is something blocking the outlet.

Any debris that contaminates the paint will find the smallest opening to cause problems. It sounds like your new spray tip is very small and will require extra care and thinner paint than normal.

  • Straight thinner can be used to quickly clean out a color before changing paints, only if you are using the same type; IE enamel or acrylic. Just be sure to disassemble the rig after your painting is done for the day & thoroughly clean.
3

Thanks, SF, I’ll give that a try today. I keep my airbrushes very clean so not thinning enough could very well be my problem. Appreciate the advice. [cptn]

4

Very strange. Your crown cap is an “external” fitting and swapping this alone shouldn’t affect any of the parts controlling the paint flow. In swapping out the caps, is it possible you have loosened the air regulator? Does the needle retract when you draw back on the trigger?

What make/model airbrush do you have?

5

The regulator seems to be ok, Phil. The needle is retracting as well. I did load up a cup with thinner only and nothing happened until I loosened up the crown cap a bit. The thinner did flow through but it seemed to be spraying much wider than I would have expected. I’m going to give it a shot tomorrow with some extremly thinned paint and see what happens. It is indeed a very strange situation. [cptn]

6

Sounds strange, butg than again not sure what brush it is.

All the ones I have seen is where the cap is separate from the needle/nozzle parts so swapping the cap should’t impact anything, as it is often done on the fly.

Only thing I can imagine without seeing the part is that the cap is part of the nozzle assembly and maybe the wrong size(thread, etc).

7

I have the Paasche VL and the Badger 155 Anthem brushes and I get the same problem with both. The cap fits well on either one. I think I may have to start trying to change psi. If that wont get it I may have to order another as some of my club members use them with good results. Thanks for the help guys. I can always go back to squinting myself into total blindness using the regular caps.

Cheers [cptn]

8

What you are calling a crown cap on the Paasche VL and Anthem is really a spray regulator, and controls the amount of air past the tip. It is supposed to match the tip and needle. If you just install a finer regulator, you are choking off the air and you won’t get any paint.

Don