help with Badger 200 please

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

Dear all,

I’m having some periodic problems with my Badger 200. Once in a while the paint will refuse to shoot up the container tube and into the air mix, hence nothing comes out when I try to spray. I’ve checked the paint tube and container cap, they’re not clogged. I tried cleaning the airbrush with lacquer thinner to no avail. Interestingly enough, when i put the airbrush under running water, and have the paint input nozzle (where the paint tube is inserted into) facing skyward, water would have no problem running through the inside of the brush and sprays out properly. It’s only when I use the paint container it doesn’t work. Strangely, this problem mysteriously goes away after a couple of days, until it mysteriously comes back again.

I am so tempted to just replace this with a gravity feed airbrush. Am I doing anything wrong?

Thank you

Terry

2

Terry, try to shoot plain water through the brush with the needle wide open. If water comes through, thin the paint more. If water doesn’t come through, check the needle for binding. If no needle binding is present, then the air valve may be stopped up due to the o ring being swollen. Hope this helps.

3

Thank you H3nav. i figured it out. after disassembly the airbrush and soaking it in lacquer thinner, now it sprays water and gunze acrylic just fine. it still wont spray model master acrylic “aluminum silver”, but i guess it’s just incompatibility between that paint and badger 200. i’ll just use something else instead.

4

Thats an interesting problem which I have never come across?

5

Terry, I’ve sprayed various metalics through my 200 without any problems.

Sound like you might need to thin the MM aluminium a little more.

The 200 is a good AB, worth persevering with.

Karl

6

Just trying to help out:

Could it be that the tube in the paint container is just a little too long, so it might ‘suck’ itself on the glass, not letting any paint run through?
I know someone with a 200, and he has been cutting tubes often in the beginning, until he had ‘discovered’ the right length.

I’d say: If you would want to swap it with my Badger 350 (external, single action), just say it! [:D]
Frankly: you don’t want to get rid of you 200… really, you don’t. Keep practising or contact the “Badger Company”

7

Actually, the best thing to do is cut the end of the tube at an angle so that it can siphon paint even if it touches the bottom of the jar.

Mike

8

I know this topic is somewhat old now but I couldn’t resist a reply. The quality of your models look great Lofty and if you painted these with the 200 I don’t see why you need to change. However don’t you get frustrated mixing such large paint volumes to use the jars? And what about the cleaning? The best $25 I spent recently was on the 1/4 Oz sidecup for my 200 and I won’t be going back in a hurry! You also benefit from slight gravity feed effect especially when the cup is full.