Hey guys. In the course of probably about a day, I’ve managed to render 2 of my airbrushes useless. First, and the one i’m most cheesed off about is my Paasche VL. One day it sprayed fine, the next day it hardly sucks any paint up the siphon tube. It won’t even spray water. Now, I replaced the whole air valve assembly, the teflon packing washer. This was pretty pricey. I sprayed my Corsair a few nights ago, running thinner through after each shade of blue. It seemed like it needed a lot of air pressure to move the paint. Now I can’t get it to blow water below 15psi. I thought maybe I had an air leak towards the front, so I put some teflon tape on the threads. Nothing. Any ideas?
And my second airbrush is a Badger 200 (I believe. It was a gift from a friend, no box just in a small tackle box). I’ve had some issues with it before. I thought it was because I had the hose too tight (go figure) and loosening the hose helped, but now it seems there’s a block in the valve unit because only a small amount of air comes out.
Thanks for any advice guys. I’m sure scratching my head…
Odds are they are both just dirty. I know, you cleaned them, but paint gets in places and dries before you know it. Personally I’d disassemble them both and soak all the metal parts (all of the Badger 200 EXCEPT the air valve, I don’t know about the Paasche) in lacquer thinner overnight. You’ll be surprised how much paint you didn’t get out.
As to the Badger air valve, odds are soaking the body in lacquer thinner will clear it. There is an air passage bored through the body that allows air to flow from the valve to the tip. Sometimes paint will manage to get in there and plug it. If not, remove the air valve from the body (it unscrews), use a hex wrench of the appropriate size to unscrew the bottom of the valve (where the hose screws on). Carefully remove the cap, spring, and plunger from the valve body. There is a captive o-ring on the plunger. Clean everything EXCEPT that o-ring with lacquer thinner. For the o-ring and plunger just use some alcohol on a Q-Tip. I usually put a tiny bit of airbrush lube or Vaseline on the o-ring, reassemble the valve, and it will be good to go for a while.
If that doesn’t fix the problem with both of them you’ve most likely got an air supply problem.