I am using the above airbrush and when painting (or even with just water in the cup) when actioning the paint flow process on the brush I get air bubbles in the cup. It is simply driving me crazy and just cannot figure it out.
Problem I normally have:
I have never seem to have been able to get the paint to follow smoothly when doing fine work, it seems to come through ok at first, then stop and I have to stab the air through the gun (if that makes sense) to clear and it will flow again for about 2 seconds OK. First I thought it was the paint, so bought new and my supplier advised should not need thinning.
Any advice would be great, thinking of getting a new brush but guts me as I have not used the Iwata Eclipse much and they cost so much.
The bubbles in the cup are from air getting into the nozzle & back flowing to the cup - it will either be from a damaged / fractured tip or from a poor seal between the rear conical section of the nozzle & it’s corresponding seat. Inspect the nozzle for tip damage, check that there isn’t any damage / marking or paint debris between the rear of the nozzle & it’s corresponding seat.
The second issue you describe certainly sounds like tip dry, you can try thinning / increasing your thinning ratio & if you don’t have any luck you could try a flow improver or retarder.
I don’t have this airbrush, but i’ve encountered this problem with my Badger 100LG. For me, i needed to replace the Teflon washer which sits behind the head assembly.
From reviewing a parts breakdown here, i suspect you should try first replacing part 5 - the Head Cap/Handle “O” ring.
If that doesn’t do the trick, then like Malairjunkie said, work back from the Nozzle Cap and the Head Cap then nozzle.
With regard to paint - no matter what anybody tells you about paint being a/b ready and not needing thinning, you may still want/need to thin. I’ve tried “a/b ready” paints too, but i’ve still had to thin them for my purposes.
Air is not exiting the tip and is back flowing into the cup. This happens when the nozzle and needle tip are clogged with dried paint. Always thin the paint at least somewhat, regardless of what directions say. At least experiment first and find out what thinning ratios work best for you.
I found this thread searching for why my Iwata Eclipse is bubbling in the paint cup.
My airbrush was fine. Then I replaced the needle and seat with the .5mm set and now I get bubbles in the cup. Brand new parts so I don’t know how they would be clogged with paint, or damaged. I put them in and the problem occured right away.
The bubbling happens at a very specific time. Maybe this will help.
If I push the trigger for air, no bubbles.
If I am pushing the trigger and pull it back for full paint release, no bubbles.
The bubbles are worst right as you are pulling the trigger back, and when you are spraying with the trigger not pulled back very far.
Sorry I cannot help really, the 2 guns I had just kept getting worse and worse but they were about 20 years old so I just decided to putchase new. This solve all my problems and painting was much easier again now. Sometimes I think they just get old and need to be replace simple as.
Bees wax the nozzle tip where it mates to the body then assmble it. If the bubbles are gone, the seating area of the tip is either machined a bit off, nicked/damaged or simply not tightened down enough. Slip in tapered seat tips are great until they aren’t lol !But the bees wax or chapstick etc will usually seat one that isn’t seating quite right. And if thats the case then request a replacement for that .5…
I’ve also heard of even brand new ones being cracked.
You’re getting tip dry on this start stop issue… Keep a Qtip and thinner handy and swab out the tip now and then.
I shoot a lot of acrylics which are probably the worst offender of tip dry. My answer to this is Liquitex retarder put right into my thinner,also a little flow aid, then when I thin there is no guessing did I use retarder or how much. That virtually ended my tip dry issues and helps flow a bit too, both through the airbrush and flow out on the model…
I bought another .5mm needle and seat and my airbrush is working fine now.
It is strange to have a needle and seat that are bad right out of the package. But I have returned them and I am working with a .5mm setup now.
I started another thread. I am looking for an airbrush with an even bigger needle for the metal flake paintjobs I do. I use lowrider paint and it clogs the airbrush when I am using the .35mm needle. It seems to work ok with the .5mm needle. But I think I want to go up another step just to make sure.
And once I have a large needle airbrush I can revert this Eclipse back to the .35mm needle for other paints.