Tks wingman - no o rings on the spray regulator or the head. Removed everything again and just checked. next time I use it I’m gonna thin the paint 1st and see what happens then.
To me the nozzle is the cone the paint actually flows out of, that the needle protrudes out through ( commonly called the tip). It’s a tapered fit in the 105 ( I admittely prefer screw in ones like the old style 100 or 200 have). Sometimes they can get a tiny scratch or ridge, the wax seals it. But if it’s not seating tight to begin with that’s another matter. Bees wax is awesome stuff around airbrushes ( well and toilet bowls to the out pipe lol) but go easy with pliers.
Try spraying some water or thinner and see what happens. If no bubbles, thin the paint. If it does bubble then, since it’s new, I’d send it to Badger and let them sort it out.
so i opted to send the Patriot 105 back to Badger. They replaced needle seat and cleaned it up. They said some paint had backed up to the insides - guessing when i had used it before i knew that the needle was not all the way in. Got it back a week or so ago.
ANOTHER QUESTION PLEASE - today i sprayed some badger stynylrez primer. For the 1st 10-15 seconds ok. They the primer started to bubble in the cup. I think it coincides with when the compressor kicks on - not sure. Didnt notice any dry tip. To get it going again i give full pressure and pull the trigger all the way back. Then i spray a little and more bubbles.
is there anything else to check? Badger says the primer doesnt need to be thinned and i was sure to spray it at 22 psi - although id like to use less pressure but in trying to stop the bubbles it was recommended to use a higher pressure.
The airbush was clean as new, all fittings seemed snug or tight and needle was all the way inserted.
After priming i cleaned w/ laquer thinner and sprayed some water from 22psi all the way to 8psi and no bubbling.
Any more things to check / suggestions please??? Id like to get this solved…
Thanks very much for any help.
I only thin Stynylrez a little if I want to run it through a fine needle set like my .25. I can’t help but think if you’re still getting bubbles with paint then Badger didn’t get to the heart of the problem.If you bring this back up to them they might just give you a new airbrush.
Tks for the feedback OMG. I was careful to follow the primer instructions and i used the recommended .5 needle.
Sorry about your delemma. Usally bunnle is a sign a seal is bad or not tight on the nozzle. I love Badger but maybe it is time for you to look elsehere. Maybe an Iwata cr+ would be good.
It really should shoot nice through that. Other folks here say they shoot everything they do on a model with that needle size on their 105. I use a 200 or Paasche H though personally with Stynylrez. The 200 has manageable sized screw in nozzles is why and I don’t need DA to spray primer… Course the H is external mix. My double action I keep a .3 on right now, which by the way gave me some tiny bubbles then it started pulsing it’s spray. A little smear of ChapStick ended that…
Just curious, when you started to get bubbles did you swab out the air cap with a little alcohol on a Qtip or something ? Maybe you did have a touch of tip dry, the stuff dries quick if you set your brush aside for a minute.
I did have a paper towell with some water and alcohol to wipe the tip. But the bubbles would still come and go… Afterwards, i used the same primer to test w/ a xtreme 105 patriot. But it has a smaller needle, i think .3 instead of the.5. BC of that, i thinned the primer w/ a tad of water and it worked fine in the xtreme - no bubbles.
so, just now, i went back to the 105 and sprayed some Tamiya acrlyic with some thinner. Probably a little thicker than the 2% milk thing and i put the psi to 22. No bubbles. I think bc im new at the double action, either maybe im not pressing the trigger all the way all the time to get the full pressure or maybe there is something still wrong with it - maybe whatever controls the volume of air?? As i said, the extreme works good - thats whats driving me nuts.
I don’t have a lot of airbrush experience, but it seems like tip dry to me. I spray in an unfinished mostly unconditioned basement. I say mostly because I have a hybrid hot water heater that uses a heat pump, which keeps the basement fairly cool and dry in the summer. The furnace and steam pipes keep it somewhat warm in the winter. However with the hotter weather we’ve been having in CT, it’s not that cool down there and I noticed my paint isn’t spraying the same as it was a month ago.
I was having the same problem you were with my dual action Iwata. I kept having to use a q-tip dampened with thinner to clean the tip. I’d pull the trigger back without pressing as to not release air, and insert the q-tip in the tip to clean it. The bubbles would then stop. Its the same principle as back flushing when the tip dries. You’re blocking the airflow, which forces it back into the cup.
I was using Vallejo paint btw and painting extremely close to the surface. I’ve noticed when I paint to close to the surface, I get some blow back. Sometimes the inside of the tip will be covered in whatever color I’m spraying.
It shouldn’t blow back making bubbles anyway, typically if your air is too low you will get spatter on the surface, too high you get center blow out on the surface at the given distance you spray from. Too thick you might get no flow at all . Bubbles is either restriction at the tip or air leaking by the tip seat, cracked tip etc. I mentioned before, take the tip out, wax the tapered seat and put it back together, see what happens then. Lip balm, bees ways, fly tying dubbing wax will all work. That’s what I’d do next if it were mine. If it fixes it you got a choice, keep doing that or contact Badger.
Ok, you’ve proven that your 105 works correctly under the right conditions. Accept the fact that, at least with this bottle, you’re going to need to thin your Stynylrez a little to make it work. Or maybe turn up the pressure even more. Or maybe even both.
My 105 was doing the same thing last week with Stynylrez. Maybe it was because this bottle was old. Maybe I didn’t mix it enough. I don’t know. It happens. So I went off target, pulled the needle all the way back, blew it out and kept spraying. BTW, you may find that you can pull the needle further back by grabbing the chuck nut through the cutaway in the handle and pulling back than just by pulling back the trigger. That’s why it’s there. And yes, when the compressor kicks in you may see a pressure drop. If you’re already having problems that pressure drop can make it worse. Or, maybe you were right on the edge of having a problem and the pressure drop made it show up.
So, either thin your paint or turn up the air or both. It can happen with any paint or medium but realize that water based acrylics can be problematic. Good luck.
Tks. Not sure I understand grabbing the chuck nut… Do you mean to grab and pull it then spray? Wouldn’t that be like trying to pull the tube shaft out?
Yes. Or you can grab the ball on the end of the needle. There are cutaways there too. But if by chance the needle chuck isn’t snug you could pull the needle out or back and possibly not realize it. Try pulling the trigger all the way back and then try pulling the nut on the needle chuck back and you should find that there’s still some travel. You arent going to hurt anything, everything is threaded together and that’s why it’s made that way. So you can pull back to blow out a clog. Hopefully. [;)]
You can push down for air then back all the way with the trigger and then, while holding that position, use your other hand to pull back on the knurled chuck nut or the ball on the back end of the needle.
Or, you can pull the chuck nut or needle back and then press the trigger for air.
Either way, never let go and let it snap forward. Don’t do that with the trigger either.
The article titled “Badger Patriot 105 Review” will be informative.
Tks for the tip. Unless i missed something in the article, like another link or something, it just seems to say that its a good brush and advertises the site and an airbrush holder. Not any detailed info much other than smooth trigger pull and nice paint cap, sorry to say.
tks again wingman_kz… Another follow up… So I had a chance to spray again, this time tamiya acrylic thinned - not 50/50 - but maybe 1 thinner to 3 paint. psi at 20-22. no bubbles. so maybe its just what I have to do with this brush. as mentioned the Extreme will spray the paint straight w/ no bubbling. Anyhow I guess I have a new SOP when using the 105 - THIN the paint. FWIW I have yet to try any enamels with it so no comment there.
I hate to keep harping on it but I’d still try a dab of Chapstick on the tip taper and shoot that Stynylrez straight again, see what happens. I just had a few bubble with my .3 tip in my DA which has a beat up seal on that tip, screw in tip, and that’s what I did, worked fine. Course that was just a tip change and checking with straight alcohol that it sprayed ok. There shouldn’t be bubbles imo. Just sayin.
Course it doesn’t hurt Stynylrez any to thin it a little bit but you really shouldn’t need it with a .5 on there. Anyway, I prime with my H mostly. I’ll shut up now lol !!
Whewww, I’m just glad I didn’t break this place. [;)]
I don’t know why that’s happening. I don’t thin Stynylrez either and I’ve shot it through a .3mm setup. I don’t usually but I have.
There’s a brand of airbrush that I started to try years ago but didn’t. Watching a lot of YouTube videos this spring I saw quite a few people using them and extolling their virtues. lol I’m sure you know how that works. BUT, I saw that Spraygunner both sells and supports them so I took a look. Well, wonder of wonders they happened to have a “returned” example at a significant mark down so I bought it. Still under warranty.
Looked like new when I got it. I screwed on a QD, dumped in some paint I had already thinned and, it wouldn’t spray worth a darn. Hardly at all. And I use pretty thin lacquer normally. I started to just return it but, figured I may as well tear it apart. I found some dried up flakes of black paint, I was using yellow green, in the front of the brush and the nozzle. Cleaned it out, reassembled and it sprayed pretty well at first. Then it started spitting and sputtering. I was getting tip dry from a fairly thin lacquer. Wiped it off and tried again. Same thing. Tried again but watched the spray under a magnifying glass. I could see the paint form a ring around the needle just ahead of the nozzle. Dumped the paint, pulled the needle and under the magnifier I could see a faint ring around the needle. When the needle was forward the ring was well ahead of the nozzle so I don’t know how it got there. Maybe just a manufacturing defect. I polished the needle using some fine grit sandpaper to start and progressed to polishing cloths. That cured it. Sprays like a champ now and I don’t feel like those youtubers were lying to me. Lol And yes, I’ve shot Stynylrez through it.
The bottle of Stynylrez I had trouble with last week is about 4 years old but it hadn’t been opened till this year. I’ve polished the needle in my 105. That’s standard practice for me. I don’t know why it started acting up but I did have tip dry, you could see it. Maybe it’s shelf life expired, I don’t know.
I polish my airbush needles too, smooth is a good thing.
Stynylrez if it’s sat around likes a good stirring with a stick even if you don’t see it through the bottle. Then shake it up good.