I just attached my new compressor to my aztek a270 (all i’ve used before is the compessed air bottle that came with it) Anyways, The air flows fine out of that part, so I know its not the compressor, but no paint (or in this case water, which i use to test) comes from the tip! I thought maybe it was clogged, even though I take good care of them, so I tried the other 2 tips, and still nothing. Its got a bottom fed container. It worked before when I used it, and I dont think i’m doing anything diferently. Am i doing something worng, or is something messed up? Thanks in advance, Ian
The pressure may set to high. Most AB’s use 15-30 psi’s. You didn’t state a pressure, so try playing in between those numbers
Hi Ian
Does the air compressor have a regulator on it? I use a co2 cylinder with a regulator so I do not know if compressors come with regulators or not. I assume they do. My point is that when I bought my airbrush a month ago I had the same problem. I used water to test mine also and air would come out the end but no water would come out. I even changed to a smaller needle but that did not help either. Then I looked at the regulator and noticed I had set the air pressure to twenty five kPa(about four psi!) instead of twenty five psi!!! [:I] Whoooppppsss!!! After reseting the pressure every thing worked great! My sig explains my problem!!
Probably not the answer to your problem, but worth a try!
Chris
I tried that too, adjusting pressure from very low to very high as I sprayed and no difference. It seems like its not making any suction, because the water isnt even making it out of the tube from the container jar, even though its clean and unblocked.
I’ve had bad experiences with aztek siphon airbrushes sparying acrylic paint. What brand of paint are you using?
Model Master Enamels. But I dont think its the paint, because it wont even spray water when I try it.
Plain water is actually pretty high viscosity compared to well-thinned alcohol or spirit-based paint. Try turpentine instead. The A270 has more problems than any other airbrush I’ve seen. Try both nozzle positions, and this is a stupid question but be sure you have the nozzle screwed open far enough. Open it until paint comes out. Being an external mix airbrush it may be hard to get started, try twisting the cup so it won’t spill and turning the airbrush on its side so gravity can help get the paint moving.
I would also recommend you switch to Tamiya acrylic until you’re ready to buy an “expensive” airbrush, because most enamels do not spray well through plastic airbrushes. acrylics are in essence liquid plastic themselves, so they work better. Enamels can do very well in a good airbrush, and their colorfastness in definitely superior. But they just don’t seem to want to spray from a plastic airbrush.
Also the PSI shouldn’t be an issue, with my Badger 100 I spray from 3 or 4 PSI all the way up to 80 or 90 sometimes.
I just read in your other thread that you are able to use the color cup successfully, but not the paint jars.
Time for a simple experiment. Unscrew the paint jar from the cap, fill the jar with water and place it on the bench. Place the end of the dip tube just below the surface of the water in the jar and try spraying.
IF this works, it suggests a couple of possible problems.
- The dip tube may be a touch too long and might be sealing against the bottom of the jar
- The cap for the paint jar should have a breather hole, which may have been blocked by dried paint. If this is the case, you would get a small amount of spray, then you would have a “vacuum lock” inside the jar, preventing the airbrush from picking up any fluid.
Great replies guy, Ill give them a try. To hermes miniatures, you said something about try both nosel positions? what are the two different positions? Ive tried rotating it open wider and smaller as i go, if thats what you mean. Thanks, Ian
Sorry, it’s another AzteK airbrush that has two clip-in positions for the nozzle, I must have been thinking of the wrong one. The A270 does have only one. Also the Aztek siphon bottles are pretty poor quality, sometimes they leak air between the plastic top and the siphon tube, preventing any paint from flowing. If you need to use some sort of bottom-feed system as opposed to the gravity-feed color cup, I’d recommend a cup like this:
The only time you need a real siphon cup is with fast-separating metallizer type paint. This type of cup is sort of a cross between gravity and siphon feed, and works great. Best of all its under $5 and should fit very well on the A270.