I have a Paasche VL double action airbrush and am having problems with it. It is continually leaking air through it when the air control is closed. This means that it is always spraying little drops of paint even when I am not touching the lever. This is not such a problem when I spray large areas but when I try to get in close to do camoflage or pre shading of panel lines it spatters a fair bit and I don’t get a nicely feathered edge.
I have tried tightening the packing washer and that didn’t help so does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix the thing.
Are you saying that air comes out of it all the time whether the trigger is pressed or not? Or do you mean that paint comes out of it even without the trigger being moved back?
Hey Mike, sounds like the needle is not seated fully forward in the nozzle and the air valve spring is sticking a bit in the “depressed” position. This would certainly cause this to happen. Carefull re-assembly, checking the valve and making sure the needle is fully seated should fix this I’m quessing from what I understand of his post.
That is what I was thinking along with the possibility that the trigger preset knob on top may have gotten turned which causes the needle to stay back a little, similar to what Iwata uses in the handles of some of their airbrushes.
He said that air was coming out all the time though so I thought we should get a better description from him. [;)]
The needle’s position has nothing to do with your air problem.
It sounds like the air valve is stuck. Did thinner or paint possibly get down the needle tube and make it’s way into the air valve? It sounds like that may have happened and you may need to replace the air valve assembly if cleaning it doesn’t work. It only consists of five parts, and can be seen in this photo as part numbers 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34.
It’s not that expensive of a part and sells for $5.50 from Dixie Art for example.
Do you have an airbrush shop nearby that may have the parts?
I had the same problem once, and simply disassembling the air valve, and re-assembling it solved the problem. There must have been some paint or dirt that had gotten down in the valve, not letting it shut all the way.
I have found the problem. I did what you said and pulled it apart and found that the valve washher had a crack in it. This is what was letting the air through. It had a big chunk missing from it. Thanks for the help.
