Ab and paint Qs

one, how do you know when a paint is to old and should be tossed. (enamel) I have a bottle of testors panzer gray, the paint at the bottom just wont thin, I have the bottle full of thinner, I shake I stir, I mix, it just doesnt disolve.   how can I fix? im using mineral spirits

Unadulterated paint should last for years - I have some which are 25+ years old (Testors "square jar") Only take out as much as you need and thin it outside the jar - never return unused thinned paint to the jar unless you plan to use the entire jar in a short period - no more than 2 weeks. If you do return unused thinned paint to the jar, then all bets are off.

I acidentally tried to thin enamel paint with water (thought it was acrylic, I accidentally put it in my acrylic drawer) how can I fix it, or is it just trash now?

Junk it.

I have a prob with my AB, sometimes it wont come out, even after a cleaning, so I do like the manual says, cover the nozel with my finger or a towel and spray so it cleans out the tube to the bottle, but sometimes when I do that, the paint or thinner, whatever im using, comes out the front like out of a faucet, even when im not holding the button...  Whats the issue?

If I recall correctly, you have a single-action brush (Badger 200?). In a single action brush, the nozzle is pre-set to a particular paint flow. So even if you don't press the trigger, the nozzle is, technically, open. If you tilt your brush "head down", you may experience some seepage of paint from the tip.  

the paint or thinner, whatever im using, comes out the front like out of a faucet, even when im not holding the button...  Whats the issue?

It's because you've pressurized the bottle...  You using an external-mix? Try raising and lowering the siphon tip... Another problem is too thick of a mix, and also a chunk of shcmutz gettin' sucked into the siphon tube..

smeagol the vile wrote:

I have a prob with my AB, sometimes it wont come out, even after a cleaning, so I do like the manual says, cover the nozel with my finger or a towel and spray so it cleans out the tube to the bottle, but sometimes when I do that, the paint or thinner, whatever im using, comes out the front like out of a faucet, even when im not holding the button...  Whats the issue? (I have so many AB problems, its why I never finish anything)

Steven, your question had been answered by many on this forum many times before. You just need to go back and read those answers.

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What airbrush are you using?  Never mind...Badger 200, I see...

K... Thinner will ALWAYS atomize in your airbrush... Because it's well, thinner than paint.. Anytime you add paint, you're making it, well, thicker... You probably won't like my answer, but some airbrushes aren't worthe sh*t with soem kinds of paint... It may work well for enamels and laquers, and absolutely suck at acrilics, especially mixed with water... Try using alcohol instead of water for acrilycs... Or if you MUST use water, add some dish soap to the water for a wetting agent... Oh hell, forgot the obvoius answer... If the paint and the water separate?  You not using water-soluable paint!  If the water's on the bottom and the paint's on the top. you've just mixed enamel & with water... It's petroleum-based paint and water, man... Like water & gasoline, they don't mix...

And you never said if you're straining your paint mix either... Are you mixing it in the bottle? (don't) Or are you mixing it, checking the viscosity by drip-test, then pour the mix through a paint-strainer into your (clean) airbrush bottle? (do)

I have a prob with my AB, sometimes it wont come out, even after a cleaning, so I do like the manual says, cover the nozel with my finger or a towel and spray so it cleans out the tube to the bottle, but sometimes when I do that, the paint or thinner, whatever im using, comes out the front like out of a faucet, even when im not holding the button...  Whats the issue?

and

it would burst a bit then go to a TINY spray for a bit then a burst, then tiny spray, sort of like it was sputtering.

Check that the breather hole in the paint jar cap isn't blocked. Both of these issues may be related and can be caused by a blocked breather.

Also, if you have used both acrylics and enamels in your brush, cleaning with mineral spirits alone may not be enough, as many acrylics are unaffected by minral spirits. IF you have used acylics in yout brush, run some Windex (with ammonia) through your brush and rinse with clean water.

Thanks, let me clarify a bit more.  I dont spray my Acrylics, I use them for handbrushing (they just work so much easier)  I only spray enamel through.

As well as giving it a spirits bath I took a Qtip to it and cleaned every inch of the thing out, gave it a bath, then cleaned it again with a needle.  (none of the Qtip cotton got inside of it, I didnt stick the Qtip inside of it far at all, that was what the needle was for)  Every bit of it has been cleaned and cleaned again but it still wont spray the paint well.  Im using some dark gray I just got today, I thinned it as much as the bottle would hold, and it still wont come out well.

As far as the red hans, I had the red in my acrylic drawer, it was enamel, so I thinned it with water on accident, its fine now.

 right now, just as a test, since I got two bottles of the gray, im puttng them both into a larger bottle and thinning them as much as I can to see if that works

Get a bottle of Testor's Liquid Cement, Smeagol... Clean your  METAL  parts in that stuff rather than mineral spirits.. It'll strip anything you ran though it, even if it's rock-hard..

Also, Q-tips have a nasty habit of leaving threads inside your nozzels...

And you still didn't answer me.. Are you straining you paint before you pour it?

I dont know what you mean by straining.

I did what I said I was going to, I put it into a bigger bottle and thinned it alot, its working perfectly fine.

Hans von Hammer wrote:

I give up...

It may be interesting for you to read this other post on compressor that Steven Wallace (smeagol the vile) initiated last year. It was very interesting to see how he connected his compressor to the hose in his pictures posted on July 26, 2008.