What is a Badger PTFE needle bearing (Badger 200) NH

Hi Wilbur,

The needle bearing is inside the body of the airbrush just behind where the paint enters.  If you remove the head, you can see it from the front.  It's a tiny white thing. If it's missing, your 200 won't suck paint.  If it leaks bad, you can get pulsing.  If your nozzle, what Badger calls a tip, is damaged, the airbrush won't spray right.

Don

Don Thanks.  The brush generally sprays well so it must be in the body as you say. I thought it may be something that fell out.  I think I know what it is now.

I put my fine tip and needle back on today and felt something rough on the tip.  So I sprayed with just mineral spirits and the spray  looked right, only thing it was pulsing with pure mineral spirits on the first press down then holding it down it was a stable stream.

Thanks for the info I always appreciate your expertise.

Wilbur - The needle should just be uniformly shaped at the front end. A way to check is to hold the needle rear end with one hand, two fingers on the tip end. Gently twirl the back end, with your two fingers up front feeling the pointed end, slowly twirl and pull back on the needle.

If you feel something kind of "catching" with your two fingers, then you have a slightly bent tip, sort of like a fish hook. Easily corrected, Don's Airbrush website has detailed info. I've had it happen with two Paasche replacement needles, tip was bent rather severely, following Don's method fixed it quickly.

The tips can be bent by accidently bumping them into something while handling the AB.

Patrick