Hey! What about the land up over?
Tube used for other purposes? The mind boggles. The only thing that comes to mind is crack pipe, which is a pretty bizarre thing to use an airbrush for. Mind you, crack is pretty bizarre.
Airbrushes are actually pretty simple things, and if you can't get it to work properly, just send the whole thing back to Badger. They will assess the damages, rebuild the brush and give it a factory fresh tuneup. The cost would likely be minimal, and probably well worth it.
Have you replaced the head washer P/N 50-055 or the needle bearing P/N 50-046? The needle bearing is best installed by the factory.
The toilet was a mistake. I had used that image in another forums posting and it was still on my clipboard when I went to paste the parts list in. I don't know why it created the double post I edited the link right away. Now I'm trying to delete the post!