NOT AGAIN!

Ben - Badger makes a little tool called a three cornered reamer or some such..  it's used to insert into the tip from the back end, then use it to unscrew the tip from the head assembly.

Take a look at this picture (if this works..)

http://www.dixieart.com/150sch.jpg

It's from www.dixieart.com (thought I better say where I got it..) -

The little tips you are talking about are the 50-0391, 50-0392, and 50-0393, depending on if you want the fine, medium, or large tip.  If I was you, I'd go ahead and pop for a new needle, too, to get a fresh start on things.  

I've read somewhere that you use a little beeswax on the threads of the tip when you put it back in (use the reamer to GENTLY screw it into place), and then hold a match under the tip to melt the wax and seal the threads.  

Or, you could pick up the whole head/tip assembly (50-0381, 50-0382, or 50-0383) and avoid having to screw in / out the little bitty fragile tip.  

Hope this helps!  

 Darn- mozilla wouldn't let me cut & paste the picture, but if you were to just go to www.dixieart.com, click on "airbrush home", then "badger main", then the 100 series, then the "click here for parts" - you'll find the picture.  

Dude, read my post from yesterday.  Also, and not making a joke, read the instructions that came with the airbrush.  Badger makes a pretty straight forward airbrush.  I will admit that an illustration brush is more delicate than a cone tip, i.e., Badger Anthem, but it is managable.  Unless you have to replace a tip, which you do now, you should not remove the tip for general cleaning.  Your best bet at this time is to buy the head assembly and not try to assemble one.  If you replace the tip on the head that you already have, you have to wax the tip in place with beeswax.  By the time you buy the reamer, tip, and beeswax, you've spent around twelve bucks.  Spend the extra three bucks and save yourself the headache. Go to your LHS and buy part 50-0162 medium head assembly.  While you are there, buy three medium needles, teflon head seals, and a couple of air valve seals.  A needle return spring wouldn't hurt either.  Many airbrushers keep a small arsenal of spare parts for times like this.  Good luck.

E

Well, Ben, I tried to get you to buy a single action. BTW the one I was trying to get you to buy has the same tip, so it wouldn't be any different.

I also advised you not to use pliers, remember this?:

Bgrigg wrote:

Don't worry about taking your airbrush apart, but be very careful about using pliers! They are a no-no and will crush things quite nicely (<---- voice of experience, I know how to replace the tube shank! ). Just take it easy. It's better to do it when it's still new, than full of paint and crud! There's no good reason to take apart the air valve, other than removing it from the body. It's all pretty easy. JUST DON'T USE PLIERS! And keep asking questions!

Sorry to hear that you're learning the hard way! 

If you bought the entire head assembly, you only need the small wrench that should have been supplied with the AB. Careful! this is where people lose the head washer, as it's small and can bounce REALLY far away. Ask me how I know!

Just take it slow and easy, and you'll get the hang of it.

ben1227 wrote:

OHH MY GOSH! I wouldn't have had to order this whole new head assembly if someone would have told me I could have used this wrench! I thought I needed some special reamer to remove the head assembly, but I used pliers (and broke it) remember? I should have known that wrench would fit that perfectly...

You would have had to remove the head assembly in order to remove the tip with the reamer.  The detailed instructions on how it's done is in the manual.  Also, be sure to check inside the body down the needle path and make sure the needle bearing is still there.  If not, you'll have to send it to Badger for a replacement bearing.  In the future, use the MikeV cleaning regimen, you won't regret it. By the way, if you don't mind telling, how old are you? 

E

OK, I guess my article needs to be reposted here.

Cleaning a gravity-feed airbrush

I like to spray out the airbrush at higher pressures and use 50 psi myself, but if your compressor only puts out 20-30 psi then just use as much pressure as you can.

Dump the excess paint out and wipe the cup with a paper towel or rag.

Fill the cup about ½-¾ of the way with cleaner and then take an old paintbrush and wipe around inside the cup and down in the bottom of the cup around the needle with it to break loose the paint particles. Just dab it into the needle area in the bottom of the cup and it cleans very well.

I like a flat paintbrush about 3/8” wide, but you can use what you want. Just make sure the paintbrush is not one of those real cheap ones that the hairs fall out of, as you don’t want the hair getting into the airbrush and possibly causing problems down the road. 

After that, spray the cleaner out of the airbrush.

You can now look into the cup to see how well you cleaned it.

If you see paint particles around the needle and bottom of the cup still, then add a few drops of cleaner to the cup and dab the paintbrush into that area to break it loose, and fill the cup up about ½ way again with cleaner, wipe around in the cup with the paintbrush again and spray that out.

Wipe the inside of the cup with a soft rag or paper towel to clean any paint on the sides of the cup that may still be there. An old cotton T-shirt works good for this.

If you still see any residual paint particles, then once again dab the paintbrush around inside the cup with a few drops of cleaner in the bottom of the cup.

Fill the cup halfway with cleaner once more and hold a rag over the end of the airbrush to stop air from coming out of the tip. Push down on the trigger and pull back slowly and you will bubbles in the color cup as you are back flushing the airbrush. If you use high pressures to clean like I do then be careful doing this because if you have lacquer or other toxic cleaners in the cup and you pull the trigger back too far, it can shoot the cleaner up out of the cup and possibly into your eyes. That is why I say to pull the trigger back slowly until you get a pretty good amount of bubbles coming back into the cup. Do this for maybe 5 seconds or so and then look to see if any paint particles have appeared in the cup. Sometimes you will see paint particles, and sometimes you don’t, but I mention this just to let you see that back flushing can clean areas that just spraying out the airbrush can sometimes miss.

If there were very little paint particles in the cup from back flushing, then spray that cleaner out, fill the cup about ¼ way once more with cleaner and spray that out.

Now fill the cup ¾ of the way with filtered or distilled water and spray that all out.

You can fill it about ½ way once more if you like and spray that out also.

Some people like to then just spray air through the airbrush for several seconds to dry out the insides, but that is up to you. Sometimes I do it and sometimes I don’t.

Now wipe the inside of the cup out with a rag, wipe any paint off the outside of the airbrush and you are done.

About every 3 or 4 times of using the airbrush I will take the needle out after cleaning the airbrush and wipe it off with a rag with some thinner on it to get any paint that may have not gotten cleaned quite well enough in previous cleanings. I then apply Badger Needle Juice or Medea Super Lube to the needle to help eliminate tip dry and keep paint from adhering to the needle. I also like a drop on the trigger to make it smoother as well as putting a drop on my finger and rubbing it around inside the color cup to make paint removal easier when cleaning.

These two products do not affect paint at all and are safe with enamels, lacquers, acrylics, and urethanes.

Every airbrush expert I know does not recommend disassembly to clean it each time and I agree.

Disassembling the airbrush each time is not necessary and I don’t personally recommend it because the potential of damaging the needle, tip, needle bearing, and other parts increases each time you take it apart. Some people feel it is better to take it apart each time and give it a thorough cleaning, and you have to make that decision yourself.

I hope this is helpful

Mike

ben1227 wrote:

Thanks Mike, although it seems I have to dissassemble my brush after each time I use acryls because paint gets stuck all over the needle and floods the airbrush. I use Badger's Regdab. I'm finding this to be more trouble than its worth... Even better, I think I lost the Needle Bearing, or whatever that part is called that only Badger can replace. Is that part something that can be dissolved by thinner? It seems it just disappeared...

You can't lose the needle bearing as it is press fitted into the body of the airbrush with a special tool. It is also made out of FTPE (Teflon) and is not affected by even lacquer thinner.  

I looked at the 100LG parts diagram...

And the diagram doesnt show where the needle bearing fits into the airbrush, so I don't know if I lost it yet. So it can't be dissolved, but it could've fallen out?

The needle bearing is pressed deep inside the body of the airbrush, and I have a hard time believing it could "fall" out. An item that is pressed in, usually required pressing to get it back out! You probably wouldn't be able to see it by looking down the whole, at least I can't. Take the head assembly off the airbrush (for Heaven's sake pull the needle first and use the wrench!) and be careful you don't lose the head washer (50-055)! Now carefully place the blunt end of the needle back into the hole. It should fit snugly into the hole without moving around. If it does that, then the needle bearing is in place. Since your airbrush is almost brand new it should be fine.

I don't know what is causing your problem with acrylic paints, but I suspect it's how you're using them, as opposed to a malfunction of the airbrush. They're actually very simple devices. Ingenius maybe, but simple. 

Bgrigg wrote:

The needle bearing is pressed deep inside the body of the airbrush, and I have a hard time believing it could "fall" out. An item that is pressed in, usually required pressing to get it back out! You probably wouldn't be able to see it by looking down the whole, at least I can't. Take the head assembly off the airbrush (for Heaven's sake pull the needle first and use the wrench!) and be careful you don't lose the head washer (50-055)! Now carefully place the blunt end of the needle back into the hole. It should fit snugly into the hole without moving around. If it does that, then the needle bearing is in place. Since your airbrush is almost brand new it should be fine. I don't know what is causing your problem with acrylic paints, but I suspect it's how you're using them, as opposed to a malfunction of the airbrush. They're actually very simple devices. Ingenius maybe, but simple.

I agree.

The only way you can get paint into the body of the airbrush is if you backflush it while paint is still in the color cup. Something is wrong here.

I suspect he's getting a clog from tip dry and that's back flushing the paint, but acrylic paints don't normally tip dry that quickly. I've only had it happen once with Tamiya and that's because I stepped away in the middle of spraying for a couple of minutes. A lesson not to be forgotten!

I think he's using MM Acryl, which shouldn't even require thinning, and then I think you can do it with water. I don't really know as I only use Tamiya.

ben1227 wrote:

Funny though, acryls give me all kinds of problems while enamels and Alclad do fine...As for tip dry, with MM acryls, All I have to do is spray for a while, and sure enough paint starts building up on the needle and it clogs the tip up, because no paint is coming out unless i completely pull back on the trigger...And then a big blob of paint comes out.

ben1227 wrote:

Oh, the CAP232 I'm working on? It's almost done, I just cant afford the $700 to put the Saito radial engine in it...

ben1227 wrote:

Funny though, acryls give me all kinds of problems while enamels and Alclad do fine...As for tip dry, with MM acryls, All I have to do is spray for a while, and sure enough paint starts building up on the needle and it clogs the tip up, because no paint is coming out unless i completely pull back on the trigger...And then a big blob of paint comes out.

Are you letting the airbrush sit without painting and then coming back and it's doing this?

That is a big problem with acrylics and under the right conditions they can cause tip dry within a minute or less as I know full well from my T-shirt airbrushing days. Of course I also sprayed T-shirts at 60 psi which atomizes the paint so well that it does dry faster.

Also, what thinner are you using and what ratio? I had troubles with MM Acryl and ended up going to Tamiya acrylics which are much better IMHO.