FacePalm...

[Barney]

I have been very productive as of late. I am certain that SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) is happy that I am building and she generally leaves me alone as I toil in the Man Closet. However, yesterday she called me away for "just a minute" that turned into 2 hours.

I left paint in the cup, freshly mixed paint in the cup. Two hours later, it was a massive mess. I cleaned the AB (Badger 105) but cannot get air to flow. I'm not an expert on these things, so if anyone wants to volunteer information, I'm all for it.

Just don't mention what an idiot I am for leaving paint in the AB. SWMBO and I have had a conversation on this topic. She is buying me a new AB, just incase I have to ship this guy off to Badger for repair (I already have a brush there. I bought it on the Birthday sale and it wasn't fully functional.)

 

[moon puppy]

Soak it in lacquer thinner. Do you have any of those wire brushes or pipe cleaners?

 

[moon puppy]

Love Your Airbrush!

Airbrushes - the always repeating mistery of modelling! A lot of modellers face problems with their airbrushes and consider them a mistery where no mistery is! One thing i repeatedly read is that the airbrush is more like a paintspitter than a painting helper that can bring your models to life...

modelersalliance.org

 

[SA Dave]

Oh no Barney that SUX

 

[Skinny_Mike]

I purchased one of those ultra sonic cleaners they sell for jewelry. They are relatively cheap. They really help break all the crude out of your brush. and working with the little brushes. great results. I would recommend one of those.

If the tip is clogged, try using a sewing needle to breakup and push the dried crap out, Just be careful not to scratch it all up.

 

[moon puppy]

How about it Barney, git'er cleaned out?

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I purchased one of those ultra sonic cleaners they sell for jewelry. They are relatively cheap. They really help break all the crude out of your brush. and working with the little brushes. great results. I would recommend one of those.

If the tip is clogged, try using a sewing needle to breakup and push the dried crap out, Just be careful not to scratch it all up.

I would not recommend any kind of hard needle! The chance of a damaged tip would be very high. While I have several Badger airbrushes, they are different models and the parts are a little different.

This is the parts breakdown for your airbrush Barney. I would disassemble it to the separeate parts as shown. Have a shallow cup of some sort to place the parts in so you don't loose them.

I would suggest use a pipe cleaner to clean out the paint ports in the main body. To clean the tip, take a nice toothpick and shave it to a long thin point. Very long and thin. You can do this with a very sharp knife and shave it. or use some 320 grit sandpaper and sand it long and thin similar to how the needle looks. As the toothpick wood is a little on the soft side it won't tend to damage the tip. Work it in from behind like the needle would and rotate it as you go. If you use some lacquer thinner while doing so, it should work out any caked in paint. I also use some makeup type q-tips from Walgreens that have a point on one end and a big fat round end on the other to clean out the paint bowl.

I have to do a clean up on my Sotar 20/20 slim as I left some tinting acrylic in it the other night which dried. The needle still moves freely, but the bottom of the little cup is coated and I am sure paint is all the way up in the tip.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Barney you might check this thread out as I went all through the cleaning process on my Krome with photos.

Disassemble and clean a Badger Krome.

While the brush is a little different, you can see the stuff I use and how I used it. Hope it helps.

 

[Old Dog]

One thing I have found to be very helpful in cleaning the small passages in airbrushes are Proxabrushes. These are the small brushes sold for cleaning between teeth. I started using them on the advise of my dentist following gum surgery. Just on a whim I tried them for air brush cleaning and found they seem to be impervious to lacquer thinner. They come in three sizes with the small size quite small. The brand I use is G.U.M made by Sunstar. They come in a 10 pack and aren't very expensive, usually found where the tooth cleaning products are found. The bristles are held together with fine wire so don't go forcing them through openings like the nozzles. Go gently and let the bristles do the work.

 

[Barney]

Stripped it and did what I could; still no air. I fear I got something somewhere that I fear to tread. I'll sent this off to badger and they will restore it to prime condition.

 

[moon puppy]

Stripped it and did what I could; still no air. I fear I got something somewhere that I fear to tread. I'll sent this off to badger and they will restore it to prime condition.

Yes they will. Gotta wonder if they have a hall of fame for clogged ABs....

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I got into my Krome a couple of weeks ago. Something that I had noticed since back when I got it that the needle was always pushed over to the right side. Took it all apart an started looking at it and diagnosing it. Turns out the small hole in the body between the rear seal and the paint cup was a little off center. With the rear seal in and only the needle it would push to the right.
Dug out my escapement needle file and medium watch broaches and adjusted the hole (enlarged slightly) to allow the needle to run in the center properly. It's amazing how much better a pattern it now sprays. It was definitely a manufacturing defect, but I was able to finally correct it.

 

[Barney]

My machining skills are limited to old Bridgeport Vertical Mills, Cincinnati Horizontal Mills and a Warner Swazey Turret Lathe. I grew up in my dad's machine shop in the 50's and 60's. I also am pretty good with a staple gun!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I wish I had a little more experience with the bigger stuff. I had a machining course in college many years ago using a lathe and mills. I still have the textbook which has been worthwhile keeping. All my real experience is with the micro machining stuff. The fixes done on my airbrush were with hand tools.

 

[Barney]

My work was before Bridgeport came our with Line-O-Trace... and long before computers... L O N G before...

 

[Barney]

My work is done. My arthritic hands made the going rough, but I stripped it down, cleaned everything, put some needle juice (say it 3 times) on and put it back together. Took me 3 hours, but I didn't lose any parts! (That in and of itself is an accomplishment. Meanwhile, I have 2 new airbrushes and will no doubt have fun working with them.