My wife has been trying to spray a dye through a Pasche airbrush. The dye has the same consistancy as water. No matter what I do I cannot get it to spray. It seems to have plenty of air pressure. I do not have it ran through a regulator. It is hooked to one of those little airbrush aircompressors. I have not tried hooking it to the big compressor. What are we doing or not doing? I have tried both with and without the needle inserted in it. I have turned every adjuster possible with no results. I need to get this working soon as I do not want to spend everynight trying to get it to work. And yes I have checked all the ports and passages on both the gun and the jar and they are not clogged. Please help!!!
Does the brush spray/work when it just has water or thinner in it? I mean, is this a first try with the brush or is it just now having problems? Is it style of brush where you push the button down to start the air and then pull the button back to start the media? Some of those dyes - even though they seem like water - still have some solids floating in them and need to be strained before they go in the cup.
I havent tried it with any thing else. She has used it in the past. I will put some thinner it it tonight. It is the kind that you push down and pull back on to get the media flowing.
Have you used this air brush before? Has it been taken apart or repaired. The needle my have a problem. Is it gravity feed or suction feed?
If it does not spray even with just thinner then you know for sure it's the brush. Make sure the needle pulls back when you pull the button back. Sometimes it slips and needs to be tightened. If the needles moves but it still won't spray thinner then it must be a clogged passage. If it sprays thinner but not the media you want to use then there is something in the media that's plugging it and needs to be strained out.
Thanks guys, for all the sugegstions. Does the needle have to be in there? I will try the suggestions tonight and see what I come up with. I did not notice if the needle was moving or not, that will be my first look. By the way it is a suction model.
Man, I use those Paasches for a living. If the fluid is the consistency of water, and it won't spray through, then you have a clogged brush. I know you said you checked everthing......but that still doesn't change the fact that your brush is clogged. To answer your first question... YES, the needle HAS to be in the brush for paint to come out. CLEANING: Now, dissassemble the brush completely and check ALL of the parts for cloggage. The parts that will be clogged are on the front end of the brush. There is the AIRCAP, the AIRCAP BODY, and the TIP. The tip is the brass looking fragile doohicky that the NEEDLE goes through. The AIRCAP BODY is what the tip goes into, and the AIRCAP is where the paint exits the gun. You can see the NEEDLE and the TIP protruding through the AIRCAP. Dissasemble all that. Check the tip for dried paint. I use a safety pin to clean mine out. I hold it under runninng water and push the safety pin into it and "pick" out the dried chunks of paint. 9 times out of 10 THIS is your problem. You might be able to blow through it, BUT THE PAINT STILL WON'T COME OUT.....this part is KEY to the operation of the airbrush. Hold this little part up and make sure that you can see light through it, now squint and look in there good, do you see any little chunks of paint clinging to the walls? If so, you've got problems. REMOVE THEM. Be careful when cleaning NOT to bend the tip. It is super fragile and will collapse or deform with very little force. One that is bent NEEDS TO BE REPLACED. If it is bent enough, you brush will NOT WORK. If the TIP is perfectly clean, then make sure you can see light through the tiny holes in the AIRCAP BODY. Even though it is rare, I have had those clog and, when they do, NO AIR gets to the paint......meaning NO PAINT comes out of the gun. You can clean these with a small sewing needle. The AIRCAP, of course is easy to clean and should not have any paint piled up on the end. clean this with a toothbrush, your fingernail, or whatever works for you. In summary: The PAASCHE VL works best when its completely clean. I can guarantee that unless you dissassembled it and cleaned each individual part the last time you used it, you have some dried paint clogging something. NO IT IS NOT good enough to just spray water or thinner through them to clean them. They REQUIRE dissassembly for proper cleaning. Thats something I learned early on. Good luck. TINGLER
Yes you want to have the needle in the air brush. If you are not familure with the brush you have be very carful disasembling it. Definatly check to see if the needle is tight and also that the needle length is correctly set. Gravity feed brushes work better in my experience (which is very limited). Good luck and God bless
Thanks guys. It sounds like I have some cleaning to do. I am sure it was probably not properly dissasembled and cleaned the last time it was used. god only knows how long ago it has been since it was used.
I forgot to add that you need to make sure the body of the airbrush itself is clean too. I've had some blockage in the actual paint pickup tube. The one that is actually part of the airbrush body. I clean out the airbrush body by taking the needle and running it through backwards. The blunt end of the needle has a few little grooves in it and it works pretty well as a ram rod to knock dried paint out of the body. My advice to you is to treat it like a carberator. Dissassemble it carefully TAKING NOTE of what order each part came out it. Take pics if you have to, or do a drawing to help you keep them in order. Make sure EACH part is clean: Needle, aircap, airbrush body, HANDLE, plunger, etc etc....you get the drift. Cleanliness is super important. Good luck.
I got on the Paasche website and printed a parts list and assembly diagram for the airbrush. I will use this to see if all the parts are there and for a reference when I reassemble it after cleaning. Thanks again for the help!
I like Pasche are work horses. I love em One quick check to do is hold the bottle in one hand and blow air from the airbrush directly across the top of the bottle opening with the die in it. It should blow paint/die everywhere.. (So do this out side or in a sink) What this does is starts your elimination process. If it sprays paint/ink everywhere... Your bottle is fine and the problem is in your gun, If it doesn't.. The bottle is the problem. Simple but effective. Good luck
It's tons-o-fun when the little air hole on top of the paint bottle gets clogged. Paint stops coming out, pressure builds up, you stick your face reeeal close to see what's up, give the bottle a twist and... ...then you've got a mess to clean up... ...from all the guys who spit coffee all over the studio laughing when the paint bottle exploded in your face. Ask me how I know this.
The vast majority of airbrush problems are related to poor/improper,cleaning,or incorrect assembly. You should be able to hear the air come put when the trigger is depressed. Running a T inline with a small pressure gauge will help in diagnosing problems in the puture.
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