Guess what showed up today? After assembly: The thing in the lower right corner is my one-pound anvil. I gave it a whirl with some water, and it's a good feel in the hand. It has good precision, and when I sprayed it against my hand, it was a nice, fine mist. I found that manipulating the trigger with my thumb was the most comfortable. Amazingly quiet, too. I could barely hear it over my air conditioner. My electric shaver makes more noise than this! None of the neighbors is going to complain about this one... It's feather light, easy to maneuver, and quite small with the compressor part - the "stock" - fitting nicely in my hand. I'm like a kid at Christmas...
Congratulations on your purchase. When you add some paint be sure and practice on a piece of paper. I do that every time I use it to make sure the flow is right, and to kind of practice before I start applying paint to the project. It really also helps to get the feel of it. I think you are going to like it a lot, for small projects. Have fun! My understanding is clean it with Distilled Water, and the Cleaner you bought. There is a practice sheet to print on this page when you add the Vallejo paint. Helped me a lot! https://www.latelierdiy.fr/en/how-to-use-an-airbrush-tutorial-beginners/ We did not get a wrench with ours for the front needle it uses a gasket. Be very CAREFUL when opening that area are your LITLLE Needle #3 will go flying possibly! Found mine on the carpet, did not even know it had fallen out.
Nice site. I could even use the French version. And the practice sheet is a good starting point. Thanks for the tips! Oh, most definitely!
First light weathering job with the new toy: Not bad for a first try. But I found the spray a tad anemic, so I decided to clean the airbrush. Then it happened... The button on top fell out. OK, that should be relatively simple to fix, right? Not quite... There's another part that fell inside the chamber where that button pushes against the needle control mechanism. I tried to shake it out, then it fell out, bounced, and... you guessed, gravity (and Murphy) ruled and it fell down onto the carpet. After about five minutes (maybe less, everything seems longer in these cases) I found it. It's kind of a roundish thing with an oblong slot in it, with a short tab on one side and a longer one on the other. The slotted part is curved somewhat like a spoon. I eventually figured out that it's the thingy that helps the two-way trigger shaft to push against the needle control mechanism, when I pull back on it. I got it back together, but I think that the slotted thing might be backwards. It's not working quite the way it's supposed to. I got the long tab on top right, it's just to figure out if the convex side of the spoony-slotty thing goes toward the trigger or against the needle control. I hate small parts... I'm going to leave it alone for now, to calm down and plan the next step. Hopefully I'll get it to work or this first weathering job might just be my last.
When I disassemble things with tiny components I do it in a pan for making cakes. That way things get captured. I've lost to many things before deciding on that procedure. There's much in the vacuum.
I have the same airbrush Mike - it is both amazing and kind of -meh- at the same time. I find it difficult to do anything too detailed as the fine adjustment barrel doesn't seem to do a whole lot, but it was $60 sooooo lol I love mine, but it has its issues. About every 5th use or so, I run a cup full of 99% IPA through it, that short distance between the cup and the nozzle likes to collect paint no matter how quickly you water-rinse it after using. Also (it took me months to realize this) the nozzle cap is 2 pieces, makes getting the paint that cakes inside of there out exponentially easier. I have not tried to take apart much of the actual sprayer, aside from winding the barrel all the way off just to see what the guts look like lol but mine has been mostly maintenance-free. You just have to be a little meticulous about cleaning it. Hope you get yours back together and working correctly, because it's a pretty nice - albeit limited - little tool for the money. ps - I threw it out with the box, but there is an instruction manual, maybe it has troubleshooting tips? Dunno - not really a 'read the instructions' kind of guy
@Pfunk - Thanks for the tips. I did the whole cleaning routine according to the instructions (I'm also a RTFM partisan). When putting it back together, the "throttle" button fell out and a weird part came loose. I *may* have put it in when attempting to reassemble the unit. Since then the "feel" of the button is wrong. I'd give it another try but right now I'm in a coffee-and-donut shop waiting for the power crews to fix the power outage in my neighborhood... Every time we get a bit of wind or rain, the power goes out... We're supposed to have a state-of-the-art power grid but they can't get the juice reliably to the customers. I want to try again soon with a clear and rested mind (and, of course, lighting that is *not* a candle ).
same, mine was out for about 4hrs last week after a moderate thunderstorm. 3rd time so far this year. Is very frustrating indeed!
Your probably talking about this item? It's a PITA to get back in, as it will keep falling out through the airbrush? I had to hold my airbrush up vertical for it to finally fall into the correct spot. Good luck!
Yes! Understatement of the week. Liberally sprinkled with cuss words. I found that pulling out the spring-loaded end and holding it there somehow while I use my other hands to re-insert that "auxiliary lever" back in place. Fortunately, I have a rubber-jawed vise to serve as extra hands - that's how I managed to get it in the first time. Yesterday, I found a small dark-colored flat washer on my kitchen table, near the area where I worked. Until I figure it out otherwise, I'm considering it a missing part of the airbrush. By some miracle it stayed there that long. And many thanks for the explanatory image. It confirms that I put that blasted little part in backwards, and will serve as a guide for what will hopefully be a successful conclusion to this misadventure... Cross your fingers (especially the model in the photos - lovely nail polish ).
Did you find a Dark colored washer or a O-Ring for lack of a better word? There are extra's in the plastic bags, see if it looks like those? If so, where it goes is another mystery TRY holding the airbrush vertical and see IF it will fall in place correctly. Took me forever to get that part aligned correctly, and until I held the Airbrush Vertical it kept falling out. It is a PITA, so best of luck! Let us know how it goes?
I managed to put in the spoony thing in the right direction (it was easier now because I know how to get there), and now the control lever feels just right, like it was before. I then ran it with thinner in the cup for some minutes, and managed to get a decent continous cone-shaped stream coming out of it. Good sign. I paused for a bit, and started again. Once more, the stream coming out was intermittent and sputtery. So much for good signs... I do the finger over the tip thing, and the bubbles come up inside the cup. But the stream comes and goes, randomly. More cuss words. The needle is as clean as a whistle. That little spoony thing isn't the PITA. It looks more and more to me like it's everything above the compressor. It should be simple: it's mechanisms and plumbing. Air goes in at one end, draws in paint as it goes through, and goes out the front with the paint. What's so bleeping complicated about that? For now, it's an expensive paperweight. If this keeps up, it'll end up on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere, until I figure out what to do with (or to) it.
Within 30 days you should be able to Return it or Exchange it since you got it on Amazon. Sorry it's not working.
It worked for a while. Then it stopped working correctly. Then it promised to work again. And it stopped working correctly again. I'm not a fan of tools that only work part of time. It's going back. I'm resisting the temptation to put a steel plate over it and flattening it with my car before sending it. This is my last post in this thread.
Bought some new paint to try out for the 3D printed items and more! Not perfect but will work for me. Especially at a normal viewing distance.
