Put some layers of electrical tape inside the jaws of normal pliers works
Moisture trap question
- Thread starter huskystafford
- Start date
Doing something very much like that is what got it scraped up. I tried to use a piece of inner tube rubber between the plier jaws and the part. The part was on tight enough that the rubber could not grip enough to not slide over the knurling unless I clamped hard enough for the pliers' teeth to bite through.
I tried this with a couple different materials with the same result. TBH, part of the reason I don't bite the bullet and buy the overpriced Iwata pliers is because based on the above experience, I strongly suspect it'll just shred the nylon teeth without budging the part.
I did send the brush to Iwata USA to have some unrelated issues looked at when I first got it (it had nozzle alignment and sticky trigger issues OOB), and asked them to loosen the head and spring screw for me while they had it, as those were immovably overtightened OOB. They loosened the head, but not the spring screw, though they told me they'd done both.
At this point, if I ever need to get the spring screw off, I'm probably going to mask off all the surrounding parts, and file flats onto the spring screw so I can just grab it properly with a wrench.
TBH, while the Micron sprays nice, and feels very good in the hand, I've had some problems with it that IMO should not happen with a $500 top-of-the-line brush. There are a number of areas where my Eclipse is notably better engineered and manufactured than my Micron.
quick search on ebay and I could found bunch of them. here are ones for 11 bucks
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Husky-10-I...214696?hash=item5da6f7c6e8:g:A5MAAOSwgyJeml8O
I did look into regular soft Jaw pliers. Comparing pictures, the Iwata ones are actually "special", in that they have a bite cutout which is both radiused to generally match airbrush body diameter, and toothed. They're designed to grip almost all around the knurling, instead of on relatively small patches of it. Which was part of the problem with all of the pliers I had: they're toothed, but the bite cutout of "normal" pliers is always too ovoid relative to the brush body diameter, so grip (and thus sheer force) is concentrated in small areas, which is what leads to both slippage and stripping the knurling.
Soft jaw pliers of similar geometry to the normal metal pliers I had been using would fail for the same reasons (insufficient contact area resulting in force being over-concentrated for the materials), it's just the jaw rather than the knurling that would be the softer material, and thus would take the damage. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is all I could find. There does not appear to be a "general use" brand of soft jaws with a bite profile sufficiently similar to the Iwata ones.
All the similar-sized soft jaw pliers I found in my internet searches either have too-ovoid jaws, or jaws with a diamond-shaped rather than circular radius. All were untoothed. Most tooth jawed nylon pliers are larger sized, with even more relatively ovoid bite profiles.
The only reason I even suspect the Iwata pliers ever might work is because of the bite shape should at least give a much better contact area. I just worry it might not be enough if the spring screw is on there tight enough, and it's a lot to spend on a tool that seems like it'd be a coin toss it not only wouldn't work, but would also destroy itself in the attempt if it doesn't.
If you know of any that actually are similar, and are affordable enough to be sacrificial, I'd love get a pair. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any myself.
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I hated when I payed bunch of money for Iwata maintance kit. It was quite expensive. But after a while I felt much better cause I used bunch of times Needle Packing Screwdriver and few times Air valve guide wrench so I didn't feel cheated at the end. I was thinking what will happen with pliers after that plastic get destroyed, but I found replacement parts.
https://www.air-craft.net/acatalog/Iwata-Soft-Jaw-Plier-Inserts-IWCL-SJP-INSERT.html#SID=1409
Maybe these replacement would be usefull for you Nessus if you put them on other pliers or something.
https://www.air-craft.net/acatalog/Iwata-Soft-Jaw-Plier-Inserts-IWCL-SJP-INSERT.html#SID=1409
Maybe these replacement would be usefull for you Nessus if you put them on other pliers or something.
Yes! I had hoped replacement jaws existed, but hadn't been able to find any. I'd strongly bet that the metal body of the pliers is just a standard off-the-shelf model, and the jaws could be mounted to any number of ordinary brand pliers. Thank you very much!
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you are welcome. I suspected you will know how to handle this with your skills.
Even if I can't find a cheaper pair of pliers to mount the jaws on, the fact that I can get replacement jaws means the Iwata pliers are far less of a risk. Means even if they strip while trying to loosening the spring screw, I can just fix them cheaply and still have a tool that would likely be useful for other things. As opposed to just potentially being $80 out with nothing to show for it. Everything else in the Iwata maintenance kit I already have in one form or another, so the pliers are effectively all I'd be getting for that money.
Thanks again. This was a problem I'd been low-key worried about having to eventually solve in a rough and dirty fashion.
Thanks again. This was a problem I'd been low-key worried about having to eventually solve in a rough and dirty fashion.
DaveG
Airbush Analyst
E-mail Coast Airbrush if you can not find replacement jaws on the site - I saw a post kinda recently where they showed them as being available.
I also found this @Nessus :
https://www.air-craft.net/acatalog/Tamiya-Non-Scratch-Pliers-74061.html#SID=944
I know you are from states, but I know you guys can get Tamiya without a problem.
Yeah. The Tamiya ones are a repackaging of another Japanese brand. Both the Tamiya and the original brand are readily available online in the US. The interface between the nylon inserts and the metal plier body is different than on the Iwata pliers, so the Iwata inserts won't work in them. The stock inserts are pretty similar to the Iwatas', with the main difference being the cutout is V-shaped rather than circular. I can get the original brand version for about 13$ on Amazon, so it might be worth trying, at least.
I didn't need them when I was removing my head on micron. It went off with my hand. -.-
Yeah: the fact they're knurled rather than having wrench flats indicates they're meant to be hand removable. My brush just happened to come with the head and spring screw overtightened from the factory so they would not budge. I got the Iwata USA service department to loosen the head for me, but they neglected the spring screw (the middle part between the body and the handle). So if I need to service or clean anything in the "guts" beyond just removing the needle or adjusting the trigger spring, I can't access it.
I literally only need to use such a tool one single time just to break the factory overtightening so I can unscrew it like normal from then on.
I literally only need to use such a tool one single time just to break the factory overtightening so I can unscrew it like normal from then on.
kinda sucks when you pay premium and you get issues from the start.
Yeah. I had to go back and forth a few times with Iwata service over it after I got it, due to a that plus an issue with the needle being so far off center in the nozzle that it was scraping. Wasn't too happy about that, considering the price tag and the rep for being the best of the best.
Contrast my Eclipse, which has been nothing but perfect from day one.
Contrast my Eclipse, which has been nothing but perfect from day one.
My eclipse bcs dropped on the ceramic tiles floor when I got it. I thought at least needle would go south. I didn't find any damage that day, I noticed small dent on needle cap later. Eclipse is almost bullet proof
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