Needle cap mod

[AndreZA]

All knows that a Micron can go super fine and and even finer if you remove the needle cap. But that is dangerous and can be expensive if you bend the tip. So what to do?

I got our friend Flycatcher to order me some heads from the WD-180 Micron knock-off guns. You can not get the caps alone so I had to buy complete heads. They worked out to about $6 each. I then visited him with my guns to check alignment of the caps. We marked which tips to remove and he started cutting with a dremel like tool. I then got to work with some 2000 grit water sand paper and this was the result.



It does not line up 100% square to the body but that is okay. This way you can see the needle perfect viewing from top left. You can get it line up if you fit a tiny o-ring or a strand or two of plumbers tape. But I'm not gonna bother, it's perfect for me this way.

 

[wmlepage]

Nice solution Andre.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Mr.Micron]

Love it!!! Badger style on a Micron...

 

[Seamonkey]

Awesome!!! But I have to tell ya Andre....... I fully expected you to make this out of hot glue seeing that its not an electrical problem
Great work buddy!!

 

[Melbee]

Hi AndreZA,
I really want to do that to my crown caps. I ordered 2 more of the 180 cheapo's because I really like the bigger size but I'm too scared to file them down. I can't see me being able to do such a brilliant job on them as yours. What cutting tool did your friend use in his dremel like tool? What did it look like? I have one a similar tool but I'd probably end up cutting off more prongs than intended as I don't know what fitting to put in The 180 crown caps (not the whole head) I bought were from Ebay and really cheap but they took over a month to get here from China.

That looks like a really neat job, I'm jealous.
cheers Mel

 

[AndreZA]

Awesome!!! But I have to tell ya Andre....... I fully expected you to make this out of hot glue seeing that its not an electrical problem
Great work buddy!!

Don't dare me. I was thinking of all kinds of plastic or clear hosing that could be used.

 

[AndreZA]

Hi AndreZA,
I really want to do that to my crown caps. I ordered 2 more of the 180 cheapo's because I really like the bigger size but I'm too scared to file them down. I can't see me being able to do such a brilliant job on them as yours. What cutting tool did your friend use in his dremel like tool? What did it look like? I have one a similar tool but I'd probably end up cutting off more prongs than intended as I don't know what fitting to put in The 180 crown caps (not the whole head) I bought were from Ebay and really cheap but they took over a month to get here from China.

That looks like a really neat job, I'm jealous.
cheers Mel

Melbee, he used a cutting disk. Seeing that I got the whole head and would not be needing the rest of it, he kept on the head and used it as a grip.



I gave him this to work with. Afterwards I just cleaned it up with a piece of 2000 grit sand paper wrapped around a ice-cream stick.



The second one came out better.

 

[patricks]

If you dont want to do it yoursellf you can just order them at lion-art

Iwata parts

 

[AndreZA]

If you dont want to do it yoursellf you can just order them at lion-art

Iwata parts

Definitely. If I did not know someone with the tool to do it, I was going to order it.

 

[Melbee]

QUOTE=patricks;89803]If you dont want to do it yoursellf you can just order them at lion-art

Iwata parts[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the suggestion Patrick but I have one from Lion-Art and it is too small so the prongs are closer to the needle than I like. It gathers paint on the prong tips and then splatters it over my painting if I don't watch out. It is also really, really hard to pick up and I get very annoyed with it.

The 180 crown caps are bigger which means the prongs are further apart from each other (like my Sotar 2-pronged Air cap) and it is loads easier to pick up, that's why I ordered 2 more for my other airbrushes. If I do the modification like AndreZA the 2 prongs will be further apart and not gather paint on the tips as quickly as the small one does. It makes a big difference.

180 Crown Cap on Left - Lion-Art Air Cap on Right.


I seem to be a clutz when the air cap is off so I'd be much, much happier with some needle tip protection.

I really don't understand why they make the Caps so narrow anyway, it makes no sense to me to make a part that people just take off because it's useless and splatters paint?!! Making the Needle Caps streamline with the airbrush head for aesthetic purposes only makes it less functional. After all this time designing and making airbrushes you'd think Iwata would wake up to that. Them making a 2 pronged air cap that is tiny doesn't solve the problem. Mind you if we keep taking the caps off and bending the needles they get us to buy more needles Badger definitely wins with the Air cap design for the Krome and Sotar but even theirs could be slightly wider.





Just my 2 cents
Cheers Mel

 

[Melbee]

Thanks a lot AndreZA, I'll have a look at my tool fittings to see if I've got one of those or something similar.
The diagram with where to cut is great because I was wondering about that
Since I've got 3 of the 180 crown caps I can risk trying it on one of them
Cheers Mel

 

[flycatchr]

Hi Melbee

Just a quick pointer - I didnt exactly cut along thos red lines on Andre's drawings. I found it a little easier because of the small size of the cap to actually grind the opposing points off. IE I used the "red line" as a marker to stop the grinding disk to going further into the head. The grinding disk was parallel to the needle - if that makes sense.
It was definitely easier to hold the whole head in one hand. the other point about the direction to cut - if the blade is perpendicular to the needle direction it actually started spinning the needle cap off the threads.

also watch out which head you are using because it could be very easy to catch the paint nozzle with the blade because it sticks out just a little.

 

[Melbee]

Hi Melbee

Just a quick pointer - I didnt exactly cut along thos red lines on Andre's drawings. I found it a little easier because of the small size of the cap to actually grind the opposing points off. IE I used the "red line" as a marker to stop the grinding disk to going further into the head. The grinding disk was parallel to the needle - if that makes sense.
It was definitely easier to hold the whole head in one hand. the other point about the direction to cut - if the blade is perpendicular to the needle direction it actually started spinning the needle cap off the threads.

also watch out which head you are using because it could be very easy to catch the paint nozzle with the blade because it sticks out just a little.

Oh nice one! Thanks for that flycatchr, it does make sense. I have a cheap WD180 airbrush that I don't use as it never worked very well so I can put the Crown cap on that when I do the grinding. It won't matter too much if I damage the nozzle cap and I'll take the nozzle out. Good tip about a certain direction of the tool will screw the cap off.
I'm feeling a bit more confident about giving it a go.
Cheers Mel

 

[AndreZA]

If you want to square off the tips to be perfect North-South and you do not want to wrap tape around the thread or use an o-ring, then just slowly sand the base of the cap on some 2000 grit paper. Do it very slowly as it does not take a lot.

 

[Mat]

That's cool I have a WD180 as well and find it a bit of a pain to clean the needle when our great friend Tip Dry shows it's ugly mush this may save quite a lot of time in the long run. I may very well give this a go but I'll have to get a dremel first though but I am amazed that something off a Veda fits an Iwata , I wouldn't of thought of doing this in a hundred years as I thought that hearing the Iwata front ends can be a pain with catching them or over tightening with a little too much stress on them and I thought my Veda being a knock off would of been even easier make a mess of ;( show what I know....again haha

But again thanks for this Andre

All knows that a Micron can go super fine and and even finer if you remove the needle cap. But that is dangerous and can be expensive if you bend the tip. So what to do?

I got our friend Flycatcher to order me some heads from the WD-180 Micron knock-off guns. You can not get the caps alone so I had to buy complete heads. They worked out to about $6 each. I then visited him with my guns to check alignment of the caps. We marked which tips to remove and he started cutting with a dremel like tool. I then got to work with some 2000 grit water sand paper and this was the result.

View attachment 19469

It does not line up 100% square to the body but that is okay. This way you can see the needle perfect viewing from top left. You can get it line up if you fit a tiny o-ring or a strand or two of plumbers tape. But I'm not gonna bother, it's perfect for me this way.

 

[airbrushtutor]

This is true dedication to our art. Love it Andre - sucks they're just available. How is it working out for you?? do you still need to take it off to clean the tip?

 

[AndreZA]

Mitch, you can't pick the paint with it on if that is what you asking. But I use a small bristle brush and it works perfectly. My second cap is on my Eclipse. Looks a little odd as it is not the correct size, but it works 100%.

 

[airbrushtutor]

Ah okay, i thought that might be the case about needing to remove it for tip dry. As you said though, if you're using a brush then it accesses all areas.. Cheers for posting it up bud, i thought it was a cracker of a project. i love little mods.

 

[Lion-Art]

They are almost the same as we have in the shop only ours are from stainless steel, we also use an small o-ring so that you can adjust the position of the aircap

 

[AndreZA]

Ooh, stainless steel will be awesome.