Neo gravity feed air supply needle acting up

W

wtsgems

Guest
My Neo is giving me trouble wonder if anyone has run into this, I tend to run my regulator at 20 psi 15 if I am running thin paint. I thought my gun had clogged and broke it down and cleaned everything but still the air seems restricted, when I checked the trigger needle I discovered that when pushed to full on the air cuts in half but when lightly pushed up to halfway acts as it should.
Anyone seen this before?
I must say I am not real happy with the design of the Neo
The paint chamber is a major pain to flush it isn't polished and when as it claims you can you don't use a paint cup the threads for the cup hold paint
The Head leaks air past the threads

Seeing the name Iwatta I thought I was buying a product that I could count on but more and more I am having second thoughts. . And finding out it isn't actually a real Iwatta
 
wtsgems, lets start troubleshooting this step by step.
So you say when yo press on the trigger, air is blocked? As if there is something along the way blocking it but works OK if press slightly? Have you taken off the air valve and inspected it? Have you lately soaked this part in some chemical products?
 
I can't explain the way your air valve is working, but even when everything is right, the Neo puts out just a whisper of air. The reason is the small size of the opening around the nozzle. There is a picture on this page. If you have caused the nozzle to flare by pushing too hard on the needle or letting it slam forward, the air will be restricted even more.

When you clean the Neo, try using a pumping action with an eyedropper in the cup. You can get a set of airbrush cleaning brushes at Harbor Freight for a couple dollars that will make cleaning the threads easier. Many airbrushes leak a little air where the head joins the body. If it bothers you, put a little bees wax or Chapstick on the threads.

The Neo isn't bad for fine work if you are careful with it. But, in my opinion, it is delicate and not a good choice for a first airbrush.

Don
 
I haven't used a Neo, but as I understand it, it is Neo for Iwata, not by Iwata. I may be wrong but I assumed it was something they gave a liscense to, to offer an alternative to chinese knock offs for those wanting to dip thier toe in the water, and as their name was on it, they would get a slice.

Your problem with it sounds odd though, maybe as it's a starter brush, and if you are using it a lot, then it might be time for an upgrade. Unless (here's one for the conspiracy theorists...) it's designed to act like that after a while, so that after you've had it long enough to get hooked on ABing, and it stops working, they know you won't be able to resist buying another one (insert twilight zone music here). LOL!

Hope you get it figured out, sounds frustrating!
 
While I have flushed the gun I haven't done so through the air valve. I have however taken the valve off and hooked it to the air line it does the same as described press the valve past the halfway point and the are volume drops by half...
I cut a strip of thread tape in half made one turn around the threads on the head and that seems to of stopped the leaking on the head. No part of the tape goes past the threads though
Still with the dead spot in the trigger its a #$%&* to work with.
Its not even two weeks old the problem though is it was a gift and the giver lost the receipt.
 
OK did some more looking thanks for that link by the way
Dissembled the air valve and had a closer look. Not sure if they actually meant for it to do so or if its a flaw, the trigger needle is too long it bottoms out into the inlet orifice and blocks part of the airflow.
According to the manual the operating psi tolerance is 10 to 60 with optimum at 15 to 25.
At 15 the paint needs to be very thin and well filtered. 25 does OK but still a sealed bottle of createx will choke it.
I've never run it past 30 psi was afraid of blowing a seal
 
Its still a Chinese knock off only done with iwatta knowing about it.
 
You say you took the air valve out and hooked the air source to it. While pressing on the little copper tip, the problem is still here..hmmm
There was an o-ring on the copper tip, is it still here? I hope yes. If the brush was working before and just had this problem, it is more than the air is blocked somewhere or obstructed. Sometimes junk tends to build up with moisture in the hose and gets in the air valve if you don’t have a moisture trap or filter between the compressor and the airbrush.
Now what you can do is take apart the air valve (if you feel you are capable of doing this) it has an allen screw where the hose connects. It’s a 2 or 3mm one. Carefully tale it apart and see the order things comes out. Check everything is OK and see if the seal had wears or damaged spots on it (it’s tiny, so a mag glass might help here) If you do not wish or cannot open it, just flush it with warm and soapy water and give it a good rinse under clean water. Let it dry, lube it a little bit and try it again. You can also grab the copper tip with something and make sure you do not bend it or damage it, give it some smooth turns, this can dislodge some junks.
As Don said, the Neo has a little opening in the nozzle cap which results in a low air stream on the needle thus making user bump up the air pressure sometimes. What I did on mine is take the cap off, took a sewing needle just larger than the hole and gave it some twist to enlarge it slightly. Perhaps 0.2mm or 0.3mm more (I don’t have Don’s super tools to measure this exactly lol). I could see a slightly larger hole around the nozzle now and I polished the cap from micro flares and make sure it is round perfect and free before re-assemble. I can now get down as low as 7psi with the same paint consistency and work very close for details. This was impossible before and for the same setup I had to work about 15-25psi. So am happy with this risky but successful process.

Now for the Neo, it is a nice little brush and as per Don’s review which is very good btw, the Neo is manufactured in Taiwan for Iwata and as per Iwata’s standards. Manufacturing in Taiwan reflects the low price tag but does not mean low quality as the knock offs we all know. It is sometimes more easy to blame the brush than blaming own user errors and with time, I have learnt to deal with troubleshooting more easily…and with time troubleshooting arises less and less
 
Sometimes its good to eat crow
Called Iwaata tech support and he was as baffled as anyone else so he is sending a new valve and return envelope for the old one.
Talk about simple no fuss no muss
That was impressive
 
Well got a new air valve from Iwatta but will have to send it back the o ring is missing and the things are almost impossible to take off.
Customer service was great to deal with just have some bad luck
 
Well got a new air valve from Iwatta but will have to send it back the o ring is missing and the things are almost impossible to take off.
Customer service was great to deal with just have some bad luck

In situations line this where you don't want to grip the part with pliers, I then put a clothes peg around the part and grip that with pliers. Not too much to shatter the wood, but enough for it to bit. The metal is knurled so you should get s good grip.
 
Back
Top