no paint (or water) flow

JackEb

The Dragon Hunter
Staff member
Admin
AKA: When good nozzles go bad..... but I thought the title should make sense for anyone that is looking for answers to issues they are having with paint flow, or lack of it !!

There has been a lot of threads lately asking why there is no paint or only getting paint on the backstroke.

They inevitably start out with the user claiming 'I cleaned it but its still not working !'

Well I thought I'd share my experience with a newbie "I cleaned it but.........." story

This is a long post but I thought you could all have a chuckle at my expense and if it helps one other person then its worth it, so grab a beverage and some popcorn.

There are many possible reasons why paint refuses to throw itself at a surface and no doubt twice as many answers as to what to do to resolve it.... but here’s one resolution that succeeded in this case.

My story started a few days ago: After a long absence from airbrushing (and the brushes being packed away) the brush was flushed with reducer and water, I added reduced paint, aimed at the paper. The paint coverage seems a little erratic, but hey, its been a long time and the muscle memory has probable forgotten what it should do... continued like this off and on for the next couple of days, running water / reducer through the brush and at the end of the day removing the needle and cleaning that off too.

Today, day 3.Coffee in hand and full of enthusiasm and plenty of time... I fire up the airbrush.
10 minutes in and I notice that not only is the coverage is still pretty patchy but when I pay attention there doesn't seem to be a lot of paint coming though... not a lot of anything really.... except air
I emptied the cup, wiped it out, removed and cleaned the needle and nozzle cap, put water in the cup pull trigger, ........ nothing, zip, zilch.

ok... I have a problem !!

After laying down a black towel in the middle of the bench and removing anything within a 5 mile radius (I've read all the horror stories about dropping nozzles and the resulting hair pulling)... I tentatively removed the nozzle,
With nozzle off, I got my micro cleaning brushes, got the smallest one and carefully cleaned the body from the nozzle end (nozzle was off remember) and up to the cup, yeah it was a little dirty judging by the colour of the brush and I was using paynes grey paint prior to tear down. I can see the brush in the cup so all good.... I've used a bottle brush on plenty of occasions so I was very confident that anything in there was now removed with due care....
gently put everything back together..... put water in the cup..... pull the trigger and.............. nothing but air......

SIGH... I've cleaned it so it can’t be clogged..... !!!!

It’s at this point I will remind viewers that I am stubborn ol' gal, who refuses to let anything beat me... there had to be a logical reason why this wasn't working,. . . . . .
I resorted to google and viewing a cut away of the airbrush to try and figure out how to resolve this.
my first thoughts were.... 'I've cleaned it so that can’t be the problem' ..... hmmmmmmm that sounded familiar......

Every thread with the same issues mentioned cleaning it, I checked the nozzle and it looks clean, and It’s got air passing through so therefore it can’t be blocked right ? . . .

..... I can hear the seasoned airbrushers laughing their heads off....

the nozzle was the only thing that was left that could be the problem... I got a small bowl, dropped the .3mm nozzle in it and added some reducer to hopefully dissolve anything that could be problematic. My next dilemma was how to properly clean the nozzle without splitting or flaring the nozzle, I’ve read all those horror stories too ! ! ! I looked around my shed for something suitable, there is nothing that I can see / think of that will be fit for purpose… until my eyes fell on my VEDA 180, it shipped with a .2mm needle…. Hmmmmm….

Being a hands on creative person with power tools I know that sometimes a gentle hand will win out over brute force, so I took the .2mm needle out of the brush, took the tiny 3mm nozzle in my left hand and dipped the .2mm needle in the reducer and proceeded to gently, gently, very GENTLY work the needle in the nozzle, not pushing it hard through the exit point of the nozzle, but more working the internal wall to remove any paint residue…. WOW, was I surprised with the result…. There was ‘black’ (paynes grey actually) bits coming out with alarming regularity.

After 10 minutes of very gentle persuasion I decided that my ‘clean nozzle’ was far from clean so I let it soak for an hour while I made a coffee to calm my nerves. . .
Every time I thought there was nothing left to remove it proved me wrong. 3 hours of soaking and intermittent gentle persuasion and I’ve finally got nothing else coming out.
I’ve now reassembled the brush and its spraying better than ever, probably how it was when I first got it.

The picture below shows just how much junk was removed. . . .
Until you’ve actually done this you’ve no idea just how un-clean your ‘clean’ airbrush is….

nozzle clean.jpg


:)
 
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It's good to sit down and just think the process through. You could have tried Createx Restorer and that would have loosened up the dirt and made it easier to get out.
 
Some people don't like the idea of using the nozzle cleaner with the beveled edge, but I swear by mine, especially the Harder and Steenbeck one. It's designed to fit the taper of H&S nozzles and works perfectly. As long as you are gentle, there are no problems.

As you did, running the needle gently inside the nozzle works well also.
 
@JackEb Been there dude! If you soak your nozzle make sure you don't have a big ole air bubble inside. I did once and it stopped the liquid getting in everywhere. Probs just a bit of a freak of nature, but now I make sure just in case.
 
It's good to sit down and just think the process through. You could have tried Createx Restorer and that would have loosened up the dirt and made it easier to get out.

Thanks AndreZa. It's the one thing I don't have, although that will be fixed with my next order. !! I do have 4 large bottles of reducer and at least I was confident there would be little harm done to any seals.




Some people don't like the idea of using the nozzle cleaner with the beveled edge, but I swear by mine, especially the Harder and Steenbeck one. It's designed to fit the taper of H&S nozzles and works perfectly. As long as you are gentle, there are no problems.

As you did, running the needle gently inside the nozzle works well also.

it was probably you mentioning your nozzle cleaner in another thread that put the idea in my subconscious !! So thank you [emoji4]


@JackEb Been there dude! If you soak your nozzle make sure you don't have a big ole air bubble inside. I did once and it stopped the liquid getting in everywhere. Probs just a bit of a freak of nature, but now I make sure just in case.
LOL, you saw the bubble in the nozzle didn't you !! I only put the nozzle back in there for comparison when I thought about sharing my experience via the forum. Prior to the photo I'd used tweezers to get the nozzle lined up in order to remove all air. But it was definitely worth you mentioning it.
 
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It can be a dangerous game reaming your tip with an old needle but have been doing so for years (I believe Mitch also does and no doubt many others) but if gentle it really does work well. When I first started I had a similar experience, for weeks I couldnt get the thing spraying right, finally giving up i handed the gun to an old hat airbrusher who immediately pulled the nozzle and "reamed" it with an old needle, walla. two minute fix when i thought the airbrush was buggered. Now its the only way I go about it when I am having spray issues as that paint inside a nozzle can surely be stubborn.
 
Gentle hands, patience, stubbornness all culminated in a win. I'm still amazed at how much junk was in there and it was still able to spray air !!
Today should be pleasurable - an airbrush that works and a temperature of 20C instead of 40C !! I was beginning to think it was my technique or lack there of., and I was never going to 'get it'
I've learnt and that's a good thing [emoji4]
 
Awesome post. Just proves that when you think its clean.. clean it again! Oh, and also make sure the needle chuck is tight.. cause it doesn't work if it isn't.. (found out the hard way). LOL
 
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