Airbrushing Question

[Xingu]

I decided to try my hand at airbrushing tonight. Just putting a light coat of primer down because I wanted to see how it went. Every so often I would get a large drop that made it to the body. My guess is it was pooling at the tip and eventually blowing out onto the model. You can see the drops at the top of the door and on the seat in the photo below. Many more fell basically straight down onto the paper I laid down in the booth.

What causes this and how can I correct it. I was using pre-thinned MCW primer.

[Snake45]

Most common cause of this is a cracked or split tip, or a tip and needle that aren't concentric. IMHE, anyway.

What are you using for an air source?

[StevenGuthmiller]

I had this same problem early on shortly after buying a new Badger air brush.

I believe Snake may be right about the needle not being "concentric" with the tip because it's seemed to have corrected itself over time.

When it was doing it, I thought it was either pressure being too low, too much paint flow or a combo of the two.

A split tip did cross my mind, but I ruled that out after a very close inspection.

You could give this a try.

Screw your needle all the way down so that it seats completely into the tip.

Not too tight or you could split it, but just snug it in a little.

This might help get the needle & tip working together.

It seems to have worked with mine.

 

Steve

[935k3]

What airbrush are you using? I have had this problem with my gravity feeds when using decanted paint. Some airbrushes like the badger 200 I had would collect paint around the tip if the spray was opened too wide.

[Xingu]

I am using a Paasche H with Paasche compressor. Pressure set at 25psi. I will check into the possibility of a cracked tip.

Thanks for the info.

[Xingu]

Sprayed color tonight with no issues. Didn't change a thing. Not sure why the primer was so difficult.

It is all a learning experience. As time goes on I will (hopefully) be able to diagnose and fix issues like this.

I must say, airbrushing is no where near as difficult as I thought it would be (knocks on wood)