68KingFisher

I always used mineral spirits for this.....it worked good and didn't remove any paint unless you really beared down and tried to remove paint....I even use it for wetsanding acrylics instead of water.

The nozzle should be centered in the head assembly yes....and the needle should be in the center of the nozzle, although i've seen some needles that tend to rub one side of the nozzle until you start spraying and then it seems to center itself.

Tell me about it....I just ordered two....one for my micron and one for my hp-sb, and the bill was $86.........but, I figure I got about 10 months of solid daily use outta the last micron nozzle and about 14 months outta the sb nozzle, so maybe that ain't so bad....I dunno.....I think I bent 4 micron needles last year....but i'm bad about removing the protective crown cover so I can get up close for finer details....its a risk but the added detail level is worth it too me. Drawbow, you didn't by chance forget to tighten the needle chuck during your last cleaning did you....somethin simple like that maybe?

All but finished building the plenum box today.....Now to build the framework that holds the filters....I taped some in the corner just so I could get a look at where i'm headed....its comin along nicely....I'm still on schedule to be done with it this week so I can get back to airbrushing....lol:lol:

Got the fan box built and mounted on the outside of the shop today, now I gotta build the plenum box that'll run along the floor between the two filter towers.....Pete this style crossdraft booth is about like painting in a wind tunnel...lol Its not cold here at the moment....I think we hit 103 today....lol...the large exhaust system is mainly for when I want to shoot basecoats or clearcoat thru my full sized guns....I'm looking at adding some type of smaller exhaust unit that won't move near as much air, for use when airbrushing only and I don't need that much exhaust....but for now I plan to just kick the big fan on periodicly....can't let it run all the time or it'll clear out all my conditioned air....or heated air depending on the season.

Wait.....I just happened to think of something.....are you removing the protective cover that snaps on over the VL's head/tip assembly? Sometimes new airbrushers don't realize that is just a protective cover and they try and paint with it on, and theres no way you can get a fine line doing that....this would even explain your spattering problem.....just wondering if this is what you might have going on? Its a little chrome funnel shaped thing with a hole in the end!

Unless your the one doing the thinning, I doubt that the paint right out of the jar is too thin, so I wouldn't start trying to modifiy it yet.....BentonB could be onto something also. Magnolia is alittle too far from me to be able to stop by and offer some help....sorry. I'm not familier with the Smith paints but the Createx should spray pretty good right outta the bottle..... Can you post a picture of the splatter problem so we can get a visual....that might help.

I doubt if 20psi is too much pressure, but it could cause you some spidering problems if the paint is a bit too thin.....or if your too close and/or moving too slow or applying too much paint in one pass......Being unable to get a finer line than 1" is somewhat puzzling since a Paasche #3 will draw lines as fine as a dull pencil without too much trouble....but that does take some airbrush control. I noticed your from Arkansas....what part?....Maybe i'm close enough to help(Mena)?......Well actually "close' is a relative term here in the mountains of western arkansas....hehehe....were are not exactly "close" to anything other than the forest.....but I was thinking if you couldn't figure it out and you lived close enough for a road trip, i'd be glad to do what I can to help you overcome your problems.

Pete, the whole room is the "spray booth"....Instead of sitting in front of a small booth, like you guys are used to seeing.......Once I get the exhaust system built it'll make more sense....i'm gonna try and have that done by the end of the week and i'll post more pics then.

This bothers me....if your having to push that hard on the trigger it makes me think somethings not assembled correct or something......is it possible your trigger assembly is hitting your needle or something?....Try removing everything except the trigger and see how hard it pushes down.....is it still hard or is it easy to push?....if its still difficult to push i'd be looking at he air assembly below the trigger as being gummed up or something.....its that assembly between where the hose screws on and the trigger assembly above it....i've seen them get gummy and not work smoothly.....I usually take some light weight oil like air tool oil or sewing machine oil, and put a drop into the bottom of that valve then and try working it into the valve assembly....iv'e also run lacquer thinner thru them first then oil....if you'll work at it you'll get that valve loosened up and it'll work smooth again without having to dissassemble it...which I don't recommend. Let me know if any of that helped or not?

Chances are its still clogged.....thats about the only time you'll get bubbles back thru a gravity feed cup, unless your somehow getting some air past some threads into the cup....some beeswax used as thread sealer works great if thats suspect. That model airbrush claims to have a self centering drop in tip....i'm betting thats simular to some other tips where they are kinda shaped like an icecream cone an just set into the head assembly.....the tip gets a build up of dried paint inside of it....try and remove the tip and use a pipe cleaner to clean inside it....run a pipe cleaner thru everything it'll fit thru....rinse that out good cause pipe cleaners can leave some fuzzy debri behind occasionally....reassemble and try again....you've just missed something.

Thought i'd share my paintbooth build with you guys.....As most of you know by now I've been airbrushing motorcycles and helmets among other things long before I ever decided to paint crankbaits which is what brought me to this website.....after the tornado hit our little town on 4/9/09 my old shop had been damaged heavily. We took this opportunity to make a few changes....the main one being a fully enclosed paintbooth area. We took the existing 12'X20' shop and built a wall seperating the inside into two 10'X12' rooms....I built a intake filter box to the left of the door that has four 20" sections that hold several filters in each section....my home furnace as well as the intake and exhaust filters will all be the same 20"X20" filter size. The exhaust system will be constructed on the wall opposite of the intake filters.....my plans are to have two towers of filters running up each corner of the room....these will be powered by an old household style furnace fan that can move 2200 cfm on high speed....I have used that fan for a couple of years and it works very well....i'm anxious to see how well it will work in this configuration....if need be i'll add a second fan and double the exhaust capacity.....the fan will be mounted on the outside of the shop as it was previously. As of this afternoon i'm still applying drywall mud, so I just stood a couple of filters in the corners of the room so you'll have an idea of what i'm going for......i'll post more pics as I go if ya'll are interested? I know this is overkill for most of you unless your into production painting lures, but I thought you might like to see it anyway.....this will work great for my motorcycle and helmet art and will allow me to shoot basecoats and clearcoat with my full size paint gun and not worry about overspray or trash getting in my clear anymore. Thanks for looking and i'd love to hear your comments.

Thats a cool story....congrats on the big ol bass.....guess you'll be doing alot more "testing" in that pond huh?....lol

I also use PPG white when i'm outta HoK....never had a problem with a bit of intermixing those two brands....only, your not gonna find PPG at any of the stores you mentioned....you'll have to hit an autopaint jobber....I get my PPG from our local CarQuest auto parts store....Call around and see what your local autoparts store carry.

Fair enough.....I know that lacquers are still around, but as you say, hard to find and expensive.....are you also clearcoating with the lacquer?

I've used Createx over urethanes without any issues....and vice versa......not sure about lacquers though.....I'm guessing you are dealing with urethanes and not lacquers anyway.....alot of folks seem to call urethanes, lacquers, when in fact they are not the same thing.

Bulldog is NOT really concidered a primer.....its an adhesion promotor....sprays on clear before you apply the primer.....Bulldogs motto is "Makes paint stick".....works great on plastics.....I wouldn't use it on wood. Yes, you can use Createx primers and basecoats on top of Bulldog....you can also use urethanes over it without any problems.

Guys, those little micro crankbaits are sweeeeeet.......My fishin buddy is a panfisherman.....but he mostly uses live crickets and worms.......I need to get him some of these to try instead.....I may have to get you guys to sell me a few for his next birthday.....I think i'll need a few for myself too...lol...those really are cool.....nice work guys.

You didn't say what type of paints your using, so i'm just gonna assume its some brand of waterbase?......and if so then "yep" they are easy to over reduce.....cut back and see what happens. I would however suggest you let the white basecoat dry before adding any colors.

Wise words from both Frank and Bob.....don't play home chemistry with paints and cleaning supplies, then put them in your airbrush to atomize into the air your breathing.:?Not a good idea in my book.

Thats always a great way to score some freebie paint.....and if you get in good with them a great place to score some good painting info.....What brand of paints did they give you?.....That'll kinda determine what brand reducer you'll want......don't forget that you'll want a cheap lacquer thinner for wash up purposes....don't use your reducer for washing your guns....it costs too much for that. On the other hand I know some old school painters that would use regular old lacquer thinner as their reducer.

Couldn't have said it better myself......Let the search engine here be your best bud.....i've spent hours on end reading old threads....i've found a ton of great information.....although it seems alot of the pictures are missing once you find a thread thats a few years old....but even with missing pictures the amount of info from those who have gone before us is overwhelming.....be a sponge and soak it up...lol.

Seems the pecan isn't suited for carving....guess i'll just keep it for firewood and smoking meats....lol

So it sounds like its just a control issue.....just dealing with overspray.....changing your angle of attack will help....using something as a shield will help.....working closer to the bait can also keep down the extra overspray....you can come back with your basecolor and fade back down from the top again to get rid of the extra overspray at this point.

Your picture has just enough blur that I can't make out any detail, but I don't really see any bad splattering thats maybe not just due to gun control.....and that just comes with time and practice. Other things that can cause splattering are.....Low air pressure(#1 cause).....paint too thick(#2 cause).....dirty airbrush or paint dried around the tip area......split tip or bent needle.....El Cheapo airbrush......and in the case of Paasche VL's, the protective cover has been left on the brush....Paasche owners will know what i'm talking about.:yes:lol I don't use single action brushes....never have.....i've got two ultra cheapo ones that were given to me, and after trying one of them I put it right back in the box....lol....when you get accustomed to a double action theres no going back.....a cheap single action brush could also produce a grainy lookin splatter pattern.....And concidering that you said you've tried several different things but the results were the same that could be your problem.