The Ship Model Forum

Hello All:

If all else fails... You can send it back to Badger to have it refurbished. They will go through it and replace anything that needs to be replaced and send it back to you like brand spankity new! I have to do that with one of mine. I have a 150 that is not behaving very well. usually doesnt take that long either... Hope this helped...

Stephen C.
intruder500

I only use Acylic Paint in my Airbrushes. When they need a good cleaning I soak the disasembled parts in Spic and Span household cleaner (Full Strength).

Karsten

How appropriate you would ask this. Last night I got out my Badger 150 and it was welded shut with Mr. Surfacer primer. I looked at the Badger site and it looks like the 150 and 200 have a similar general layout, so my procedure should work for you as well.

Do NOT soak the entire body. You do not need to, and as someone said, it will destroy the seals. The first thing to do is remove the front nozzles. That is in two parts. Take those off, remove the plastic seal that goes between the rear nozzle and the body, wipe it clean with a rag, a Q-tip with lacquer thinner works as well, and set that aside.

Separate the two nozzle sections. Put them in a small glass jar. Put them in GENTLY, the nozzle tip is in that assembly. It is very very fine, and easily crushed. Fill the jar with lacquer thinner, let the nozzles sit.

I assume you have a color cup that attaches to the bottom of the airbrush. Remove that. Fill it with lacquer thinner as well, let it sit.

The last thing to remove is the needle. Normally you pull it out from the rear of the airbrush. If that doesn't work, you might now be able to see enough of the needle with the nozzles off to see the collected paint that's stuck it in place. If so, go at it with a Q-tip and lacquer thinner. My needle was so bad that I had to pull it FORWARD out of the airbrush. Be careful when doing that, but with the nozzles removed, it should be fine. You can then use a rag moistened with lacquer thinner to wipe down the needle, then you can set it aside.

Now you have the openings for the nozzles and color cups open. Take a Q-tip or a pipe cleaner, soak it in lacquer thinner, and clean out those two openings.

After the nozzles and color cup have soaked a while, start wiping at them with a Q-tip, pipe cleaner, whatever gets into the paint buildup. Be very very careful of that tip on the larger nozzle; again, it's very fragile.

After all visible buildup is removed, put it back together and shoot clean lacquer thinner through the brush. Don't use the thinner you've been soaking in, it'll have clumps of paint in it.

That should take care of it. If you find that the thing is literally welded together with paint and you can't fix it, send it to Badger. They have a great lifetime warranty program.

Let me know if anything is unclear.

-Devin

Acetone! Very hazardous, use only outside, wear gloves, and for gods sake don't have ANY FLAME nearby. Can be had at any hardware store, in the paint Department.


Be Safe

Bob Wescott

Hi Don,

have you ever tried to clean it with the help of an ultrasonic cleaner? VERY, VERY effective and so easy you will never use something else.
I knew this may not be a simple solution for your problem, specially if you are looking for something you can do right now. But do yourself a favor and try to get one of those. Those little machines are being sold for about 19 -25,-- Euros. All you have to do is dismantle your airbrush and put in the little basket inside the machine add some warm water and some ordinary dish washing detergent, turn the power on and repeat this perhaps 2 or 3 times, each cycle takes about 1-2min. (that is if you are using acrylics, if you use enamel colors, you can also easily and without any harm use alcohol instead of water, I bought myself a canister of Isopropyl-alcohol in the drug store, 3ltr. for 18,-- Euros, should last half a century!!!!). Works good with acrylics AND with enamel colors.

If you need anymore informations about this let me know.

Keep on modeling
Ren�
www.usns.biz

But be prepared to by a "repair kit" for your airbrush.

I hope it is not the case with Badger airbrush but the instruction on my airbrush says "Do not immerse in thinner as it will damage resin seals inside of airbrush".

In my airbrush there are so-called "gaskets" - 2 or 3 small round plates which seal the airbrush in several places (you can easily see if your airbrush has them when you dissasemble it - or you can just remove them).

Sometime ago I poured a thinner for lacquer into yogurt plastic package - when I took that package there was no bottom in it - the thinner thinned it all!!! This may happen to any resin seals in airbrush if it has them.

But if your airbrush is all clogged there is no other way - the thinner will not "eat" metal anyway but will take all the paint out there. Wish you success.

Yevgeniy

What kind of paint did they use?

Generally, laquer thinner is strong enough to strip most paints, particularly enamels, in my experience.

Gents! Need some help with a clogged airbrush (Badger 200). Its my fault. I let the kids use it for a school project (They start early here in DE). They didnt clean the airbrush out and its now heavily fouled by dry paint. Please tell me I can emerse the airbrush in its broken down form in some sort of soulution. Please be advised that I live in the middle of my small state and there are no hobby stores close other than 'Michaels' and 'Ac Moore'. Thank you in advance for any suggestions guys.

Don G.