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DIY: Fixing Airbrush Nozzle Seal

Once I’ve had airbrush “Aurita 2.0” which worked just fine for me at the time.

I’ve been using mostly acrylic paints and used to clean the airbrush with alcohol. Once, when I performed a deep cleaning I got a bit frightened as the trigger wouldn’t come back to its default position. I remember I spent big time getting that trigger working but unfortunately in the mean time paint dried out somewhere on the needle. The pressure was so week I could not do anything with the airbrush. I’ve tried to clean it with alcohol however it didn’t help so I used white spirit. That was the moment when seal under the nozzle just melted. And the reason? – made in China :). After some thinking I’ve decided to fix it myself. Below are some instructions on how to replace the seal under the airbrush nozzle .

At first – take airbrush apart.

Find a sewing needle in your house – you will need that to clean all the holes in the airbrush, especially the airbrush needle duct.

This is how it should look like after cleaning. This part regulates the movement of the needle and it is located at the rear of the needle. Just look at the dirt! When you clean your airbrush and pull out the needle there is always some paint left inside.

It’s a terrible view.

Now take the nozzle cap and unscrew the nozzle – use the tool key that comes with the airbrush.

For those who want to start with airbrush but don’t know anything about it yet and probably have never hold an airbrush in their hands, here is an size comparison between the nozzle and a lighter.

So what can we use as a seal for our nozzle?

I decided to test hermetic fiber used on construction sites (check out you local DIY shops). I have applied som white spirit, alcohol and other dilutents to it and nothing happened to it. That in my opinion makes a good candidate for our purpose.

The fiber is used as seal for heating pipes. However the fiber diameter is too big to be used under the nozzle so we have to split up the fiber using a knife.

Chose what suits you best and wind it up in the way of the nozzle tread.

As you can see it doesn’t look very nice and the fiber doesn’t stick to the nozzle. Therefore screw the nozzle back in place. Now this is the moment when the lighter comes in, just a small flame makes it look so much better. The one thing left to do, is to clean the rest of the parts especially the needle.

I have found some nail polish remover and cleaned everything with that.

At last assemble it all back together.

If you have any interesting ideas, advice or recommendation on other materials that can be used don’t hesitate and share it with us!

Source: aerografpro

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