I just replaced my tip for my Paasche Millenium and was testing it out and noticed that it has started to pulse. It has never done this before and I know it's not the compressor causing it because it wasn't running and the air was coming off the supply tank. By changing the tip I wonder if maybe it hasn't changed something else like the air flow somehow. The reason I bring this up, is because the old tip was sort of sealed in from paint buildup and required a bit of force to unseat it. Perhaps this acted as a gasket? I don't know. I do know this is a bit annoying because I was really looking forward to doing some painting this weekend. Anyone have some idea as to what might be going on with this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time.
Steve

I am no expert, but it sounds like some dried paint might have gotten stuck somewhere causing uneven spray. Only thing I can think of doing is to completely disassemble the brush and soak it either in thinner or isopropyl alcohol for a bit to try and dislodge any dried paint particles.thinner if it is enamel based paint, alcohol if acrylic, though I don't know if it would work with acrylic, since that stuff is really tough when dry.

Ahoy Steve,

Check to see if the packing washer has not been displaced when the needle
was put back in....this is likely the problem.

See diagram ......... part no: 6........if no image........ go to link.

http://www.dixieart.com/Millschm.gif

Cheers,
Joe

If you're replacing the tip that the needle fits into, not the outer adjustable tip (the aircap), you might try applying beeswax to the threads for a tight seal before you screw it into the body.

Thanks guys for the advice. Gary, on this one, it's the tip that the needle slides through, it's not the aircap. It doesn't have threads, it just sits in this sort of a bowl. I wish it did have threads. Joe, I'm going to try that with the gasket. I thought about buying a new gasket when I bought the tips and the new spring, just because of something like this might happen. Like I said, the spray pattern is all wrong, it's ragged and I even have splatter far outside the the rest of the spray field and then there's the pulse. I'm reasonably sure it's not my thinning ratio, it's not the air pressure, it has to be the result of the tip change. Michael, I'm going try your suggestion as well and soak the body and parts in thinner.

Thanks again guys.

Steve

Success! Well, sort of. I soaked, scrubbed, scraped, the insides of the air brush, disassembled everything, and then tried it out again. I have a sprayed line about the size of a pencil line and no ragged edges. As far as the pulse goes, I still have some pulse at pressures around or above 20-25 psi. I drained my air tank and regulator/water trap thinking maybe this might have something to do with it, but I haven't noticed a diference. On the bright side, below 20 psi there's no pulse.

I dunno.

Heh, now I am having problems with airbrush pulse too. I didn't do anything to my Badger 360, except that I may have missed something in the last cleaning session, thats all I can think of.

I was using the regular testors paint, aluminum color. I have a theory that it might have been the paint due to the fact that it settled down very fast but that is it. Soaking the parts overnight to see if that helps...

The only thing I hate about airbrushing is the fact that you have to clean so much!