Cheers all!
A quick airbrush session was the first job today. Ha!
I am used to no paint coming out of the airbrush. No air at all is a totally different experience. I tracked it down to an issue with the trigger and valve, but nothing I have done so far (five hours on and off, including two bouts of ultrasonic bath) has made the slightest difference. The trigger simply won’t let air through the inlet valve. I can poke the valve with a blunt cocktail stick, and plenty of air, just not with the trigger. It’s like the trigger peg has lost a couple of millimetres of length and can’t push the valve open enough. Which is impossible. I can feel a little back pressure when depressing the trigger, enough to pop the trigger out completely (testing sans needle, of course) but no air flows.
I am, as they say, completely flummoxed.
The only remaining thing may be the tiny O-ring up inside the valve, which may have failed in some inexplicable way. It looks alright to me, but I’m not an O-ring sexer by trade. You can see it in the centre of the picture.
So, no varnish today. No further airbrushing at all until the new year. I don’t have a backup airbrush any more, either. That’s quite a lot of odd painting jobs I had planned shelved, then.
I had decided to invest in a top-fed brush in the new year, to supplement this siphon one. Time to go shopping, and also look for spare parts for the currently inoperable machine.
Happy Christmas!