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Last night I decided I was going to clean and polish the used airbrush I recently purchased. The previous owner neglected the brush leaving paint residue on various surfaces. After an hour or so, I had a handful of black q-tips and cloth. Needless to say the brush looked frickin amazing. I COMPLETELY disassembled the brush, removing the o-rings etc. prior to doing this, and after I buffed away the remaining polish I gave it a quick wash with some Dawn dish soap and water. Upon reassembly I couldn't help but notice how nice and smooth all of the threads went back together and how nicely the trigger pulled and returned to its original position. After doing this I got to looking at the bent needle that the brush came with and decided it couldn't hurt to polish it. I used a sanding sponge and lightly sanded away the bend and burr at the end of the needle. Then I took the polish on a nice soft cloth and polished the tip of the needle. When I was finished the bend at the tip was gone and it looked like a new needle, only slightly shorter. I did the same with the nozzle that the brush came with because it was damaged as well. It came out just as nice as the needle. Keep in mind that I have a new needle and nozzle en route to my house and I honestly can't suggest that anyone use these methods on new or working parts. When I get the new parts I will post pictures with performance comparison from the parts I repaired and the new parts, I am very curious to see if the sanding and polishing was effective.

Comments are welcome as always, here are some pictures. Sorry I didn't think to do before and after lol.

Shiny! I'd be interested to see how the reshaped needle works out for you. It certainly can be done, but is tricky enough to be considered inadvisable, generally. Looking at the photos, I fear you may run into issues - the damage to the nozzle may be purely cosmetic, but the reshaped needle looks a bit off. The tip still looks a tad rough and is both slightly asymmetrical and generally "bullet" shaped, whereas most needles (that I've seen, at least) come to a finer point and have straighter tapers (including a steeper secondary taper at the tip, like a double-beveled knife edge).

If the refurbished parts fail, are you going to scrap them or try again? I think you might have better luck with actual sharpening equipment (diamond paddles, whet stone, etc.) and a fine polish than starting with simple sanding.

You could of just stuck it in a Ultrasonic Cleaner with some simply green and it would of cleaned it for you. The sanding is what did the damage to it. You will have to replace the needle and the nozzle.

 Sammoth wrote:
You could of just stuck it in a Ultrasonic Cleaner with some simply green and it would of cleaned it for you. The sanding is what did the damage to it. You will have to replace the needle and the nozzle.

Pretty much this; by sanding the needle, it now doesnt fit the nozzle right, and by sanding the nozzle youve deformed it so the fit will be even worse
I cant imagine that your 'repaired' setup will perform very well atall.... it might spray, but detail ability will be greatly reduced, and if the fit is bad enough it will maybe even spit large drops.

- you have also removed the chrome plating, or atleast weakened and thinned it anywhere that was sanded.

The refurbishment was worth a try, both of the parts were already damaged and I will have the new ones on Monday. I just did it for fun really. Thanks for the feedback guys!

HairySticks wrote:

 Sammoth wrote:
You could of just stuck it in a Ultrasonic Cleaner with some simply green and it would of cleaned it for you. The sanding is what did the damage to it. You will have to replace the needle and the nozzle.

Pretty much this; by sanding the needle, it now doesnt fit the nozzle right, and by sanding the nozzle youve deformed it so the fit will be even worse
I cant imagine that your 'repaired' setup will perform very well atall.... it might spray, but detail ability will be greatly reduced, and if the fit is bad enough it will maybe even spit large drops.

- you have also removed the chrome plating, or atleast weakened and thinned it anywhere that was sanded.

Okay genius. Read my post again and then decide which side of the sheet of paper was done with the refurbished needle. I will be 100% amazed if you can tell or if anyone else can tell for that matter lol.