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Hi there!

Is little bit more than a year that I started airbrushing and I love it!
I started with some cheap 10€ ab and now I worked my way to this medium level (awesome Imho) Iwata ab.
I had it for 6 months and my daily care for cleaning involve filling the cup with a cleaning solution (isopropyl with windex) mix up in the cup, spray at full blast,fill with water,repeat, remove the needle,clean the cup with windex,clean the needle and finally blast at full a couple of times.
So far so good.
I have a cheap ultrasonic cleaner from china but I didn't felt too confident to put a 100€ ab in a 30$ cleaner.
Untill yesterday when It started to splutter and gorgle...
So on my way to disassemble the ab the nozzle and the piece that is attached to it came off. I thought it was weird but I kept on disassembling. I removed the seal between the body and the nozzle protection. I do not know if there is one more between nozzle and the golden piece between the body and the nozzle,if there was,is too late...
However I cleaned it, grease it and assemble it again.
Everything looked great. But there is a but.
Now when I press the trigger paint comes out naturally,like a single action ab....
I can't understand why and is really pissing me off.
Unfortunately the instructions are inJapanese and I couldn't find anything on the net.
I have a pic below so you can understand which part was that came out by itself. Is the one in the middle between the body and the cover of the nozzle.
If anybody had any similar trouble or have any idea what might be please just let me know. Is a shame to not use such a beautiful machine at the best.

Do you have the assembly diagram? I can photograph mine if not.

Edit: I can also scan instructions if you need.

Have a read of this?

http://www.airbrushguru.com/iwata-eclipse-manual-2009.html

Unscrew the needle at the back so it is loose

Slide the needle forward

Put that middle bit on the needle and slide the whole lot back to the assembly

Screw needle nut tight again

Put front cap on as tight as you can with your fingers


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Unscrew the needle at the back so it is loose

Slide the needle forward

Put that middle bit on the needle and slide the whole lot back to the assembly

Screw needle nut tight again

Put front cap on as tight as you can with your fingers


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I hate you dakka

kb_lock wrote:
Unscrew the needle at the back so it is loose

Slide the needle forward

Put that middle bit on the needle and slide the whole lot back to the assembly

Screw needle nut tight again

Put front cap on as tight as you can with your fingers


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Unscrew the needle at the back so it is loose

Slide the needle forward

Put that middle bit on the needle and slide the whole lot back to the assembly

Screw needle nut tight again

Put front cap on as tight as you can with your fingers


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I hate you dakka

I feel you bro

I have the diagram....maybe..

Diagrams are for communists

I just think your needle is too far back, drag it forward and then use the nozzle to push it back in.

The hp-cs is easily the only device to convince me that I'm super dumb. Every problem I've had with it that has taken time to solve has immediately made me face palm at how easy it was retrospectively.

I agree with the above. It sounds like the needle just isn't far enough forward. You shouldn't need to force it, just loosen the needle chuck, then gently slide the needle forward and retighten the chuck.

If that doesn't work, then I'm all out of ideas! I can reproduce this effect on mine tho with the needle too far back.

There are basically 4 places where paint that dries up in your airbrush can cause problems.

1. The nozzle assembly, which includes everything that you've disassembled.

2. In the body of the airbrush before the packing seal. In the HPCS, this is unlikely as that cavity is huge.

3. At or around the packing seal, which is slightly behind the cup (you can't see it).

4. Around, in, or under the trigger. (this is probably the culprit)

The part you've disassembled, I take apart *every time* after use. The front chrome piece is actually 3 different pieces -- there's a crown and cap that come apart from the piece that takes the wrench -- and I take those apart and dunk them in alcohol so that there's no buildup. I use a brush (pipe cleaner) to clean out the crown.

The part that you said "fell out" is the nozzle. This piece is very prone to paint buildup, if you don't think your airbrush paints or if you use metallic airbrush paints. The diameter of the nozzle will be 0.38mm, so as you can imagine, it doesn't take much to block it up. The best way to clean that part is either with an old needle (one that you DO NOT CARE ABOUT), or with an airbrush cleaning needle like this -

http://www.amazon.com/PointZero-Airbrush-Nozzle-Cleaning-Needle/dp/B004KNFP26/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448407416&sr=8-3&keywords=airbrush+cleaning+needle

You are basically going to scrape the paint off the inside of that head, so whatever needle you use will be toast after a use or two.

For the airbrush body, you should use pipe cleaners, interdental pick, or something that's made for it like the black fuzzy ones in these:

http://www.amazon.com/Airbrush-Cleaning-Repair-Stainless-Needle/dp/B0154H7IXU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448407416&sr=8-1&keywords=airbrush+cleaning+needle

The packing seal is tricky. Personally, I would use the smallest of the cleaning brushes in the above kit, and basically run it all the way up and down the airbrush as far as it will go, to scrape out that paint.

Now... based on what you've said (trigger sticks), I think that the ACTUAL problem is in the trigger. Take the needle out, then remove the trigger, take a flashlight and look down it. Chances are, there is paint buildup there.

To clean that, your best bet is some kind of brush that fits. Unless you have an industrial ultrasonic cleaner (that you run for an hour or two, probably with heated water), you'll need to clean it manually; the cheapo jewelry cleaners won't do the trick. Avoid using alcohol or solvents, as the packing seal and O-Rings on the body will all become brittle with these.

This will be a needle travel issue. You don't want to force the needle forward to correct it. The parts need a better cleaning to fix this. I have the same brush and when this occurs, I know it's time for a deep cleaning.

That silver cap on the front is three pieces. I don't use the cone shaped front part which protects the needle but I am very careful not to poke something and bend the tip. The other two pieces come apart and should be cleaned separately as gunk will build up in there.

When you hold the brass nozzle up to a light, can you see through it? If not, run it through you ultrasonic again. Very gently insert the needle only into the nozzle so that it pokes through. Even more gently, turn the needle in clock-wise motion and in/out. This action teds to find some of the sludge in the brass nozzle part and extrudes it out the tip.

Keeping your parts wet helps a lot. Even though it seems it would be harder on the seals, I think it's worse to have paint dry out and then need to use cleaners to dissolve it. Next Level Painting shows how he cleans the same brush in this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-iuigiL8U

The HP-CS nozzle can hold an astonishing amount of crap inside it. I soaked mine in plain acetone the other day and every so often ran the needle in and out. I must have hooked out about a cubic centimetre of softened paint and varnish.
Every so often giving the nozzle a work over in something like that is a good idea, even if it looks and feels clean.

There is no seal between the nozzle and the other cilindric piece,right?

The nozzle is the piece that "fell out" with the very small aperture that the needle pokes through. It sits (floats), metal on metal, against the body of the airbrush.

The next piece, a cap, holds it in place. An O-Ring keeps the cap airtight. It's the only seal in the forward part of the airbrush assembly.

@BC - you should scrape the inside with a $3 cleaning tool, or a crappy old airbrush needle, instead of the nice Iwata one that's like, $30 to replace

By the way, one way to ensure that the airbrush doesn't get buildup in the nozzle assemble is to just drop it into a little container of isopropyl alcohol overnight after every use. If there's stuff in the nozzle assembly, you can actually feel the needle stick -- it should feel gummy. Plus, you should be able to tell pretty quickly, because the airbrush just won't feel right.

As many others have said, this sounds like the needle is not sealing with the nozzle.

Usually this is because there is a tiny tiny piece of gunk in the nozzle that is preventing the needle from going all the way in.

Try cleaning the nozzel a bit more (some of the dental toothpic type cleaners you get at the pharmacy help with this), and try squirting liquid through it to see if it flows freely.
Also, try holding it up to the light to see if you can see through it unobstructed.

Finally, see if you have an old needle or something that you can use to clean it out.

best of luck

You can also take the end off the nozzle, which makes cleaning so much easier.

Those tiny cleaning pins/knives on ebay are great too