H&S Infinity has left the building.......taxi!!

[alextheblue]

Firstly, I must start this topic with an apology as I don't do a whole lot of posting these days. Sure, I could come up with the same old excuses, but we are all busy, have jobs, family, etc, etc, to be honest, I'm not really sure why my posts have tailed off over the months. Anywho, I felt my recent experience with my trusty H&S Infinity was one that I should share as I am sure there are plenty of people that have gone through a similar thing.

Now I should start by pointing out that I hadn't used the old AB for a couple of months, so before commencing a painting sesh, I stripped the old girl down (the airbrush, the airbrush!! ) and gave it a really good clean using my old faithful Ultimate cleaner and thinner as I always do. Even after cleaning, it just didn't seem right, the "force" of the air didn't seem quite as, well forceful as it used to be. Pressing on, I mixed my paint and added it to the paint-cup and after a couple of sprays on a piece of kitchen roll I set to work. The paint went down, but it just didn't feel right, so after the session, I stripped it down again and gave it another good seeing to. The following day I continued with my spraying and this time the Infinity seemed even worse. Paint was barely coming from the tip and after gratuitous cleaning of both the needle and the tip, it didn't seem to be any better. Now, don't get me wrong, I've experienced tip-drying before (it's tip-drying I hear you cry!), but this just seemed......different. Another strip down and another clean.

The next week to ten days have pretty much consisted of the same thing, for every two minutes of spraying there has been twenty minutes of cleaning. Coming to the conclusion that there is definitely something wrong, I started to swap bits over from my H&S Evolution, part by part in a bid to find the fault. Results from this little experiment proved to be inconclusive, but it seemed as though either the tip or the needle may be at fault, so after a trip to air-craft.net these were replaced with shiny new ones...........to no avail. To date I have replaced every seal, stripped, soaked and cleaned the AB in cellulose cleaner (hence replacing the seals, you can't be too careful). I've examined every part of the airbrush under high magnification and I'll be buggered if I can find even a minute spec of dust on it, or in it anywhere. But still the problem persisted.

Finally, hallelujah, I stumbled across the solution!! Grabbing the little fecker by its end, I pulled back my arm and with all my might I hurled it out of an open window!!!

And do you know what, it worked........not a problem with it since.

Taxi...........I'm outta here!!

[Davethepitch]

You should have thrown it through my window.

[Paul]

Hmm weird Alex, maybe speak to martin at air-craft and see what he recommends

[alextheblue]

Hmm weird Alex, maybe speak to martin at air-craft and see what he recommends

Yeah, I'm definitely confused.com at the moment. I've had the infinity for a couple of years and it's given me faultless service, but you're absolutely right, Martin to the rescue, hopefully.

[Nev]

I had trouble with mine recently. I was using the nozzle cleaning tool that looks like a metal reamer. Well I think I over did it and wrapped the nozzle. I ended up replacing it. But to be honest I have put more new parts in to my infinity than I ever had with the iwata hpc plus! I am not one for brands but I feel my iwata has given me better service than the H&S. to be fair I am probably just ham fisted and the German machine probably deserves a more gentle user.

I will probably stay with the Iwata from now on.

[cptgandy]

i know how alex feels as my evo has driven me mad a few times with constent stop and start with the nozzle clogging the tip every minute, it happens with H&S brushes more as the needle/nozzle is smaller than the standard the other companys use so its possible to see more issues.

I think i have fixed my issues by using lower pressure with a slightly more thinner paint mix and a few drops of flow improver as i managed to spray my 1/48 spitfire without a singe clog or any issue.

I have some spraying to do over the weekend so fingers crossed the thinner paint mix works with no issues or in the new year I will swap over to iwata.

[ForbesHutton]

The air pressure should only be affected by a couple of parts:
The needle and nozzle, but you've swapped them out.
The internal seals (which really should last forever in the Infinity since it has the upgraded nylon ones to start with)
The air valve. This is the one part you didn't specifically mention switching with one from the Evo.
The compressor/regulator/air hose.

Have you tested the air valve?