I'm hoping to get some help here for a problem I'm having with my HP-C airbrush.

For some strange reason, it sprays to the right of where I point the beast. This causes the paint to gather in the crown, which in turn makes the paint fly off in uncontrolled gobbets, usually on top of my model. Of course.

My first thought was the the needle was bent, so I purchased a replacement. No difference. That pretty much seemed to put the blame on the teeny little nozzle piece (the most expensive piece of the thing), so I replaced that also, but it still sprays to the side.

That pretty much left me scratching my head( ), since I can't figure out what else would effect the airflow.

Any ideas?
Mika

Check the thickness of the paint you are spraying and the pressure you are using. I know if I spray paint that is too thick it sometimes does this. Thin it out a bit and it may solve your problem.

I have noticed (I just got the Iwata HP-c) that the paint neds to be really thin.....like 70 % thinner or so to spray nice.........

I do not have any experiance with the Iwata AB. I do have vast experiance in the spray application of coatings. The viscosity or flow rate of paint (thinness) relative to the application air pressure only affects the droplet size and not the direction of the paint stream. It appears your problem is equipment related and not paint related. A way to determine for certain that this is the case spray tinted thinner such as a wash. If you still have paint stream misdirection, you definitely have an equipment issue.

Since you have replaced the needle and nozzle, you might check the gun housing at the point paint leaves the nozzle. If it is bent, It may be that paint is hitting it as it is atomized or the distortion may be disrupting the atomizing air and causing a shift to one side.

As I say this is general information that I hope will help you troubleshoot your problem.

Thanks for the quick replies! When I clean out the AB, it still sprays to the side so I'm disinclined to think it's the consistency of paint. I think what I'll try is to see what the spray pattern is if I take off the second piece of the outer nozzle (the one that protects the teeny thing) and see if that lets it paint straight. That would imply that that piece is somehow interfering with the spray.

Thanks again,
Mika

OK, mystery solved. I went home at lunch to try this out, and indeed it was the intermediate piece between the crown thing and the body that caused the spray to go to the side. There was a little bit of dried paint on one side of the hole. I cleaned the whole thing out thoroughly, and the paint again flowed straight! Yay! Oh, I also finished spraying the top of my 1/72 Beaufighter. Looks decent.

Mika