Aerograph airbrush

This came as one of a pair of secondhand airbrushes that I bought from eBay (the other being the Badger 200NH described here), along with several jars and colour cups that don't fit either 'brush;

There's no model name written on the handle like on other Aerographs, but I believe that this is a 'Super 93' fitted with a 'fine line' tip and needle. There is a serial number, 03643.

At first I thought it was a slot head 'brush, whereby a small amount of paint or ink is held in a cavity in the body. However, I was confused by the rough finish surrounding the slot, other slot head 'brushes are polished around that area, so I now believe that this 'brush once had a paint reservoir attached to the body which has either broken off or been removed, effectively converting it to a slot head. Aerograph did offer slot heads in their range.

The needle, although dirty, looked to be in good condition. The needle chuck needed a little help to undo, not helped by a lack of lubrication, before the needle could be removed. Once I was happy that everything looked like it would work I connected it to my compressor and tried it with air only, this seemed fine so I ran some screenwash through it. That showed that the tip was damaged, so a replacement was ordered.

All of the parts needed a lot of cleaning up;

It looked like the remains of some thick grey paint was left behind after its last use.

Hidden inside the body there's an O ring with an adjusting screw that the needle passes through;

This is accessed and adjusted using a screwdriver inserted into the end of the 'brush. Tightening the adjuster squashes the seal around the needle, which is there to prevent paint flowing back into the body where the trigger is located.

As I had a new tip I decided to try and repair the old one which was damaged making the spray pattern drift to one side. So I lightly stoned the end of the old tip until the damaged part was ground back, this does of course mean that the tip isn't as fine as it should be but for what I want it will pass muster. The new tip will be put aside for now. Here's the old and new tips;

Although taking the old tip back has made the nozzle larger, it still measures between .3 and .35mm, that is a .3mm drill will pass through but a .35mm drill won't. The new tip should be somewhere around the .15mm mark, potentially too small for acrylics?

I've also fitted a quick disconnect coupling, a posh Harder & Steenbeck one, which does the same job as the slightly cheaper versions but has nicer knurling. Which I like.

The intention is to keep this for touch-up work and light weathering, where little paint is needed (its already proved its worth when my Badger 150 started playing up). I could of course just use my 150 for such, but this has far better balance and has a nicer feel. And again I've enjoyed tinkering with and making good an old tool.

Paul.