Posts: 2,724
Threads: 160
Joined: Dec 2008
I seam to have A problem with destroying airbrushes, so far dropping 2 and damaging one beyond repair. This one I was able to save, the only damage was to the trigger. The air and paint valve still worked, I just needed to make a new one

I started to shape a #10 screw to match the damaged trigger on the left.

Then I placed it in my improvised milling machine and cut a grove for the brushes needle to pass through.

Here you can see the stem of the air valve that the trigger attaches to and the tight clearances that you have to work with.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew
Posts: 2,724
Threads: 160
Joined: Dec 2008
The next step was to attach the new trigger to the old valve stem. I did this by drilling a hole in the trigger and riveting it to the stem.
The last step was to assemble the brush and test it.

She works just fine, that saved me a pretty penny.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew
Posts: 1,797
Threads: 81
Joined: Dec 2008
Now that's what I call fabricating a part! Well done!!!
Posts: 5,859
Threads: 175
Joined: Dec 2008
Just like a good steam mechanic, Steve.

A good hammer (figuratively speaking) and you can make anything.
Wayne
Posts: 1,215
Threads: 89
Joined: Dec 2008
Awesome work! Great improvising
Tom
Model Conrail
PM me to get a hold of me.
Posts: 1,817
Threads: 27
Joined: Dec 2009
Whoa!

Really nice work!
You have my utmost respect! I haven't seen that kind of inventiveness and creative problem solving since I was just out of Philadelphia College of Art and working in a consultant design office with a couple of crazed, outrageously creative industrial designers!!
Just chuck a chunk of "whatever-it-is" in the vertical mill and have at it! So cool! Ya gotta love it!
BUT! you need to tether those airbrushes so when the leave your hand

hock: they stop falling just short of the floor!!

How about a vertical "service loop" in the air hose on a long bungie cord? :?: :?:
biL
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln