Sata Minijet, part2

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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 8:28 pm
OK, I bought a new air diffuser, and cap "gasket" for the Minijet I have been having trouble with. I didn't want to go for a complete rebuild kit ($199) unless I absolutely had to (or just buy an Iwata mini for 250$). I installed them, and still have the same problem. Now I've been painting as a serious hobbyist for over 40 years. I have never had a gun do what this one is doing. I've figured out issues with my 2 large Satas, and my Iwata LPH400, so I'm not a complete idiot. But this little guy makes me feel like one!
SO, I ask the experts if they have any idea what is going on. The fluid comes out of the cap, in a straight line, and when it reaches the area between the holes in the sides of the cap, the droplets (large BTW) just explode outward in all directions. No attempt ate creating any sort of a fan. I've taken a pic of it, with gold paint in the gun, and if you look carefully, you can see the reflective gold going all over the place! (in fact I now have to figure out how to clean the lens in the camera) I've included aa drawing of what I see when I pull the trigger, as well. And the droplets go in ALL directions. Adjusting the fluid knob, and the pattern know don't do a thing. Air adjustment just puts out more paint, still in all directions.
I believe this is a tough one to figure, but hoping someone else has run into this before. Gun has been cleaned thoroughly several times, needle is undamaged, as is the cap and nozzle, as far as I can see. Maybe some micro damage to the cap?
Thanks again guys!
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 10:42 pm
I've had a similar thing happen with turbine guns. We run into this with them because generally with the 3 and 4 stage guns our cap pressures are 6 and 8 psi respectively. My theory has always been that these lower pressures are more sensitive to any irregularities in either the nozzle, needle, or air cap. One time it was a hairline, and yes, I couldn't even see it until I used a magnifying glass, break in the fluid nozzle. The other time it was something wrong with an air cap. I had several air caps I could switch back and forth on that gun and every cap was fine except one. Every single time we would get a distorted pattern with that one air cap. I never did visually see a "problem" with that cap. Just spit ballin' here base on some similar looking problems.....
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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2021 9:44 am
Did the gun ever spray correctly?
If so, I would question whether the gasket was the right one or as Dennis said, the cap.
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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2021 11:44 am
The gun was amazing. I do lots of custom stuff, and that's why I bought the most expensive mini gun. It atomized paints perfectly, so I could do small areas of Kandy paint, and extremely controllable, for doing fades, and such. Worked well for over 10 years, I suppose. Just disappointed in the cost of parts for it. New cap + rebuild kit= way more than a new Iwata LPH 80.

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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2021 6:23 pm
Yeah, that's a bunch of crap. We've had a few high end air sanders that I really liked over the years. Went to buy rebuild stuff and costs exceeded the new tool purchase. Ended up just buying more mid line tools which could be cheaply rebuilt or even just pitched.
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PostPosted: Mon May 31, 2021 9:15 am
I have one of these unfortunately I haven't had the chance to use it yet.

There has to be a cause of it doing this though ? sounds like a seal has gone bad internally.

I tried to find a Parts break down and down load the manual on thier web sight and keep getting redirected to a diff page frustrating. .
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:32 am
My new Iwata is on the way. If I can buy cheap, or borrow an air cap, and test to see if that's the issue, I'd buy a new one. But NOT taking a chance buying a new one and it not fixing the problem.

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:57 pm
i would bet your air horns are clogged or the little holes on the face of the cap, i have some broches that will clean the holes on the face i can send you. they're expensive but ill mail you one, you can also strip down that air cap of all plastic and soak in paint stripper.

put stripper in a plastic cup and toss nozzle in there and shake it good so it gets in the holes. clean with qtip see if that helps

edit: are you sure your paint is thin enough ? what's is look like spraying water ?
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:21 pm
PainterDave wrote:i would bet your air horns are clogged or the little holes on the face of the cap,


Agree.

Sometimes a tiny spot of paint that you can hardly see can ruin the spray pattern. As Dave says, soak and clean. I have some of those tiny brushes too but have also had success using strands of copper wire of suitable diameter. The copper is softer than the brass air cap so won't damage it if you're careful. Cut the wire with a proper wire cutter, not pliers or sidecutters so there's no jagged bit hanging off the end.
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:40 am
I will try again, as I really trust your advice. I do have a set of wire cleaners I use of caps and nozzles, as well as a set of mini bottle brush type cleaners. I also have an ultrasound cleaner I use for my airbrush parts, and have used that to try and clean the Sata stuff.
As for paint thickness: I have tried to shoot paint as mixed by the instructions, and with 10 and 20 % overreduction. Nothing seem to help this crazy pattern I'm getting. Even straight thinner does the same. To me, it seems like there is too much air coming out of the holes on the sides of the air car. Adjusting pressure doesn't help, though.
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