Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Solo Review
6/2012
I got an e-mail from Anke Matthiessen, the Director of the North American Division of Harder & Steenbeck. She said she had seen my site and wondered if I would like to review an Evolution airbrush. Heck Yeah!! I wasted no time sending her my address. A few days later it was in my mailbox.
Here is what she sent me.
Clockwise from upper left, is the Evolution Solo, the manual, an Airbrush Workshop DVD, a Quick Fix handle, and a small bag of Lifesavers. The Lifesavers were a nice touch.
As you can see, the Evolution came in a nice plastic case. Here is a closer look. The Harder & Steenbeck airbrushes are made in Germany. The standard Solo doesn't come with a cup cap, but one is available.
First Impressions
This is a really pretty airbrush. Anke tells me the gold plating is real. The finish is perfect. Notice it comes with a male quick disconnect. This comes off and there is a standard 1/8" hose connection.
The Evolution weighs 92g with the standard handle and 97g with the Quick Fix handle.
The standard Solo is nickel plated. If you want the brighter chrome, the more expensive Evolution CR series has it.
The black stripes on the handle are o-rings. The brush is well balanced and feels good in the hand. Trigger pull is just slightly rough. By slightly, I mean I can barely feel something. It may smooth out with use.
The manual is in nine languages. It covers all the basics, and it's clear with nice pictures. The DVD is really good, with about an hour and a half of video. It is part sales pitch, but has lots of good information.
Here is the parts diagram from the manual. This is about actual size.
Item V is an optional adjustable air valve that can throttle air like a MAC valve. They call it an fPc valve.
B,C, and I are the air head, nozzle, and needle, and they come is four sizes; 0.15mm, 0.20mm, 0.40mm, and 0.60mm. I received the 0.20mm set. The drawing shows cups D1 and D2 in two sizes; 2ml and 5ml. I got the 2ml. The cups unscrew, so you could use the brush without one, but they don't recommend this. Other sizes are available.
One curious thing I noticed is that the drawing doesn't show a bottle for the X siphon model, just a cup. But, they are available.
The cup fitting is standard size, and a standard bottle would fit. Not shown on this diagram, but in the video is an adapter that allows a bottle to be used on the Gravity model.
Spares are available for all parts. Dealers are listed in the Harder & Steenbeck website.
Parts breakdown
Here is what it looks like broken down. All parts were finger tight and came apart with no problems.
The Evolution has some design features I've never seen before. For one thing, the rocker or back lever is permanently attached to the trigger. The top of the trigger has grooves and a cutout to give better traction. The trigger is very easy to install. The ball sits in a cup shaped opening in the body.
The needle tube is really different too. It has a hex shape and fits in a matching opening in what Harder & Steenbeck calls the middle component. Strangely, the Evolution doesn't have a tension adjust on the trigger pull. The only way to modify tension would be to mess with the spring.
The air valve has a tiny o-ring that the valve pin slides through. It appears to have some sort of lube on it. There is a larger o-ring where the valve fits against the body of the brush. The tension on the air valve is adjustable from the bottom with a standard screwdriver. This is the first airbrush I've seen with enough adjustment range that I didn't have to modify the spring to get the low force that I prefer.
The needle seal appears to be Teflon. It has some strange red marks on it that were probably on the sheet material it was stamped from. I re-installed it with a round toothpick, and adjusted drag with a jeweler's screwdriver. It was an easy adjustment.Anke wanted me to mention that they offer a special screwdriver for this.
The needle is super sharp, and looks very fragile. The shaft diameter is 0.047 inches.
The head assembly is unique too. There is a Teflon gasket attached to the nozzle. The gasket is replaceable. The nozzle is held by compression between the head and the airbrush body. The o-ring on the head compresses to insure a tight fit. The head cap is for protection only and the brush will work without it.
The paint intake has a black gasket to seal to the removable cup. Access is tight, but a cotton swab will fit. There is a narrow channel about an inch long from the cup area back to the needle seal that might be hard to keep clean. A pipe cleaner will fit as far as the cup, but it is too large to go in the channel. The smallest brush from my airbrush cleaning kit will fit, but it's tight. I read in one of the forums a warning that the o-rings in this airbrush are not solvent proof. But, I don't think this is really a problem. They may not be solvent proof, but they are solvent resistant Viton. I wouldn't soak them in lacquer thinner, but a quick wipe isn't going to hurt. And, the only one that will normally be exposed to solvents is the cup seal you see on the right, and not much then. The o-ring on the head is an air seal, and the head itself shouldn't need cleaning unless you are really sloppy. There are two o-rings in the air valve, but you should never allow solvents in this area anyway.
Anke tells me that new production units all now have PTFE (commonly referred to as Teflon) seals, and new seals are available for replacement.
One more unusual feature is the air opening in the front of the body. Most airbrushes have one or more round holes. The Evolution has a D shaped opening on one side. It would be interesting to see how and why they do this.
I checked out the Quick Set handle. Possibly the best way to explain it is the illustration that comes in the bag. Here it is on the right. You press the button on the end. Then you turn the knurled section to limit the trigger travel as much as you want. If you want to return to full trigger travel, just pull the knurled section back, the button on the back will pop out, and you will have full travel. Now, to go back to the setting you had, push the button in. It will click, and you will be back at your setting. One problem with needle limiters is that sometimes you need to pull the needle back to flush out a clog. A plain limiter prevents this. The Quick Set gets around this problem. It's pretty clever.
Trying it out
As usual, I began by shooting plain water. And, I got bubbles in the cup and pulsing in the spray. I thought, oh no, now what. What I found was that I hadn't tightened the head enough to get a good seal between the nozzle and the body. You have to tighten enough to compress the rubber o-ring on the head. A little tweak and it sprayed fine.
I changed the trigger pull spring with one out of my ball point spring collection to give the softer action I prefer. I had some trouble re-installing the middle component. The threads are pretty fine and didn't want to start for some reason. Be careful not to cross thread them.
I did my doodle with red food coloring on a paper towel. As you might expect with such a small nozzle, the spray angle is very narrow. Trigger control is good, but I used the Quick Set handle and it worked really well. I might have done finer lines if I had removed the head cap, but I didn't have guts enough to try it. The trigger pull feels smoother. My lighter spring may have contributed to that. Maximum coverage for spraying models is about 1/2 inch. When I cleaned the brush, I flushed it well with water. Then I ran my modified dental brush up the channel to the needle seal and it came out really red. I had to swab it several times. I think this would be a good practice.
The nozzle design is nice. It's big enough to handle, and there are no tiny threads to strip. There is a special tool to clean it, but I suspect if it is flushed with a suitable solvent right after use, the tool won't be needed. My dental brush fits pretty far inside.
Conclusion
Harder & Steenbeck is kind of like the Apple Computer of airbrushes. They are not cheap, but they are good. Many owners are almost fanatical in their praise. And, there is no question that they are well made. Buying one won't make you an expert airbrusher, but it won't hurt either.
I'm not qualified to evaluate the finer differences between high end airbrushes, but the Evolution certainly sprays well for me.
But then, so do most other airbrushes.
One nice thing about Harder & Steenbeck is the commonality of parts. If you check on spares, you'll find that many parts, like nozzles and needles are the same for the Evolution as the more expensive models. To me, this indicates that the Evolution should perform just as well as they do.
The 0.2mm Solo is really a detail airbrush. But, if you installed .4mm components in it and added a 5ml cup, it would be a nice general purpose brush.
Thank you very much for the sample, Anke.