what is the best stuff for cleaning the airbrush with after using acrylic paint water or alcohol? rambo1…
Submerge the airbrush in some alcohol for a few hours.
right after use should you blast some water through the brush with air that is ? rambo1… thanks.
Right after use, use a mixture of water and alcohol 50/50, and spray it out for a few minutes.
First , don’t let the paint dry in the brush. When you are finished painting run some water through the brush until it comes out clear and then I like to follow up with some 70% isopropyl alcohol. Many don’t do the following but I take the brush apart and clean the individual parts and flush out the body of the brush well just to make sure that I haven’t left any traces of paint behind. This final cleaning I do with 70% alcohol.
Joe
Joe states it well. Some modelers find it to be a hassle to disassemble an airbrush, but this extra step pays off well in the long run. I suggest to beginners that once you’ve taken your airbrush apart 2 or 3 times, it becomes a simple routine that can be done without much thought to it.
My “quick” routine, after painting with Alclad Aqua Clear or Polly Scale acrylics:
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Flush with 70% alcohol.
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Remove Needle and wipe with cloth soaked with distilled water or alcohol. Inspect for any flakes of paint still clinging on, and wipe again.
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Wipe Air Cap. Inspect the Nozzle and make sure its clean.
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Wipe inside and outside of paint cup or paint jar with soaked cloth.
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Reassemble and flush with either alcohol or lacquer thinner at 35 psi.
Done. These steps take me less than a minute to perform.
I flush the air brush with Windex followed with lot of water to remove all trace of it. I also use Windex to strip acrylic paint when I made a mistake while painting structures. Very effective.
Guy:
I’ve also used Windex and it works well. I’m using isopropyl alcohol now since I was given a gallon jug of 91% and I can mix it with a little distilled water to make 70%. Right now I’m too cheap to buy some more Windex.[:)]
Joe
Joe, I agree wholeheartedly. I can’t believe people don’t take their brush apart and give it a thorough cleaning. Not doing it is flirting with disaster and is a quick way to turn it into junk. I imagine you could soak it in something long enough and it’ll come clean. It takes less than 5 minutes to disassemble, clean reassemble and flush.
Marlon:
I’ve lately been using an ultrasonic cleaner to clean the 3 nozzle pieces of my Paasche VL. That way I can get everything out of the small holes and off the surfaces. It may not be necessary but it makes me feel better [;)]
Joe
I have always had good results by turning up the pressure while cleaning the brush. The extra PSI will do a better job during the flushing.
I know everyone keeps saying use 70% isopropyl alcohol. Which will work most times. I use 91% isopropyl alcohol. guaranteed to clear everything out as long as your not using a testors plastic airbrush (as the 91% isopropyl alcohol WILL warp the plastic).
I will run a full cup through the brush before starting and between colors and when I am completely done painting for the day or night I’ll pull the needle, tip and guard and run a pipe cleaner soaked in 91% isopropyl alcohol through it. In most cases you don’t have to take a brush completely apart unless it sat for a long time (30 minutes or more) without flushing it. As long as you flush it after every color you should be good.
One last thing if you are using enamel paints (non-water based) you MUST use paint thinner to clean it out, isopropyl alcohol will not work.
Depends on the brush and what you are cleaning it with. On average, I may use my air brush 3-4 times a month, with either acrylic based, enamel or acetone based dyes. In either case, I keep an aerosol can of Berkibile 2+2 handy for cleaning out the gun. Just spray off the siphon tube, then stick the spray straw up the tube and flush out the gun, depressing and releasing the pressure rapidly. Then it hangs up on a hook til next time. I do take it apart, maybe once a year for a hand cleaning, but the airbrush is going on 50 years old, and it hasn’t hurt it yet.[:D]
After my wife said most of the dirt cutting in Windex is from the ammonia it contains, I tried making my own airbrush cleaner from about a pint of water, a few drops of dish detergent and a “sploosh” of ammonia, probably a couple of tablespoons. Seems to soften the paint that dries around the nozzle so it can be cleaned out, and I have seen dried paint chunks floating in the cleaner after a soak. But I also am of the school of dismantling and soaking the the brush between uses. I tried initially to just run water or alcohol through the brush and it didn’t really clean it.
Also, if you run cleaner through the brush, I recommend you spray it into your booth or into a bucket with something on top to trap the spray. I have to believe a mist of alcohol or windex or ammonia water can’t be healthy to breath.
George V.