Pipe Cleaners

The pipe cleaners I use are manufactured by DILL and I buy them at a local tobacco store (I think it's simply called "Discount Cigarettes"). I also could not find them - at least not easily - at any "regular" store like Walmart, K-Mart, or my local grocery stores. This brand, and many other manufacturers products, are available online at various locations.

Please note - There are LOTS of manufacturers of "craft-type" pipe cleaners. I would personally steer clear of these products as they are really not intended to "clean" anything...let alone a pipe!

Pipe cleaners and chanille which is the craft equavilant to pipe cleaners are linty. The lint will snag on rough surfaces inside your brush and glob up causing you problems. Look for small dental brushes or even microbrushes to clean with.

Pipe cleaners and chenille are good for this: 

Paasche makes a nice set of reusable pipecleaners.  I use them cleaning my airbrush.  They are very durable and strong.  http://www.paascheairbrush.com/hardware.html

-Jesse

I have great success using snipped-off bits of USED dryer softener sheets. Being used, they are very pliable and I send them thru the AB with no trouble.....and they come out very dirty!

I wouldn't try unused sheets.....whatever chemicals we put on our clothes......I don't want them in the AB!

namrednef wrote:

I have great success using snipped-off bits of USED dryer softener sheets. Being used, they are very pliable and I send them thru the AB with no trouble.....and they come out very dirty!

Nam- How do you get them through the AB?  Sounds like an intriguing idea.

Daywalker wrote:

namrednef wrote:   I have great success using snipped-off bits of USED dryer softener sheets. Being used, they are very pliable and I send them thru the AB with no trouble.....and they come out very dirty! Nam- How do you get them through the AB?  Sounds like an intriguing idea.

Hah! Yes, I should have gone into that! DO NOT start with a one inch square piece as I first did!

I used a diddley piece about.....well, 1/4" - 3/8" square and I cut a few every time. I use an uncoiled length of spring wire that is slightly smaller than the needle, snipped off bluntly. (make sure your stiff wire is as straight as possible!) Then I wet the dryer sheet in the solvent of choice and twist it around the end of the wire and gently defile the AB.....about 1/2" at a time, but steadily.

You will feel it when you reach void where the trigger mechanism sits.....keep on slowly.....it should push thru the front barrel. Each successive pass gets easier especially if to blow some solvent thru between tries.....but each time.....the bits of dryer sheet pick up SOMETHING!

I't's not a quick process, about a half-hour. Put a DVD on. But I got a little worried months ab=go when reading posts about AB cleaning. Natch, Acrylics clear out much more quickly, but I use seperate AB's for different paints. And of course, soaking the beast first speeds things up.

Yes, I did get a wad stuck once....in the trigger space. Dug it out in a few minutes with a dental pick from the bottom. (whew!)

I have too much time on my hands and engineer too much!

I guess I've been lucky because I've never to my knowledge have had any problems with my airbrushes caused by using pipe cleaners to clean them  (almost all my problems with airbrushes are caused by operator head spacing and timing).

If you still want to try pipe cleaners, you might try any local gunshops.  A lot of people (myself included) use them to clean weapons and a lot of gunshops carry them (often in bulk). 

I agree with Gerald, stay away from pipe cleaners, they are for pipes not airbrushes.

Get a set of airbrush cleaning brushes!