Hobby Warehouse in Lakewood gets most of my business but I am going to cruise down into OC today and see the shops you suggested. See you whenever! Thanks.

Floquil is an enamel line, so yes, that particular thinner is for enamels as you deduced. I think I know which product you are using there. The smaller bottles don't appeal to me, mainly due to prices, but also because it always seems to run out so quickly. There should not be a problem using the Testors stuff to clean your airbrush, but since you have the nice big can of lacquer thinner, why not continue to use that up until  its all gone and use the thinner strictly for thinning purposes? Since lacquer thinner usually has superior cleaning qualities on enamel paint.

 Just curious, but which LHS did you buy the stuff at?

The bottle I have is 1 3/4oz "Airbrush Thinner" #1789 and it is in a clear bottle with red label. Says that it thins MM and Floquil, but never says enamel specifically.   It contains the mineral spirits, naphtha and other things. But there is also a "cleaner" that is also a thinner that contains xylene instead of naphtha.

I have been using lacquer thinner in the blue can from Lowes to clean my enamel brushes and it seems to work fine----and cheaper.  But I will use the 1789 thinner/cleaner to rinse out my airbrush, as instructed by the LHS.  Correct??      

Testors has two universal thinners, one for enamels and one for acrylics, and they are lableled as such. The enamel comes in a can while the acrylic thinner and cleaner come in idnetical looking and  very similarly labled bottles. And then there is their acylic airbrush cleaner as well. Sometimes I have the clogging problems mentions, usually when the paint is dryig on the tip of my airbraush as it is spraying. I keep a small amount of acrylic thinner and a microbrush handy to dab on the airbrush nozzle/needle for a quick fix.

One other thing about Testor's Universal Thinner. If you go on their website, you will find many different products with similar description, either thinners or cleaners. Then look at the MSDS and you will see that one type (1156 & 1148) has xylene and mineral spirits wheras another (1789) has naphtha and mineral spirits. Wonder how to tell which to buy for what?     

Seems to me that Testors has too many products with too few differentiating descriptions.   

If you decide you want to try it again, make it very thin. I don't have any PollyScale but my current bottle of MM Acryl flat black will clog up my brush in just a few seconds if I thin it normally. To the point it will not spray and blows bubbles in the cup. But if I add just enough paint to color the thinner it will work. In other words, squeeze/pour enough thinner to cover whatever you're gonna paint and then add enough drops of black to color it.

Maybe it's unrelated, I don't know, but they come from the same place. The last bottle I had was fine. It doesn't seem thick, mixes normally, doesn't get stringy or gel or anything; just won't spray unless very thin. I would just toss it and get another but money's tight so I'll use it till it's gone.

Tony

Chris, that's just plain weird.

We had a long thread about this 6 months or so back.  I am one of those folks on the- "polly scale frustrates the heck out of me!" -camp.  I hear people talk about it, using distilled water, tried that, tried universal airbrush thinner, tried Golden's airbrush medium and water, tried adding flow release, tried adding retarder, I can't get it to spray more than a minute or two without clogging up my airbrush.  I am using a Badger 100LG with medium needle and tip, 

I gave up despite loving a particular color, and went back to Tamiya.  Maybe if I feel I haven't spent a day cussing, throwing stuff, or being really frustrated in a while, I may revisit Polly Scale, but I doubt it!

Chris

Distilled water, nicht anders, versteh?

I suspect, since the shortsighted, moneyhungry management at Testors decided to drop the Polly Scale Military acrylic line, they didn't formulate their "universal" thinner to work with it. Besides, considering the obvious variation in the acrylic polymers used in acrylic paints, it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a universal acrylic thinner.

Just use distilled water and you'll be fine. Of course, that doesn't mean that  you shouldn't give your airbrush a good cleaning.