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Pictorial Guide to Cleaning Your Airbrush

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  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: USA
Posted by MusicCity on Sunday, January 15, 2006 8:08 PM
Pretty thorough article, but there are a couple of things I'd add:

o  Most airbrushes have air passages that go from the air valve to the front of the body.  Contrary to popular belief, air does NOT blow through the nozzle of most airbrushes, it blows around the nozzle and pulls the paint out through the nozzle.  The air passage is bored through the body from the front to the air valve and from time to time it should be cleaned out.  Steel airbrushes can be soaked in laquer thinner (remove anything that might have an o-ring in it to be safe) and then blown out with compressed air.  The smaller inter-dental brushes can also be used to clean parts of the passages but will seldom be long enough to get much of it.

o  Dry threads will occasionally seize.  I like to put a tiny bit of airbrush lube on everything that is threaded, as well as my trigger mechanisms.

o  Regarding the small inter-dental brushes, I actually prefer the "Refills" that are available to the ones with a handle.  Both types are handy, but I drill a hole in the end of a wooden toothpick and glue a "Refill" into the hole (they have a wire stem that makes that easy).  That allows me to get to the needle bearing and other tight spots in the body that the handles prevent me being able to get to.

o  Pipe cleaners are very handy for cleaning hard to reach places, but be sure to blow everything out with compressed air afterwards to remove any "Fuzz" that might get left behind.

o  Some head assemblies have very tiny nozzles (such as the Badger 100, 150, and 200) that thread into the head.  They are usually sealed but if the seal breaks loose and you start twisting a piece of tissue or a pipe cleaner in them the nozzle can unscrew and get lost.  Always twist countercloskwise when viewed from the rear of the nozzle.  This will tighten the nozzle rather than unscrew it.

Scott Craig -- Nashville, TN -- My Website -- My Models Page
  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: SETX. USA
Posted by tho9900 on Saturday, January 14, 2006 7:15 PM
cool!  thanks for posting that.. I'm sure it will help a lot of people... that was an interesting looking airbrush in the tutorial!
---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Chicago, USA
Pictorial Guide to Cleaning Your Airbrush
Posted by MonsterZero on Saturday, January 14, 2006 6:56 PM
Don't let your airbrush become like that rifle that never gets cleaned because it will fail you when you least expect it:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2005/03/stuff_eng_tech_airbrush_cleaning_2.htm

A commercial airbrush cleaning kit looks like this

http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=83046
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