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I have Googled and used YouTube but getting no where. I thought I would ask here and see if I can learn something here.

I have thought I cleaned out my air brush. When I use water it comes out great and can see the mist coming out. I bought some new Vallejo Air Brush paint. What happens after a few seconds it seems like it's clogged and nothing comes out. It then sputters a bit, some paint comes out but then nothing seems to come out. I clean it out again and as soon as I put in water it seems it's clear again.

I thought the air brush paint from Vallejo would be thin enough to go through. I am guessing the paint must be too thick still so that would mean my brush is not cleaned out well enough then. So how can I clean up the brush better, or am I doing something wrong that I don't know about. As I said, I tried the YouTube and Google results but nothing is helping me. I don't know what to now. I am afraid to buy a new air brush again since the same thing will happen again.

Any tips would be appreciated since now I remember why I stopped painting because I think I fracked up my brush. Any way to clean it properly?

you still need to thin the vallejo air paints, theyre in no way thin enough to go straight through the airbrush. you can buy airbrush thinners which are the best for your kit obviously, but i just use water when i run out of that.

Airbrush paint should ideally still be thinned, especially if using metallics.

As I've found recently, no matter how clean you think your airbrush is, chances are it could be cleaned better.

I would suggest a full strip down and soak of your brush. YouTube is great for tutorials on this. Make a note of how it came apart (take photos!) and keep at it until you get the results you want.

It's amazing how the tiniest bit of debris can totally stop your brush functioning, so it can take some time to clean properly.

Also, vallejo airbrush cleaner is good stuff. It's saved my butt many a time when I've left paint in the brush overnight by mistake!

Let us know how you get on

I tried the YouTube videos about leaving the air brush to clean for about 1/2 or 1 hour. How about if I leave it over night? Is that a good to try?

My wife bought me a new air brush. I really want to make sure I don't screw this one up this time. So want to make sure I keep this one clean and don't repeat the same mistakes.

I have a bottle of Vallejo Air Brush Thinner. How many drops of Air Brush Thinner should I use to how many drops of Air Brush paint? I was only using 2 or 3 drops of Air Brush paint. Should I be using more?

As for cleaning I was using rubbing alcohol like I saw in a YouTube video. Is that a mistake? I do have 1/2 a bottle of Spectera Tex I think it's called Airbrush Cleaner. I just put it in the cup at the top and sprayed it through that.

What should I really be doing after a painting session? Any good links anyone can post to make sure I reading/watching the correct ones because it seems I have not watched/read the correct videos and articles.

You have to experiment with thinner to paint ratios. You get a feel for it after a while. Start very thin and gradually add more paint until it's good. Since air paints are already thin maybe use 1 drop of thinner for every 2 or 3 drops of paint as a starting point? I'm not really sure since I don't pay attention to ratios, I just go by feel.

A lot of people say they use the "Air" paints unthinned, I've never been able to satisfactorily use any paint straight out of the bottle without thinning (the only exceptions being Humbrol Clear and some of the super thin metallics like Alclad).

As for cleaning, what % rubbing alcohol is it? If it's nearly 100% it shouldn't be too bad, if it's less then you might be making life hard on yourself.

Personally I use Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner because I find many paints come off in globby chunks when using alcohol, where as Vallejo's cleaner actually seems to dissolve the paint. So the alcohol I require a lot more to clean it out and the nozzle requires more cleaning to get rid of the globby paint at the end.

I usually dump out unused paint, rinse out the cup with water to get rid of the bulk of the paint (don't spray it through, just rinse and dump it), then I put in a small amount of the airbrush cleaner and use an old brush to clean any paint off the walls of the paint cup, either spray that through or dump it, put a few more drops in and swish it around and spray it through (I might need to repeat if it's been a particularly long painting session and/or the nozzle is getting clogged) then pull it apart and clean the needle by wiping it on a tissue, clean the nozzle, use a pipe cleaner to clean the paint passage from the cup to the nozzle, reassemble, put a few more drops of cleaner in and spray through to get rid of any residue that was lifted by the pipe cleaner and I'm done. Occasionally I put a drop of oil in and just spray that through as well (if I do then at the start of the next painting session I put a drop of thinner in first and spray it through to remove any oil residue before adding paint). It probably takes me a couple of minutes to do at the end of a painting session.

What sort of pressure are you working at?

I've had zero issues spraying Model Air without thinning. Have sprayed the GW Air paints also without thinning (and they seem to be thicker than Vallejo).

To the OP - I doubt you've broken your airbrush. At the very worst you may have bent the needle if you've dropped it.
Just sounds as though it needs a good clean. At the end of a session I'll usually take mine apart and give it a clean with Q-tips soaked in Tamiya's alchohol based thinner (X20-A). Then re-assemble and run some of the thinner through it.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
As for cleaning, what % rubbing alcohol is it? If it's nearly 100% it shouldn't be too bad, if it's less then you might be making life hard on yourself.

I just used what was straight out of the bottle into a bowl, so 100%. I did what the YouTube videos say and left it in for 1/2 hour. Should I try leaving it over night?

Ffyllotek wrote:What sort of pressure are you working at?

About 30-40 psi. I think I have it at 40 psi, but once it starts running and I use it, it drops to 30 psi.

Bartali wrote:To the OP - I doubt you've broken your airbrush. At the very worst you may have bent the needle if you've dropped it.
Just sounds as though it needs a good clean. At the end of a session I'll usually take mine apart and give it a clean with Q-tips soaked in Tamiya's alchohol based thinner (X20-A). Then re-assemble and run some of the thinner through it.

I don't have any Tamiya's cleaner. Only cleaner I have is that Spectra Tex cleaner Michaels told me all they had for cleaning air brushes. Only hobby craft store I know of in my city. I don't have much left so not sure if I should just use it to put it in the cup to clean it that way and when I take the air brush apart to use rubbing alcohol since pouring it into the bowl to soak the entire gun uses up a lot of cleaner. That is why I used the rubbing alcohol a lot cheaper to fill up the bowl to put the gun in. So are you using the Tamiya's thinner into a bowl and putting the gun and all the parts in there? If so how long are you putting it in for?

Davor wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
As for cleaning, what % rubbing alcohol is it? If it's nearly 100% it shouldn't be too bad, if it's less then you might be making life hard on yourself.

I just used what was straight out of the bottle into a bowl, so 100%. I did what the YouTube videos say and left it in for 1/2 hour. Should I try leaving it over night?

But what's written on the bottle? Rubbing alcohol is often 70-90% rather than 100%. It should say somewhere on the bottle what % it is. I think "rubbing" alcohol usually means it's been watered down, pure stuff is usually just labelled isopropanol or isopropyl alcohol.

I don't usually soak stuff for more than a few minutes, but I use Vallejo's cleaner rather than IPA.

Davor wrote:

Ffyllotek wrote:What sort of pressure are you working at?

About 30-40 psi. I think I have it at 40 psi, but once it starts running and I use it, it drops to 30 psi.

That sounds like you don't have a regulator (so likely no water trap) or no tank.

40PSI is well enough to use the Vallejo air or model air range neat - they can be used as low as 15 without thinning.

I suspect the bigger problem is with your tank and water droplets in your air feed..

Ffyllotek wrote:

Davor wrote:

Ffyllotek wrote:What sort of pressure are you working at?

About 30-40 psi. I think I have it at 40 psi, but once it starts running and I use it, it drops to 30 psi.

That sounds like you don't have a regulator (so likely no water trap) or no tank.

40PSI is well enough to use the Vallejo air or model air range neat - they can be used as low as 15 without thinning.

I suspect the bigger problem is with your tank and water droplets in your air feed..

It's common for a regulator to drop several PSI when the air flows compared to when it's static pressure.

The pressure of interest is the flowing pressure rather than the static pressure.

I can't use Vallejo air at any pressure, the stuff just doesn't spray smoothly neat and is too prone to clogging. It doesn't need much thinner though.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
It's common for a regulator to drop several PSI when the air flows compared to when it's static pressure.

The pressure of interest is the flowing pressure rather than the static pressure.

I can't use Vallejo air at any pressure, the stuff just doesn't spray smoothly neat and is too prone to clogging. It doesn't need much thinner though.

Yes it's common to drop a little pressure but not 10psi! That would indicate to me he/she is running the air directly from a compressor with no pump and possibly no regulator, which would create lots of water droplets too.

Davor wrote:

Bartali wrote:To the OP - I doubt you've broken your airbrush. At the very worst you may have bent the needle if you've dropped it.
Just sounds as though it needs a good clean. At the end of a session I'll usually take mine apart and give it a clean with Q-tips soaked in Tamiya's alchohol based thinner (X20-A). Then re-assemble and run some of the thinner through it.

I don't have any Tamiya's cleaner. Only cleaner I have is that Spectra Tex cleaner Michaels told me all they had for cleaning air brushes. Only hobby craft store I know of in my city. I don't have much left so not sure if I should just use it to put it in the cup to clean it that way and when I take the air brush apart to use rubbing alcohol since pouring it into the bowl to soak the entire gun uses up a lot of cleaner. That is why I used the rubbing alcohol a lot cheaper to fill up the bowl to put the gun in. So are you using the Tamiya's thinner into a bowl and putting the gun and all the parts in there? If so how long are you putting it in for?

Tamiya thinner is more or less the same as IPA/Rubbing alcohol so you're good there. I don't soak mine at all - take the airbrush apart, get some thinner/IPA/Rubbing alcholol on a Q Tip and give it a good clean paying particular attention to the needle and nozzle.

Don't feel too bad - airbrush cleaning is honestly very difficult.

Some tips:

First, the problem is 99% of the time a clogged nozzle. I've had water run just fine through my airbrush, but paint wouldn't, and it's very frustrating.

Good cleaning fluids are high proof (91%) alcohol, or paint thinner.

I will often soak my nozzle in paint thinner or alcohol overnight. Then, grab a pipette with a narrow end, if possible, and flush your cleaning fluid through the nozzle. If your pipette is pushing fluid through the nozzle tip easily, it's probably clean.

Thank you again. Yes, I am a he, and the compressor I have is an all in one. It's square and has an air regulator that goes up to 50 psi. Well maybe not a real regulator but let's me control the pressure. Thing is since it's an all in one, there is no water trap. My wife bought it for me as an all included bundle. 3 air brush guns and the compressor. I guess trying to save money and go cheap means what you get.

I did find a new compressor so quiet but it's only 40 psi max. Not sure if I needed more PSI or not. It has a water trap on the out side as well. So tempted to get it. But since I am not that good at air brushing yet, I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the extra money on it.

Will try cleaning the air brush again and wish me luck.

You don't really need that much PSI.

Allot of pro's use circa 18-20PSI.

I run mine at 20-25PSI but I'm no pro.

Worst problem I have for interrupting painting (beyond kids!) is a dry tip clogging paint flow and it can happen quickly with some paints on a warm day. I always have a cotton bud (cue tips?) pre dipped in Cleaner or Humbrol Colour Mix to clean the tip and end of the needle.

In case it's not been mentioned then Milk is the consistence you want to thin your paint to. Now whether these skimmed, semi or full fat has never been explained to me but I prefer to go thin and have multiple coats.

I thought the milk consistency was for using a paint brush. I thought it wold be thinner for air brushing. I will try this and see how it goes. Thanks Notprop.

What would this mean. If I loosen the nub that tightens the needle, if I loosen it, move the needle back a bit and then tighten it, it sprays a bit better. Where would this clog happen in?

Ok, cleaned the gun. Going to try it again and see how it goes this time around.

I found this site to be very useful, particularly on the cleaning front:

http://www.airbrushguru.com/cleaning-your-airbrush.html

Is your brush a dual or single action? 40psi is a bit high and you can damage the small air diaphram when running your pressure too high with dual action brush.

Remove the needle and clean out the brush really good. Keep your pressure around 25psi and even with supposedly 'air' acrylics, thin it about 10-20%.

The basics of acrylic paint make it more difficult to get through an airbrush consistently than enamels and inks - this is due to the pigment size and carrier ratio in the paint.

Here is the basic issue - when spraying thinner-based enamels or water based inks, the carrier in the paint coming out acts as a natural solvent to keep the atomized paint from clogging your tip; whereas acrylics once they atomize and quickly dry, no amount of carrier (water) in the world will dissolve it - hence a plug. Just thin out your paint more or use a larger nozzle.

Thank you Crispy for the link. *edit* Finally read it all. I will make sure I do this with my new brush. Thank you very much for it. Yes MDSW it's a dual action. You say 25psi eh MDSW? Maybe I should get that quiet compressor then, since it only goes up to 40psi.

As a side note, I thought I had it clean today, it started spraying a bit then it got clogged again.

I poured water and pulled the needle out and it still didn't want to spray. Now I am dumbfounded. You would think when I put the needle it, I can see the needle tip on the other end that there is no clog but pull the needle right out and water wouldn't even go.

 MDSW wrote:
Is your brush a dual or single action? 40psi is a bit high and you can damage the small air diaphram when running your pressure too high with dual action brush.

What diaphragm?

All the airbrushes I've seen use a plunger type air valve sealed with an O-ring, you push down on the trigger and the plunger moves down, opening the air flow, then it's a straight shot from the valve to the aircap.

You don't want to run extremely high pressures, but most small hobby compressors probably have a cut off before they start doing damage. If you're running a workshop compressor that reaches much higher pressures you should probably be careful to step it down before you attach your airbrush.

I've heard of people blowing up those cheap plastic airbrushes by cranking the pressure up on them, but not a metal one.
Automatically Appended Next Post:

Davor wrote:
Thank you Crispy for the link. *edit* Finally read it all. I will make sure I do this with my new brush. Thank you very much for it. Yes MDSW it's a dual action. You say 25psi eh MDSW? Maybe I should get that quiet compressor then, since it only goes up to 40psi.

Does the compressor you're using have a bleed valve for adjusting the pressure?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Davor wrote:
I poured water and pulled the needle out and it still didn't want to spray. Now I am dumbfounded. You would think when I put the needle it, I can see the needle tip on the other end that there is no clog but pull the needle right out and water wouldn't even go.

Yeah you need to pull the nozzle off and clean it out properly. If there's a bit of gunk still remaining in there it'll clog very quickly.

EDIT: Also make sure you clean out the passage between the nozzle and the paint cup, when I first started painting I wasn't cleaning that area properly and after a few weeks paint gradually built up and stopped anything flowing.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
[[Does the compressor you're using have a bleed valve for adjusting the pressure?

I am not sure. It's all incased. A small square with a handle on top. Here is a pic that looks exactly like the compressor I have but with just a different name on it.

When I have it say at 50psi and I turn it down to 20psi I get a big dump or "swoooosh" out quickly. I don't think that is the bleed valve you are talking about. Hell I forget what a bleed valve is now. Dang memory.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Davor wrote:
I poured water and pulled the needle out and it still didn't want to spray. Now I am dumbfounded. You would think when I put the needle it, I can see the needle tip on the other end that there is no clog but pull the needle right out and water wouldn't even go.

Yeah you need to pull the nozzle off and clean it out properly. If there's a bit of gunk still remaining in there it'll clog very quickly.

EDIT: Also make sure you clean out the passage between the nozzle and the paint cup, when I first started painting I wasn't cleaning that area properly and after a few weeks paint gradually built up and stopped anything flowing.

I will try it again. Thank you for that suggestion. I don't think I got that part and forgot about it. Not sure how to get to that part of the brush. I will see what I can do.

A bleed valve means that air pressure is constantly bled off, so the compressor runs at a constant pressure (say 50PSI) but there's basically a bleed hole which you open up to bleed off air, thus reducing pressure to the airbrush, or you close it off, reducing the bleeding and thus increasing the pressure.

It's how some cheaper compressors work. The alternative is a regulator, which from the outside just looks like a box/cylinder, but inside has spring operated diaphragms which try and hold the pressure to a constant value that is set by how far in you screw it.

I will admit I don't know a huge amount about bleed valve set ups, I don't use any myself, but from what people have told me bleed valve designs have a delay between pressing the trigger and getting the required pressure as the hose isn't pressurised to the required pressure all the time like it is with a regulator.

Davor wrote:
I will try it again. Thank you for that suggestion. I don't think I got that part and forgot about it. Not sure how to get to that part of the brush. I will see what I can do.

You might have already cleaned it and maybe I didn't explain it well. When you put paint in the cup it flows down the passage way that the needle passes through and down to the nozzle. To clean it out you remove the nozzle and needle and shove a pipe cleaner back up through where the nozzle was and you'll see the other end of the pipe cleaner appear in the paint cup.

When I started out with airbrushing I was spraying through until it was clear and just assuming that passage was clean because nothing more was coming out, but actually there was a gradual build up occurring which I didn't really notice and then one day it just stopped spraying and I discovered the caked in paint and had to scrape it out.

It may or may not be your problem though, just throwing it out as a suggestion.

I expirienced similiar problem you describe... did you try to loose or more likely tighten part of head that house nozzle? If its not tight enoth pait has problem to come out but water goes ok.

Yes I have Naberiel. I did notice some bubbles coming out of there so I tightened it up even more. Problem now I have is nothing is coming out. I wonder if I screwed up the rubber seal there some how now.

I finally was able to find a pipe cleaner type tool made for air brushes finally and cleaned out the best I can where the air/paint goes in or I should say comes out of.

Thing is now no water comes out even if I remove the needle. I wonder now if I need a new tip for what ever reason.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
you still need to thin the vallejo air paints, theyre in no way thin enough to go straight through the airbrush. you can buy airbrush thinners which are the best for your kit obviously, but i just use water when i run out of that.

Actually they are, it's just a matter of needle size and pressure.

I use a .35mm at 4bar and I can guarantee you the vallejo air are more than thin enough without any thinning.

Of course, at 15psi in a .20mm I'm sure it doesn't work quite as well.

morgoth wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
you still need to thin the vallejo air paints, theyre in no way thin enough to go straight through the airbrush. you can buy airbrush thinners which are the best for your kit obviously, but i just use water when i run out of that.

Actually they are, it's just a matter of needle size and pressure.

I use a .35mm at 4bar and I can guarantee you the vallejo air are more than thin enough without any thinning.

Of course, at 15psi in a .20mm I'm sure it doesn't work quite as well.

4 bar? Geeze, that's one of the highest pressures I've heard of anyone using, my hobby compressor/tank set up won't even maintain 4 bar.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 MDSW wrote:
Is your brush a dual or single action? 40psi is a bit high and you can damage the small air diaphram when running your pressure too high with dual action brush.

What diaphragm?

All the airbrushes I've seen use a plunger type air valve sealed with an O-ring, you push down on the trigger and the plunger moves down, opening the air flow, then it's a straight shot from the valve to the aircap.

Sorry - o-ring is a better description. Too much pressure makes the o-ring jump up and stuff itself into the air chamber, then it's real trouble. I did that with a nice dual action Badger I once had.

...sniff, I loved that brush... There was no saving it after that...

What sort of pressure did it fail at? Maybe something had already loosened it? I imagine it'd take a huge amount of pressure to shift the O-ring, when the valve's open air should just blow past it so pressure won't build up and when it's closed it should seat in a position that would hold it in place.

The one thing I found from googling damaging the O-ring was someone saying not to exceed 100PSI, which is above what most hobby compressors will supply (but in the realm of workshop compressors).

The only person I've heard of having a failed airbrush was the aforementioned plastic airbrush, and that was in the realm of 80-90 psi. I use my airbrush up to about 40-50psi when cleaning it and I've never been concerned about damaging it.

EDIT: Found the Iwata Eclipse recommended working pressures as 20-60psi, with 35+psi mentioned as being what the brush was designed for, with a maximum do-not-exceed pressure of 98 psi.

Davor wrote:
Yes I have Naberiel. I did notice some bubbles coming out of there so I tightened it up even more. Problem now I have is nothing is coming out. I wonder if I screwed up the rubber seal there some how now.

I finally was able to find a pipe cleaner type tool made for air brushes finally and cleaned out the best I can where the air/paint goes in or I should say comes out of.

Thing is now no water comes out even if I remove the needle. I wonder now if I need a new tip for what ever reason.

If you've got bubbles, you've almost definitely got a clog. Tips tend to be (as airbrush parts go) fairly sturdy. You can ruin them by pushing the needle/a cleaning implement in too far/hard and enlarging the opening, but that just means it'll spray paint/liquid even when you haven't pulled the needle back. If you're forcing air into the brush, it's intended to pull paint with it as it goes by the gravity fed cup, through the nozzle, and onto your model. If you have bubbling out of joints/esp. into your paint cup, the air is finding another place to escape that isn't out the nozzle, because the nozzle is clogged/blocked.

Do a full break down (use the wrench to remove the nozzle itself, usually brass colored tiny piece) and not just the nozzle cap. That's the mistake I made when I first used one of these airbrushes and wasnt aware that piece even came off. It kept me clogged for a couple weeks as I thought I was cleaning it really well.

And as a sidenote, just because the needle goes through the nozzle doesn't mean you don't have a clog - there's a very small space around the needle in the nozzle that liquid paint resides, then you pull back the needle and it flows out. If there is dried paint on the needle, it may build up so other paint can't pass by and out. If there is paint build up on the inside of the nozzle, the needle may fit, but the paint may not be able to get around it and out.