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Hi guys,

I have never had a great airbrush cleaning routine. Let me run through what I do now so people can point out improvements, and I can explain where my process breaks down.

Normal use:
I use the airbrush. After I am done, or change colors, I pour in some water, scrub it around with a deer foot brush, blast it through. Fill it again with some air-opaque cleaner, blast it through. Run through another blast of water to rinse. If a lot of paint dried in the cup, like a long session? I scrub the cup and then blast it with a squirt bottle upside down to clear the cup, since that's a guaranteed clog otherwise. I pick dried paint off the tip as needed while using.

Nozzle cleaning:
Patriot XL only: remove the front end, extend the needle an inch. use the needle to feel the inside of the nozzle, poke through any paint I feel in there. This is probably bad for the needle. Then I rinse with some water.
Sotar, the nozzle is tiny and I can't do this. I just soak it when it starts getting gunked up.
Iwata CMB, the nozzle is permanently connected to the head and I have no idea what to do to clean the nozzle, it hasn't come up yet. I infrequently use it despite how expensive it was.

Detail soak:
I break down the airbrush and soak the dirty parts (ie, not the trigger assembly or handle or anything not in contact with paint) in a 50/50 mixture of simple green and water inside an ultrasonic cleaner. At first, I would leave it for days at a time, but it ate the finish on my old brush, so now I reduce it to only an hour or two max. Even with only doing an hour or two max, over time it is leaving a weird cast on the finish, although not eating it as aggressively as the long soaks. I re-assemble when dry and lube it up with badger's airbrush oil.


So, I know of several problems right off the bat - my soaking regimen is not ideal, and I have no idea how to clean the nozzle of my CMB. I have ordered one of those fancy gold-plated Sotars, so along with the CMB there are going to be 2 airbrushes I don't want to ruin the finishes on. There might be other problems too which I hope people will point out, except that needle scraping thing I do with the XL, which I know is bad.

Thanks for any advice!

 Ouze wrote:
Hi guys,

I have never had a great airbrush cleaning routine. Let me run through what I do now so people can point out improvements, and I can explain where my process breaks down.

Normal use:
I use the airbrush. After I am done, or change colors, I pour in some water, scrub it around with a deer foot brush, blast it through. Fill it again with some air-opaque cleaner, blast it through. Run through another blast of water to rinse. If a lot of paint dried in the cup, like a long session? I scrub the cup and then blast it with a squirt bottle upside down to clear the cup, since that's a guaranteed clog otherwise. I pick dried paint off the tip as needed while using.

Nozzle cleaning:
Patriot XL only: remove the front end, extend the needle an inch. use the needle to feel the inside of the nozzle, poke through any paint I feel in there. This is probably bad for the needle. Then I rinse with some water.
Sotar, the nozzle is tiny and I can't do this. I just soak it when it starts getting gunked up.
Iwata CMB, the nozzle is permanently connected to the head and I have no idea what to do to clean the nozzle, it hasn't come up yet. I infrequently use it despite how expensive it was.

Detail soak:
I break down the airbrush and soak the dirty parts (ie, not the trigger assembly or handle or anything not in contact with paint) in a 50/50 mixture of simple green and water inside an ultrasonic cleaner. At first, I would leave it for days at a time, but it ate the finish on my old brush, so now I reduce it to only an hour or two max. Even with only doing an hour or two max, over time it is leaving a weird cast on the finish, although not eating it as aggressively as the long soaks. I re-assemble when dry and lube it up with badger's airbrush oil.


So, I know of several problems right off the bat - my soaking regimen is not ideal, and I have no idea how to clean the nozzle of my CMB. I have ordered one of those fancy gold-plated Sotars, so along with the CMB there are going to be 2 airbrushes I don't want to ruin the finishes on. There might be other problems too which I hope people will point out, except that needle scraping thing I do with the XL, which I know is bad.

Thanks for any advice!

Use those dental brushes; they are little bristle brushes designed to go in between your teeth so they are really tiny. Use Simple Green (or Castrol Super Clean) which is better than Simple Green as far as paint removal.

I just rub the body of the AB down with alcohol wipes. Try not to slop paint all over it, if you do wipe it before it dries. The chrome finish on most airbrushes makes it difficult to use paint thinners/solvents on the body without destroying the finish. I would just honestly try dish soap and water for sonic cleaning.

Watch enough videos of AB experts who do it for a living and their AB's look as if they've been through WW3. A shiny AB is nice but function over looks is the most important. Your AB looking pretty and shiny is moot if it doesn't work properly.

I'd have to agree, dental brushes are great for cleaning around the nozzle and cone.
I mainly use enamels so I wipe everything down with a rag with mineral turpentine on it, and that clears it off very easily. Just make sure it does not get near your rubber washers.

Perhaps if you are using acrylics use a little detergent and then rinse afterwards, That's what I do when I use acrylics, worst comes to worst strip it down and do what you do when you clean paint off 2nd hand metal figures. Detol or something I've heard, just keep an eye on those rubber washers if you're worried about what you're using, the rest is chromed so obviously you don't want anything corrosive.

Can you guys link me a dental brush? I'm not familiar with them. I have dental picks I use for sculpting, but I don't think that is what you mean. Unless you mean a toothbrush?

.

Thanks! I even have some of those, although not in the right gauge. I will pick some up/

 JBSchroeds wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Can you guys link me a dental brush? I'm not familiar with them. I have dental picks I use for sculpting, but I don't think that is what you mean. Unless you mean a toothbrush?

Spoiler:

Specifically called interdental brushes. They come as brushes or soft rubber. You'd want the brush ones because the nubbies on the soft rubber ones can break off and could get clogged somewhere.

Thanks for this! This is probably exactly what I need to get the dried paint out of the copper nozzle of my Harder and Steenbeck - using the needle alone doesn't do the trick.

All you need is some interdental brushes, some dental paper points, and some hardware store lacquer thinner.

Continue your normal cleaning during use and then get those three things out for deep cleaning. Lacquer thinner and the interdental brushes will remove any paint inside of the airbrush and the paper points are used to clean out the nozzle. Don’t stick it in an ultrasonic cleaner if possible, it can damage solder joints.

Thanks for the tip. I ordered some lacquer thinner.

My brushes WORK fine, but I ordered one of the limited edition gold plated Sotars and I want to preserve it as best I can while still actually using it.

The dental brushes work pretty well, thanks for the tip.