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Fresh start.
About 3 years i invested in ABs. Did not go well, my extremly lacking patience did not combine whit the huge level of cleaning ABs needs. Sold the lot exept the cheapest AB(sparmax double action).

Landed a deal on a used compressor the other day so i am trying again with a new single action low maintence toy to begin at entry level point, but my old AB is still in the same state it was 3 years ago, and i want to save it as it should serve me well whenever i get out of the beginner stage.

How can i clean up my old AB?
There is paint that dryed on the cup walls, and bottom of the cup plus the needle is looking hazy/foggy and that is the state it has been in for 3 years.

may find the o rings may have bitten the dust and perished, you can pick up teflon o rings from most places. id get a sonic cleaner and use that to loosen the paint flakes in a airbrush cleaner and water mix then gentle use of a cotton wool swab and AB cleaning brushes.

First thing you're going to want to do is strip the AB down to it's individual components. Remove all the seals and O-rings, because you'll probably want to replace them with a fresh set all around anyways, regardless of what condition they're currently in (I doubt they'll be pristine).

Once you're down to just the bare metal components and pieces, I'd just use Hydrogen Peroxide or Acetone (as pure as you can get, 100% ideally), wet some paper towel or the end of a Q-Tip, and scrub away. I get a sonic cleaner is probably easier and doesn't use harsh chemicals, but it also means you need to invest in a sonic cleaner.

Get an airbrush cleaning kit; you'll need the scrubs to really work thru the main chamber and nozzles and stuff, and the pointy thing will help clean out any gunk in the nozzle tip as well.

Depending on how dirty your pieces are, you may need to spend more or less work to get some main parts clean, in particular the nozzle and needle. I'd recommend getting those two components as clean as you can to where you can visually inspect for any damage. Is the tip of the needle bent? Is the tip of the nozzle warped, cracked, bent, or broken?

Check over some of the other components, but it's unlikely you'll have any significant damage to things like the nozzle cap/protector, the trigger, etc.

Once you've cleaned it and replaced all the O-rings and seals, put it back together again and give it a test run.

Right.

I`ll see if i can find some o-rings and get a cleaner kit, right now i have just stripped it as mutch as i could find out on my own and have placed main body and nozzle parts in a diswhasher soap bath.
Could not see any damage to the needle, just needs a good scrubbing.

If it's really caked in there and badly dried, you can try soaking the parts for a while kind of like you were stripping paint from models. With any rubber orings removed (teflon ones are usually fine to leave in place) soak it in the solvent of your choice. Alcohol works (same as stripping minis) or I like Vallejo's AB cleaner.

If you need to soak the main body, instead of soaking the whole thing you can just block the outlet (remove the nozzle and block where the nozzle was) then fill the passage the needle passes through from the cup to the nozzle with solvent. Let it sit for a little while then clean it through with a brush (pipe cleaner from an AB cleaning kit). Try and avoid letting the solvent get back through where the needle passes through from the cup to the trigger mechanism (unless paint also got back there somehow and it needs to be cleaned I guess).

I did once get paint in the mechanism, which required disassembling the trigger and plunger, cleaning it and when it's reassembled it'll need some lube.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If it's really caked in there and badly dried, you can try soaking the parts for a while kind of like you were stripping paint from models. With any rubber orings removed (teflon ones are usually fine to leave in place) soak it in the solvent of your choice. Alcohol works (same as stripping minis) or I like Vallejo's AB cleaner.

If you need to soak the main body, instead of soaking the whole thing you can just block the outlet (remove the nozzle and block where the nozzle was) then fill the passage the needle passes through from the cup to the nozzle with solvent. Let it sit for a little while then clean it through with a brush (pipe cleaner from an AB cleaning kit). Try and avoid letting the solvent get back through where the needle passes through from the cup to the trigger mechanism (unless paint also got back there somehow and it needs to be cleaned I guess).

I did once get paint in the mechanism, which required disassembling the trigger and plunger, cleaning it and when it's reassembled it'll need some lube.

no, its not cake bad, but i cant remove the paint even with my finger nail. it is in the cup and in the nozzle, and a grey foggy layer on everything from the cup forward.
even the o-ring had this grey foggy layer.

Is it paint, or have some of the surfaces started to corrode, or lose their surface coating?

 Flinty wrote:
Is it paint, or have some of the surfaces started to corrode, or lose their surface coating?

well dont think it is corrosion, not in a way i have seen before atleast. i used mainly water when i "cleaned" it back in the day and ab cleaning liquid as the last stage. brush saw both waterbased paint and acryllic paint, normal and metallic colour when it was in use.
There is no corrosion or rust and the grey/foggy layer did come off from the needle when i scraped it clean with the backside of a blade yesterday.

An airbrush is like the formula 1 car of painting tools.
You don't learn to drive in an F1 car.


You spend a lot more time cleaning and maintaining them than actually using them. You should at least rinse between uses of the same colour, and a more thorough wash between colours. Then a full strip and clean after you finish with it.

They also take time to master - and, this is the important thing, even 2 otherwise identical brushes (like 2 of the same) will respond with slight differences to paint mixes, so there's no "one size fits all" approach.

I know, that is why i am re -starting simple with a single action Flyer, it is basicly maintence free.

That dual action is for later, but why buy another one if i can save the one i have?

I wouldn't bother with a single action, so much more control and flexibility with the double action and it's not really that hard to use at a basic level.

Chromedog exaggerates a bit, just learn how to clean it, and if you clean it immediately after use it's approximately one billion times easier than if you wait 3 years to clean it

When I started I didn't know how to clean mine, got some nice looking models out of it but then it started to clog and took a bit of effort to clean it out and getting it running properly again. But once I figured out how to fully pull it down and clean it, it only takes a minute or so to do it now.

You don't need a really expensive airbrush. I've been using this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0744GXH13?tag=thegeniustable-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1 for the last year and I've been able to get everything I want out of it. There certainly are downsides, but they might not apply to you.

My first airbrush was a cheap one, when you buy a starter kit for about £80 you are paying for the compressor mostly.

But I successfully used the cheap airbrush to prime and base and will continue to do so and I will be getting a more expensive one to learn detail etc.

I soaked my cheap airbrush in cleaning product (CIF refill pod diluted to the required volume) so when I next needed it any remaining paint would come off easily. Although I cleaned it before putting it in the solution.

I don’t think I would do this for a more expensive.

I don’t think I would try a single action airbrush either as there are too many variables invoked on getting the right spray

mrFickle wrote:
I soaked my cheap airbrush in cleaning product (CIF refill pod diluted to the required volume) so when I next needed it any remaining paint would come off easily. Although I cleaned it before putting it in the solution.

I don’t think I would do this for a more expensive.

You generally don't want to soak the entire airbrush, as behind where the needle passes through the cup is the trigger mechanism and that should be lubricated and most cleaners will also remove the lube.

When I accidentally got paint in there I had to pull it apart, clean it out, but then also re-lube it all otherwise the trigger was stiff and would stick, not returning all the way to close it off.

If you need to soak it, just soak the front portion, or like I mentioned in my previous post, block the needle and put just enough cleaner in there to fill the paint passage (i.e. no so much that it gets back into the trigger mechanism). You might have to tilt the brush forward while it's soaking to keep the cleaner in the area you want.

Thanks, now you mention it the trigger did lose its action!