“In order to keep your airbrush in top performance, you have to shoot thinner through it at the end of each painting session”. I’ve heard this from countless book authors, hobby store owners and other “experts”. Not a hint of disassembling your airbrush. I guess for those folks, disassembling an airbrush is only when parts are broken.
Nein!
Nein!!
NEIN!!!
Every time you load your airbrush with paint, the interior workings become somewhat coated with paint residue so its performance drops off by so many percent. This residue will not be removed by shooting thinner, for the same reason why you cannot clean a gun by shooting more bullets. The residue builds up.
So after several painting sessions, if all you’ve done was shoot thinner between color changes, you may be down to only 85% of the optimal performance. This drop in performance affects the quality of the finish, producing coarser, ugly finishes, because the occlusions inside the airbrush choke off the optimal flow of air and paint!
You have to DISSASSEMBLE the airbrush at the end of every day’s work, and scrub the insides using an airbrush cleaning kit. Pieces of tissue and cleaning brushes are used. Please, check out the video.
You will thank me for saving hundreds of dollars that would have been wasted on expensive models and paints. The experts won’t teach you because they suck. I think their models are hand-painted and sanded smooth to make it look like airbrushed.
You wouldn’t believe what I found inside the nozzles of my airbrushes. I found flakes of dried paint so huge they couldn’t be expelled so they just sat inside the piping of the airbrush, rattling around and obscuring paint flow. And we’re not talking about some cheap Aztek, we’re talking about the Paasche Talon and the Peak C5. Pretty good airbrushes, IMO.
I tore my Iwata down the other day after doing two full models of “swish it out between colors” using Tamiya and limited enamels. I find acrylics far harder to actually get OUT and cleaned from the AB. The Iwata manual recommends backflush, and per the manual I do, but I am no longer seeing the point since that is now forcing paint up inside the body where the needle belongs. Twenty five years ago I started with a Badger 150 then wore out a Paasche VL and now Im working on wearing out the Iwata.
anyhoo I grabbed a green MIcrobrush and scrubbed out the interior of the body with lacquer thinner.
BLACKNESS endued!!!
Now its clean.
also I find that using Media airbrush lube after a good teardown helps. you MUST cleanse this with spirit or thinner before painting next time but it keeps the AB working nicely.
It is that easy & quick to strip the brush at the end of a painting session, that I don’t really see the logic in not doing it - there is always plenty more mess to come out of the brush, even after flushing.
While you are correct that a partial breakdown of the airbrush is the only sure way to get out paint, you could learn something about tact.
Your analogy to gun cleaning by shooting bullets is flawed. Thinner is not paint. Most thinners are a solvent (though not all!) and will help clean out residue.
Not being an “Airbrush Nazi”, a quick flush is all I ever do between colors, and I only field strip it after a painting session… It works fine doing what I do… Most of my spray-painting is done wih rattle cans anyway, since I don’t AB anything that can be had in a can… Faster too… No point in loading up an airbrush for a one or two-color camouflage job… I tend to use rattle-cans for the Three-Color USN cammo too…
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge anyone that takes their stuff down to the bone after a color, but it just ain’t required, IMHO… It ain’t a rifle…
I would like to get a double-action one day, even though my Iwata single-action does the job ok… It’d be nice not to have to spray though a mask when doing the mottling on German or Japanese aircraft…
Paashe Talon will not backflush because the crown-like nozzle will prevent you from choking off the nozzle properly.
Peak C5 backflushes beautifully but that did not prevent the airbrush from becomming occluded because I had not been disassembling it every day, merely shooting thinner as recommended by our “experts”. I can’t make it shoot like it used to, the flow of air/paint seems to be be anemic, I may have to send it back to Bear Air for maintenance.
The Paashe Talon did return to 100% after internal cleaning and reassembly.
There seem to be a lot of people who do just fine with just flushing and an occasional tear down. Who am I to tell them different?
The type of paint could make a difference. Apparently acrylics are more difficult to flush.
The thinner used could matter. Products sold as airbrush cleaners might work better. Lacquer thinner and acetone are pretty potent.
The design of the airbrush could be a factor. Tiny orifices or nooks and crannies could be harder to clean out.
Air passages should never need cleaning unless you’ve got really dirty air.
The part that will mess up your spray pattern is the tip, the little hole the needle passes through. That’s why I like the floating type like the Badger Patriot and Anthem use. It’s very easy to wipe out with bit of twisted paper towel and a little thinner. Curiously, the lady in your video tore every thing apart, but didn’t remove the tip and clean it.
I show what I do on my website, so I won’t repeat it here. But, I don’t think you’d find any chunks of paint in my airbrushes, at least no big ones. [:)]
She also used cotton swabs, a sure way to leave bits of fluff behind.
I’ve never had a problem with my airbrushes, no anemic paint flow, no clogs. I use Tamiya acrylics exclusively and use nothing stronger than Windex to clean with. I back flush, even with the crown regulator, and haven’t pulled the tip off in years. I do pull the needle and lube with glycerin, but that’s it.
I’m not expert, nor am I an “expert”, whatever the difference is. Just a guy who manages to keep his airbrush working without taking it apart each time.
I disassemble my Iwata HP-CS after 2 or 3 paint sessions, and I agree that simply flushing and backflushing is generally insufficient if you want optimal performance every time. No matter how much flushing you do, there’s almost always paint residue left behind and backflushing won’t get it all out, at least I’ve found that to be the case with my AB. Fortunately, that model is very easy to take apart and put back together (the air valve assembly is a bit of a pain though).
I got one of those AB cleaning kits with all the different size round bristle brushes, and I’ve found it invaluable (they’re also great for cleaning the eyedroppers I use for measuring paint). A Q-tip simply can’t get into all the areas of the AB body, and as mentioned they’re not a good choice for cleaning anyway because they can leave fibers behind.
Also lacking in that video is the use of a lube on the needle…this to me is essential to keep it moving smoothly within the AB body, and also on the needle tip as this helps minimize tip dry. It’s also good for lubing the threads of the screwable parts, and I also put a drop on the tip of the trigger that goes into the air valve assembly as this tends to get sticky after a time. You have to be careful to not use too much, as this will pollute your paint.
I’ve often wondered about people who’ve said in various threads about ABs that they only occasionally disassemble their AB to clean it, particularly about how they keep it working even close to optimal. I guess it can vary from model to model, according to what paint you use, and probably also your painting environmental conditions but with mine regular disassembly/cleaning is obligatory even though I’m pretty fastidious and flush/backflush it after every use with the relevant reducer according to what type of paint I’ve used (Windex for the acryls, lacquer thinner for solvent-based).
quote]I’ve often wondered about people who’ve said in various threads about ABs that they only occasionally disassemble their AB to clean it, particularly about how they keep it working even close to optimal./quote]
Heh… Define “optimal”… One man’s “optimal” is another man’s “good enough”…
No point in tearing m’ hair out trying to achieve a commercial, automotive-quality finish when I’m going to throw rubber cement on it, rub it off with my thumb, spray and brush enamel, oil, and acrylic washes, and scrub it with a drybrush, then finish it up with chalk dust and mud… All I need is an even base-color… Some of you guys would probably vapor-lock if you saw me airbrushing a model, lol… I guess it’s all because I was self-taught (with the exception of a year of night school in Auto Body Repair & Refinishing), and I never read books or watched videos about “How to Do It”…
Since there was nobody around to tell me I was doing it “wrong”, it worked doing it my way… An airbrush is just a miniature pot-gun anyway… Same priciples apply to airbrushing models as apply to painting cars with a pressure-pot… If you screw the mix up, or let chunks of spooge fall in the pot, no amount of work on the Gun/AB will change it…
I use Badger airbrushes: 100LG, 150, 200-20 and other than minor differences between gravity fed and bottom fed I use the same cleaning protocol, which I am now advised is incorrect!
Here is the cleaning instructions lifted verbatim from the Badger Airbrush 101 pdf (emphasis mine):
Following standard airbrush use, there should be NO reason to ever take apart the air valve. Of course, the preceding is merely the manufacturers recommended cleaning regimen. I’ll take that over some makeup artist, any day.
I’ve had to disassemble the air valve assembly on my Iwata before, only because I goofed and pulled out the needle while there was some paint still in the AB body, which got into the air valve parts and the trigger started sticking…then to compound the problem I soaked the whole thing in lacquer thinner (I’ve been well advised since to NEVER do that), which made the rubber o-ring that sits on top of the air valve swell up like an inner tube. Cost of replacement: $6 for a tiny o-ring. Live and learn. [:$]
This is a topic that appeared many times since 2004.
The advise “to DISSASSEMBLE the airbrush at the end of every day’s work” is a good one, but the video link is one of the least thorough cleaning demonstrated on YouTube. The lady didn’t even try to clean the nozzle as you suggested. The airbrush will not clean itself even if you take it apart. Their web site sells some rebranded Badger airbrushes at higher than market prices and does have a different video that suggested cleaning the nozzle. As others already pointed out, it is poor advise to use Q-tip for airbrush cleaning.
In between colors, backflush is my preferred technique. It does not require you to dissassembel the airbrush. Back flushing means holding something like a paper towel over the nozzle of the airbrush while pressing down and pulling back slightly on the trigger. This forces air back through the tip and into the paint cup, causing bubbles. It breaks paint free and helps to wash it out. You should spray clean through the airbrush before backflushing.
I learned this technique from a cosmetician lady, Sheila McKenna. The Kett Cosmetic video is very professional and practical. It got down to the essence of backflushing and left nothing to imagination.
Another bonus, she does not have those funny colored nail to distract you. This video has been around for awhile and I have not seen any better. You can also find a higher resolution version at their web site.
I have a DA Badger ab I bought back in the early 80’s. I still use it and works as good as it did 30 years ago. I do not tear it down after every session. I backflush and wipe the needle after each use. Maybe at about 5 or so uses, I may tear it down for some cleaning.
The anology about shooting more rounds to clean the barrel is partially correct. One way to clean a barrel after shooting lead rounds (those that are not jacketed) is to shoot a couple of jacketed rounds to force out the leadding buildup, resulting in less scrubbing and speeding up the cleaning process.