Hi, I’m an acrylic paint kind of guy and likely will prefer to stay there for most things, I just don’t want to mess with the smell and cleanup of anything else.
But, when it comes to metallic paints, some of the best ones seem to be lacquer or enamel and I’m wondering how you clean that mess out of your airbrush?
I recently was given a bunch of Mr color Super metalic2 paints and they look great but, the idea of cleaning is daunting to me. When I clean acrylics, I just flush everything with a copious amount of water and I’m good. Using lacquer thinner, in the same quantity as I’m using water seems problematic on so many levels.
When my gallon can of lacquer thinner or Xylene becomes empty, that now becomes my “airbrush waste” container. Our area has a “hazardous waste” collection day once a year and I take all my old, full cans there, easy.
Steve
Lacquer is especially easy to clean up after spraying. I rarely tear down the brush after using lacquer, I just flush and back flush and the lacquer melts away.. When the back flush is clear that’s it, maybe slip the needle out and wipe it off. I dip a tissue in that clear airbrush cup and wipe down the outside of the airbrush with that.
What I have is an empty Scott tissue box that I put some layers of paper towel in. I do my flushing into that. When done I just let it evaporate out in our craft room. But there isn’t much there and it evaporates fast. I clean with lacquer from the hardware store. And it takes only one or two airbrush cup fulls to flush the airbrush. However I spray very little solvent paints these days.