Model Forum / General / Models / February 2008

on 2/23/2008 1:42 PM varois83 said the following:

Iwata is a good airbrush. What probably happened is that the constant
spraying of paint through it has worn out the parts. All paint has a
grit to it which wears the parts down. Acrylics probably more than
enamel. You might try buying new parts for it, like the needle and the
nozzle parts. Depending upon the cost of those parts, it may be cheaper
to buy a new airbrush.

I don't think you can clean an airbrush just by flushing it through with
thinners.  I airbrush enamels, and I always finish each session by
taking the airbrush (a Badger 150) to bits and cleaning everything with
thinner and paper towel strips.  Very thin strips twisted to wipe out
the nozzle - thicker strips to clean the paint passages - soaked in
thinner and followed by a flushing with more thinner.  This is more
important with acrylics because they set sooner than enamels.  You can't
be too careful in keeping the airbrush clean.

I've heard that cellulose thinners can be used to dissolve dried paint
deposits, but haven't had to try that myself yet.

In article <42cb2314-cfc9-4c23-a632-0dcc1ae269d6@
72g2000hsu.googlegroups.com>, varois83@netzero.net says...

Paint too thick, air pressure too high or too low, nozzle and/or needle
damaged and/or dirty.

Idem.

Check the needle tip with a magnifying glass.

Not without a good cause.

My Harder&Steenbeck Evolution is over 10 years old, it was used for over
60 models, and is still like new. I think you can safely rule part wear
out, even an entry level Badger won't wear out that fast.

A Harder&Steenbeck Infinity is a step up from any airbrush...

Mine is a 30 year old Badger 350.

An airbrush should last decades.  For what a modeller uses it for it
should never wear out.  But it needs to be kept clean.  Everytime you
use it a thin film of paint is left behind no matter how thoroughly
you wash it.  With time this builds up enough layers to affect
airbrush function.  The best solution is to strip it down, the parts
that handle paint, and use fine wire scouring pad material to clean
out the parts to bare metal.  Pinch off a small wad of scouring pad
material the size of a Q-Tip or larger to do that.  For the nozzle
orifice I use a wire run it through to clear any residual paint.  Wire
of a suitable diameter can be bought from the Dollar Store crafts
section.  Make sure you don't use any wire that will enlarge the
orifice.  Should that happen just roll the tip against a hard surface
(glass) to bring it back to point.  

There is another very useful Dollar Store item and that is the trigger
pump type spray bottle.  Adjust the bottle nozzle to deliver a squirt,
not a spray, and squirt a fairly high pressure steam of water into the
paint cup receiver opening of the airbrush.  That flushes out the
residual paint in the receiver (after removing the paint cup.)  Next
run the compressor and the airbrush and keep squirting water into the
airbrush to flush out any paint inside.  Observe the spray coming out
of the airbrush nozzle. It should be clean and deliver a fine even
mist. This flushing allows more sessions of use out of the airbrush
between stripdown cleanings.  One more tip is use the spary bottle
squirt to back flush the paint cup.  Use an old scotchbrite scouring
pad to clean the cup stem, the inside of this stem as well as the
inside of the cup.  That Dollar Store wire is great for cleaning the
inside of the cup stem.  With all that water flying around I use a 4
litre plastic milk container and cut out a large opening to catch the
spray and waste water.  My paint booth is just a large cardboard box
with a computer box fan.