\ said:
Thanks very much. Its good to have the fine detail.I have been doing all the stages that you list but with one variation. It is interesting that you use water for all but the nozzle and its two guards, especially the way that you wash out the cup with warm running water. Using a lot of water, instead of several stages of small quantities of cleaner, is more likely to vigorously flush out any remaining paint in the
airbrush itself, so I will do that from now on.
With more modelling I will be able to experiment with different proportions of thinners and air pressure (but I tend to use 20 PSI for general brushing).
Steve, see the video on my post, page one, this is how I clean my airbrushes, also full size sprayguns with the relevant variations in stripping, (I used to spray for a Volkswagen specialist)
When I need to use my brush, I clip to the airline, load with paint and go, never once have I encountered a paint flow problem, (the place I worked, there were 3 of us used to spray and spanner between us, we had 2 shop guns and after a couple of uses, I bought my own which was kept secured in my locker after getting annoyed with having to properly clean the guns the other guys just blew through with gunwash before each time I used them).
Blowing through with cleaner, even until it blows clear is inadequate.
I've said it before, (many times), there are shortcuts and there are half assed attempts at doing something.
A 'shortcut' by it's very definition is a means of reaching the same goal more quickly and efficiently, when it comes to cleaning paint from a gun, there are NO shortcuts.
The sole difference since I posted that video and now, (being that I hadn't gotten any at that point), is that I now use a 0.6mm interdental brush to clean the emulsion tube between cup and nozzle.
(pack of 6 from Tesco, 2 or 3 quid, I'm onto the second brush in about a year using with everything from IPA to Cellulose and its holding up fine, I bent the stalk on the first otherwise I'd still be on that)
The term aggressive deep clean should be quantified, you should not 'aggressively' do anything to an
airbrush, it's a precision instrument. It may be reference to using a hot thinner like Cellulose, which is OK and in cases where paint has well and truly set from inadequate cleaning may be necessary, a good soak in cellulose of the stripped components and then a thorough clean should resolve the blockage.