airbrush question

[bigbrown]

i need help cleaning my airbrush, my airbrush started spraying the paint out really uneven and i believe i need to clean the internal parts of it any help would be appreciated!

[benton B]

What is the brand of brush?

[bigbrown]

it is a badger bottom feed model 150

[kellure]

Ultrasonic cleaners work very well, relatively inexpensive ($40 +/-).Take the brush completely apart and put in a mix of 50% h20 and 50% glass cleaner. Make sure the parts are covered. Let it run for atleast 4-6 cycles (3 minute cycles on ours). Remove the parts and flush them with clean h20. Pat dry, re-assemble, blow some air & h20 thru the brush. Works like a charm on Badgers. We do this process every Friday, so when Monday rolls around its back to work with no issues. Good luck.

[BobP]

A bad spray pattern usually means your needle and/or nozzle tip are clogged with paint. They need to be cleaned after every color change. Sometimes a bad pattern is caused by a split nozzle tip.

You can make a decent brush cleaner with isopropyl alcohol, dish soap and water. Dixie Art sells a set of cleaning brushes that work well. Pipe cleaners are an alternative if they fit inside your brush. It helps to completely disassemble and clean the brush occasionally. Soak the parts in cleaner overnight to loosen deposits. Scrub the interior with brushes, loose parts with a toothbrush. Lightly coat the internal parts including the needle with grease such as Superlube (a multipurpose white grease with PTFE). Soaking in a volatile solvent such as acetone may work faster BUT it can destroy the needle packing in some airbrushes. Unless your brush specs say it has solvent resistant packing, stick with alcohol/soap.

[benton B]

Sorry never worked on a badger brush. But general cleaning is need no matter what the brand. I use windex and it seems to work very well. I always pull the needle when changing colors and I only take my brush apart once a month. the windex does that good of a job for me.