cleaning

Aerose Artistry, Airbrush Art By Denise
Denise Thurston, Grand Prairie, Tx
has been airbrushing professionally
since 1991 in the Dallas/ Fort Worth
Metroplex. Among her accomplishments
are many "Best Mural" awards with the
top being the "Best Mural" award for
the "Lowrider Of The Year". Her work
has been seen in feature articles and
as show winners in Lowrider, Lowrider
Euro and Chevy Truckin'. Denise's experience encompasses many forms of airbrushing. See Denise's artwork at her website

Airbrushes: Iwata Eclipse BCS, HP-C, HP-C Plus, Custom Micron CM-C Plus, Paasche VL
Media: Sherwin Williams Ultra 7000, Planet Colors, Xotic Colours, Createx, Fine Artists Acrylics
Surface Media: Anything that gets put in my face that paint will stick to.
Transfer Media: Dritz Red Transfer Pencils
Masking : R-Tape and 3M Masking Tapes when required
Lighting: Natural, Incandescent and Florescent.
Projector: Artograph AG100
Compressor : 1 1/2 HP 3 Gal Puma Direct Drive

I usually have a handfull of airbrushes full of Createx to keep clean on a daily basis. When you have this many or more it is good to find a way to keep from having to tear them all down every night to have them ready for the next day. If you use your airbrushes with Createx it is good to keep a bottle of water or a cleaning solution with a cover assembly with your paint bottles. After use, transfer the airbrush to the cleaning bottle and spray the liquid through it leaving the liquid inside. You can also use a spray bottle with a cleaning solution to squirt inside the airbrush at the open places such as removing the needle and spraying inside the Rocker Assembly. It's best to keep your airbrushes attached to your bottles overnight which creates an almost complete closed system which keeps the paint from drying inside the airbrush.

Keeping your airbrushes clean after use is as simple as drowning them in a liquid to keep the acrylics from drying on the inside. Do not leave the airbrushes for long submerged in this fashion. Loosen the locknuts and pull the needles out slightly. Use a container large enough to hold your airbrushes. Place the airbrushes with the hoses on them in the container or remove the airbrushes from the hoses by uncrewing them from either the body or the air valve assembly. Depress the trigger while the airbrush is submerged and let the cleaning solution flow through.
After cleaning you might want to shoot a lube such as WD40 in the Rocker Assembly end, the trigger slot and cover assembly/cup connection in the body of the airbrush. Leave the lube inside. Do not spray it out till the beginning of the next use.

Use pliers or a wrench to remove the airbrush from the hose. Pliers will damage the chrome plating of the airbrush. Care must be taken to do as little damage as possible. When cleaning all my Paasches I remove the hose and Air Valve Assembly from the airbrush body. It is easier to replace the trigger into the body with the Air Valve Assembly off.

Remove the spring and the Rocker Assembly from the body by tilting the end upwards and sliding it out of the body. Set the Spring and Rocker Assembly to the side.

Remove the Finger Lever Assembly from the airbrush body. Set it aside with all the other parts. Sometimes you will have a trigger that sticks inside the body and is difficult to pull through the slot. If this happens the Lever Pivot (pin) holding the Finger Lever Assembly (trigger) to the Lever Piton (plunger) may be sticking out on one side too far.

These are the parts to a Paasche VL. All airbrushes are made with the same parts. They might be disconnected from other parts and have different names. Whatever they are called or put together this cleaning tutorial can be applied to all.
At this point you can soak your parts in and airbrush cleaning solution or Windex solution to loosen the paint that is adhereing to them.

Unscrew the Air Cap from the Air Cap Body. Unscrew the Air Cap Body from the airbrush body. Take care in pulling the Air Cap Body from the airbrush body. The Tip (nozzle) will do either three things.
One - Stay in the Air Cap Body where you can remove it by patting the Air Cap Body on the palm of your hand or by placing the back end of an old needle into the tip and rocking it to the side to release it.
Two - Stay in the airbrush body where you can remove it with your fingers.
Three - Be pulled out of both body and Air Cap Body and hit the floor where it will take you ten minutes to find it and sure enough it would have landed on the tip and bent it.

I start by using a wire or hard bristle brush to remove the dried paint from the outside of the inner parts. I clean the Rocker Assembly, Rocker and trigger with the wire brush. Run a hard bristle brush around the threads of the Needle Adjustment Sleeve. Clean the Air Cap with a brush.

I use the back end of an old needle to scrape the insides of the airbrush body and to push residue out of the inside. Turn the needle point forward and run it through the body to have the ledge "catch and carry" the particles out of the brush.

I clean the body where the jar assemblies or paint cups fit into the body of the airbrush. Paint will collect inside this chamber and create a clog. Dried paint will peel off the inside walls of this chamber in small sheets. Clean this area well shooting water preferably through the holes of the airbrush to flush out the body.

Use a brush or chenille stem to push through the passages of the airbrush. If using a chenile stem, push the chenille stem through the body till it comes out the other end. Slide the chenille stem back and forth through the body of the airbrush.

The most important part of airbrushing is keeping your equipment in good working order. Cleaning your equipment is paramount to "good" airbrushing. You are only as good as your clean airbrush is. A dirty, clogged airbrush can screw up a beautiful painting with a well placed splat if not working properly. Those splats, skipping lines or ragged, spotty sprays seem to come at the least opportune of times. This tutorial is a simple down to earth view of cleaning your equipment using the simpler things of life. Brushes are available for cleaning airbrushes which would replace all the household items I use in this tutorial. I've had brushes over the years but they don't usually stay in my toolbox, they seem to grow legs and walk off by themselves. I have found that when using the simpler tools, those usually stay in the toolbox where they are supposed to be when I need them.

Using an old needle I scrape the very back of the barrel of the airbrush body. Paint collects at the wall behind the trigger and on the surrounding walls down around the air valve hole where the trigger plunger sits. The paint collects here when back flushing into the body occurs. Back flushing results in paint making sticky triggers and air valves. use a wider circular brush to clean the inside of the body and the threads.

I clean the Tips with an old needle with a very slight hook at the tip to pull and scrape at the inside walls of the tip. Reamers were used to clean tips. Reamers looked like needles with half of the needle missing at the tip end.

One small part that is very important in cleaning your airbrushes is cleaning the small air passages in the body and the Air Cap Body. Having these blocked will produce inconsistant spray or no spray at all. I am using a TOT 50 staple clamped into the jaws of a hemostat to run the staple through the air holes in the Air Cap Body. I use a brittle stiff wire or corsage pin to clean the three air holes in the body of the airbrush. Some airbrushes do not have these holes. The Paasche VL does. I have seen other artists use a broom straw to clean out the air holes in the airbrush body but I don't recommend it. I've had nightmares over a wedged broomstraw that couldn't be removed. I avoid deliberately blocking a vital air passage in an airbrush with an object that could break off inside.

I begin reassembling the airbrush by replacing the trigger into the barrel slot and seating it into the air valve hole. The trigger is much easier to get into the hole with the air valve assembly off the brush.

I replace the Rocker Assembly in the barrel of the airbrush. I tilt it holding the Rocker tab upwards to slide it into the slot behind the trigger. Care must be taken with the threads on the Rocker Assemblies. The two threaded pieces are thin and can break off the arm resulting in an unusable Rocker Assembly.

Screw the Needle Adjustment Sleeve into the body of the airbrush. If the spring is slightly out of sync the Needle Adjusting Sleeve will catch on the spring while it is being screwed into the body and keep the Needle Adjustment Sleeve from screwing in all the way. Reversing the spring on the Rocker Assembly may fix the problem if not pull on the threads on the Rocker Assembly. Pull on the Rocker Assembly while screwing in the Needle Adjustment Sleeve. Screw the Sleeve into the body to your preference.

Screw on the Locking Nut without tightening. Slide the needle into the airbrush to just past the trigger and tighten the nut. The needle will hold the trigger and keep it from being mistakenly pulled from the airbrush body.

Place the Tip into the well at the front of the airbrush. Screw the Air Cap Body onto the airbrush over the Tip. Screw on the Air Cap. Beeswax or teflon tape can be used to seal the threads on the Air Cap and Air Cap Body. Keep the teflon tape on the threads only and away from the air holes in the airbrush body.

Lube the air valve. I use Vaseline with Createx. I've used several lubes over the years and Vaseline seems to be the best when using acrylics and Createx. Screw the Air Valve Assembly onto the airbrush. Tighten with pliers in the curved section of the tool. Take care to damage the chrome as little as possible.

Test the airbrush to check if everything is moving properly. Hook up your air supply. Shoot water through the airbrush with a squirt bottle or turn it upside down under the tap. Use a lube on your needle. I use WD40 with my Paasches VLs and Createx. Remove the needle and spray into the rocker arm end, trigger slot and the suction hole where the jars and cups attach. Replace the needle. Spray out the WD40 or whatever lube you use by depressing the trigger. Listen to the air flow. I usually know just by sound if something is blocking the air and the air flow is less than it should be. Use a jar or cup filled with a cleaning solution to shoot through the brush before spraying paint. Use the cleaning solution or water to keep your airbrush from clogging during usage.

After cleaning if your airbrush is not working properly check these:

Bubbles in the cup or jar - check to see if the Air Cap Body is screwed on tightly. Check for a blockage close to the front of the airbrush that diverts the air into the cup or jar.

Paint shooting out in a stream from the air hole of a jar lid - Tighten the Air Cap Body.

Spotty or dotted lines - Check the paint suction tubes in the airbrush and jar.

Irregular spray pattern - Check your needle and tip. A torn or widened Tip must be replaced. A bent needle must be sharpened or replaced.
The paint may be too thick or your air pressure too low for adequate atomization.

Paint shooting out of the Tip of the airbrush when the needle is pulled back - Unplug air holes in jar caps.

Paint oozing out of your lid assembly spout after removing your airbrush - Unplug the air holes in jar caps.