Vinager and water

[jim45498]

I am a newbie to crankbait painting and have been reading a lot of posts on TU. You people have helped me more than I can put in words. I am taking the advice I read on here and applying it to learning how to paint crankbaits. Some of you are useing different ways to clean your airbrushes. My question is..can I use the vinigar and water about a 25-75 mixture to clean my airbrush?

[BobP]

I've never tried vinegar and don't know why it would disolve paint any better than water. Personally, I use a solvent like isopropyl or denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner or acetone for fine tipped airbrushes. For a Paasche VL or similar brush with larger tip, cool water works fine.

[jim45498]

I like your idea a whole lot better than the mix I am using. I use the isopropyl to clean my small brush after applying 2ton epoxy to my crankbaits. Works great and gets it clean. So I will use the isopropyl in my airbrush also.

[dampeoples]

Mr. P, do you use that as a maintenance clean, and run windex through your brush between colors, and at the end of the day? Maintenance meaning once a week or something?

[hazmail]

I would not be using vinigar in my brushes- It's a mild acid and some needles are steel- would not take long to take the point off it- also the most bodies are brass/ chrome plated (on the outside) acids also love brass.Pete

[MaddoxBay]

I agree with hazmail, vinigar is an acid and it could do more damage than good in the long run. If you are using water based paints regular blue windex will work great at cleaning your brush.

[longball]

I've always used windex. I wash out the current color and spray windex in the intake while shooting it in my blowout bucket.

[BobP]

Dampeoples, you can't keep an airbrush too clean, too often. The more fastidious you are about cleaning, the less trouble it will ever give.

Between colors, I use a spray bottle to shoot water into the cup to remove the wet paint, then shoot some through the brush. Then I remove the cup's dried paint ring with a Qtip wetted with lacquer thinner or acetone. Those 2 solvents are quick and won't leave any particles behind. Then I shoot a cup of Windex to further clean paint out of the tip. If the spray pattern looks OK, on to the next color. It takes less time to do it than to say it. The airbrush stays connected.

The airbrush isn't squeaky clean after this, even if you used a solvent instead of Windex - there's still paint in there! At the end of the session, disassemble the airbrush, clean the parts with solvent, and run water through the barrel. If you wait for "a later time TBD" to do the after-session cleaning - trouble WILL find you.

[dampeoples]

It already has, sir. (But you know that )

Of course, I do the same thing, just BEFORE I use it the next time in most cases

On a side note, I've seen some airbrush color manufacturers advertise a ;strong' cleaner or some such, any idea what's in there? I got a bottle of Wildlife Colors 800, but can't place the smell, but it works better than Windex, just too expensive for every color.