"Airbrush Cleaners?" Topic

Hi does any one have any opinions on why you should use proper airbrush cleaners as opposed to Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning your airbrush. I just recently bought an airbrush which has virtually no manual. Thanks.

Iso is good, really the best source of advice is YouTube, plenty of good vids on this subject.

From my experience, the temptation is to do a full strip down of the gun every time, which I can assure you isn't necessary.

Acetone.

Spray your thinner through first. Followed by a formal cleaner from your paint manufacturer if you have one. Then Acetone.

Or maybe I have just had too much clogging and you only really need the thinner and the acetone.

If you are using acrylics, rubbing alcohol or isoprpyl is actually the cheapest and best.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

The only issue with acetone is that it can affect any rubber o rings and the like. Check what components are in your airbrush as they may have requirements that prevent certain cleaners.

I go first with windex (window cleaner), then an "airbrush cleaner", and finally water. Usually 2 airbrush cups worth of each. After some searching I'm going to be using car window cleaner instead of official airbrush cleaner once my stock runs out.

If your airbrush has rubber gaskets then windex is not a good option as it contains ammonia which breaks the rubber down.

It depends on your paint. Whatever you want to use, test it first! Put your cleaner in a small cup, and add a few drops of your paint, and see what happens. If it mixes/disperses, you are OK. If if coagulates, it will gunk up your airbrush. For example, I will now only use Badger's spray through cleaner to clean up after using Stynylrez primer.