What is an airbrush? An airbrush is a piece of important painting equipment by which you can paint and decorate several things.
It can be used for textile decoration, painting a particular material like a car, furniture, etc, tattooing the human skin, doing makeup for the bride and bridegroom, etc.
How does it work?
Airbrush is an air-operated device that works using the process of nebulization.
It works by spraying the particular paint or color (or maybe dye or ink) in various patterns starting from a pencil line to a broad passage type of coating on the appropriate material.
You can use them to spray paint small models, miniatures, tools, and various other objects.
Overall, an airbrush serves as an important tool for completing various tasks that are hard to compete with other painting tools such as a spray gun or a spray can.
As an airbrush tool is highly beneficial, you should take utmost care while handling and maintaining them. In fact, if you want to keep it in good working condition for long proper cleaning is essential.
Airbrush, after the paint, when kept for a few hours, dries up quickly, leaving it clogged. This clogged airbrush cannot be used further for any work.
Hence maintaining an airbrush without any blockage by cleaning it on and off will surely help you to make use of the airbrush for a longer period of time.
How to Clean an Airbrush?
For easy cleaning of the airbrush like the Iwata airbrush, there are so many solutions and apparatus that are available on the market.
But putting these chemicals and solutions may actually cause damage to the airbrush, which can reduce its lifetime.
Thus to be on the safer side, it is good to use lesser chemicals for cleaning your costly airbrush apparatus.
Safe and basic things needed to clean an airbrush effectively include:
- Small bristle brush
- Warm water or diluted cleaning solvent
- Clean and soft cloth to wash the airbrush
Basic Steps Involved
- The very first step is rinsing your airbrush in warm water to remove the paints and colors adhered to the brush. The warm water rinsing will make the leftover paints get loosened, and they will gradually leave the brush and come out.
- Now take a small bowl or cup and fill it with the safe and harmless cleaning solution. Using a window cleaning solution or alcohol-based cleaner, or diluted thinner helps a lot in cleaning the airbrush safely and comfortably.
- Now apply the solution carefully along with the airbrush. If the leftover paints still adhere to the airbrush, then try to pull it out gently with the help of a toothpick or a small pipette.
- Now take a cotton swab, dip it in the cleaning solution, and start cleaning the other parts of the airbrush slowly.
- Finally, dip the airbrush in warm water and dry it with the help of a clean, soft cloth.
Follow this procedure properly between each usage of the airbrush so that it will serve you best for a longer period of time without any problem.
The above procedure can be easy and fast if you want to clean your airbrush at regular intervals.
But at times, when you want to clean the airbrush, which is very dirty and clogged heavily, the above process may prove to be ineffective.
Ultrasonic cleaning device is also now effectively used by many to clean the heavily clogged airbrush.
This sonic cleansing machine is highly effective and fully technological and thus saves you a good deal of time and money when you want to clean a very dirty airbrush.
The more often you clean the airbrush, the better you will get the results in your work without any hindrance.
Ultrasonic Cleaner for Airbrush
Cleaning a very dirty or clogged airbrush can be very time-consuming.
But with the help of an ultrasonic cleaner machine, you can do the job easily and efficiently.
Ultrasonic Cleaner, which is also referred to as Sonicator or Cavitator, is a cleaning equipment that combines the power of ultrasonic waves (more than 40000 vibrations per second) and a cleaning solution to clean intricate items.
Ultrasonic parts cleaning saves time and provides effective cleaning of airbrush parts covered with oil, grease, and other types of chemicals used.
The dissembling of the airbrush has to be done with care before you place the parts of the airbrush (including the airbrush needle, nozzle, nozzle cap, etc.) in the cleaning tank of sonic cleaner.
The needle should be handled carefully as it is still pointed and sharp and can be risky if you do not handle them with care.
No matter whether you are using the device for cleaning airbrushes or for stripping miniatures, a good quality sonic cleaning solution is to be used in the cleaner machine so that you can get better results.
You need to place the parts of the airbrush in the cleaner solution and start the machine. Cavitation actions are used to remove small dirt or particles from the airbrush.
How Does Ultrasonic Airbrush Cleaner Work?
The bubbles that are produced by the ultrasonic waves in the cleaning solution act as a scrubbing agent.
And these popping bubbles clean all parts of the submerged airbrush parts, thus removing the tiny dirt particles, paint, or chemical very effectively and efficiently from your airbrush gun.
If the paint on the airbrush is heavily dried and old, you may not see great results after the first cleaning. You may thus repeat the process of ultrasonic cleaning to clean your airbrush to get the desired results.
Cleaning an airbrush nozzle with an ultrasonic cleaner can be a tricky job for you. It should be noted that ultrasonic cleaning works on the parts that are in direct contact with the fluid when immersed in the solution.
And as the solution may not reach the inside of the blocked nozzle, it is important that you open up the nozzle of the airbrush before placing it in the ultrasonic cleaner solution.
This ensures that the solution reaches the inside of the nozzle when the cleaning is done.
After the cleaning is done, take out the airbrush parts from the unit and dry them completely using a soft cloth.
Make sure that you gently wipe the needles and dry off the parts completely before assembling so that there is no moisture left behind.
The results you get by cleaning airbrushes using ultrasonic cleaner are just remarkable. This simplifies your task, and you can get professional cleaning results within a few minutes at home.
When buying the best ultrasonic cleaner for airbrushes, check out the different reviews and consumer ratings. And then, based on your particular requirement, choose the one that is rightly suited for you.
Check out Further Tips At this Good Airbrush Cleaning & Maintenance Tutorial Video, which will help you out.