A hyperrealist airbrush artist who supported himself painting surfboards offered some airbrush maintenance advice that runs counter to the usual practice. He had a bunch of university level art classes under his belt and he studied under professional airbrush artists. Plus, what he said made sense.
Has anyone here received the same advice? Or, can you refute what he said?
Don't back flush. This can drive paint past the teflon seal into the trigger mechanism. This might be more of a problem with old airbrushes and worn seals. My Iwata's instruction manual recommends tilting the airbrush back and tapping the tip while pulling the trigger back. It doesn't say anything about holding your thumb over the nozzle and honking on the trigger.
When you store your airbrush, prevent the needle from touching the nozzle. At first this sounded silly. Then I thought about it. Spray quality depends on the microscopic qualities of the needle and nozzle. When dissimilar metals are in contact a lot of things can happen.
Do you soak your airbrush body in solvent? Many people will soak the front of the airbrush in lacquer thinner or another solvent. There' even a hyperrealist painting of an airbrush nose down in solvent in an airbrushing book. Others believe the concentrated solvent vapor can harm the rubber seals in the air valve.
Since this board is frequented by trained artists, experienced modelers and people who know tools I'm interested in your opinions.
Thanks,
Mike
Airbrush Maintenance Religious Issues
Moderators: DasPhule, Moderators
I've never heard of back flushing harming anything. The air has to go somewhere, and the easiest path for it to travel is back through the feed port into your paint cup - taking all of the crud with it. Shouldn't be a problem - unless the seal is already cracked and leaking.
Removing the needle to prevent it from touching the nozzle is OK. The trigger spring does supply pressure against the cone, and that will flare the cone to a degree - eventually. You'll wear them out much faster by "flicking" the trigger or releasing the trigger to fast, slamming the needle into the cone like a wedge. Storing it with the needle against the cone shouldn't be a problem, unless your brush uses soft nickel instead of stainless steel for these components.
I never soak my airbrushes in harsh cleaners. Most of them will deteriorate the O-rings, and you'll end up with air leaks. Thoroughly clean the brush after each use, and you shouldn't need to worry.
Removing the needle to prevent it from touching the nozzle is OK. The trigger spring does supply pressure against the cone, and that will flare the cone to a degree - eventually. You'll wear them out much faster by "flicking" the trigger or releasing the trigger to fast, slamming the needle into the cone like a wedge. Storing it with the needle against the cone shouldn't be a problem, unless your brush uses soft nickel instead of stainless steel for these components.
I never soak my airbrushes in harsh cleaners. Most of them will deteriorate the O-rings, and you'll end up with air leaks. Thoroughly clean the brush after each use, and you shouldn't need to worry.
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Lt. Z0mBe
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You're 100-percent correct on the lacquer thinner and teflon argument. PEople will argue against this point all day long, but the reality is lacquer thinner WILL eat teflon. How do I know this? During high school, I worked as a temporary employee on Saturday mornings at a factory here in town. We had a high-temp teflon applicator. What did we clean it with? Good old lacquer thinner from Ace Hardware. Casual contact of lacquer thinner and teflon is no big deal. Soak the stuff in it, and the teflon turns into little rubbery beads. One thing to watch out for, though, is soaking airbrush parts in ammonia. DON'T do it. Ammonia pits brass, and will cause your nice nozzle to degrade to a splatter tip after a few hours. 
On the subject of backflushing, I think the guy was maybe smoking that same lacquer thinner. Here's why: That same teflon bearing, at least in the case of Iwatas and Badgers, sits between the needle and the trigger assembly. That's the purpose of the bearing - a fluidtight bearing, that will not degrade the needle body. If this were not the case, every time paint flow were adjusted low, relative to a constant airflow, fluid (gas and liquid) would be forced into the trigger assembly too; this would especially happen in a worn teflon bearing scenario. The trigger assembly would be dirty, though less so, regardless if what he said were correct. Again, any fluid backflow, be it liquid or gas, will follow the path of least resistance until the available unit of volume per second in the body and bottle channel is outpaced. You cannot have it work in the case of normal painting adjustments with the backflush heading into the bottle - holding airflow constant and restricting paint flow for instance - and then argue it fails in another case when cleaning backflushing is performed. Either the faulty seals fail regardless in the face of normal fluid flow changes, or good seals always protect the trigger mechanism for any kind of backflushing.
As for dissimilar metals and touching the needles to the nozzle, I am not sure why he recommends that. If it's to prevent banging the needle against the nozzle, I would argue you're more likely to do so when setting up for the next session. Why? Your nozzle and needle should wear at a relatively even rate, making their performance degrade slowly over time. Slight adjustments are needed, not a major adjustment at every session. I would think the risk of a major adjustment, and the risk of "flaring" the nozzle doing so, would outweigh the possible gain that would be there anyway doing the required minor adjustments during the life of the nozzle and needle, had you just used the airbrush properly anyway. In the case of dissimilar metals, you're having brass nozzles touch stainless steel needles (Iwatas) or stainless steel-coated brass needles (Badgers). Brass and stainless steel don't "talk" to each other; there's nothing ionic going on there like there is between, say silver and stainless steel or with gold and mercury. IF there was a problem between brass and stainless steel, the Badger needles would degrade on their own, without even being installed.
I hope this helps you out.
Kenny
On the subject of backflushing, I think the guy was maybe smoking that same lacquer thinner. Here's why: That same teflon bearing, at least in the case of Iwatas and Badgers, sits between the needle and the trigger assembly. That's the purpose of the bearing - a fluidtight bearing, that will not degrade the needle body. If this were not the case, every time paint flow were adjusted low, relative to a constant airflow, fluid (gas and liquid) would be forced into the trigger assembly too; this would especially happen in a worn teflon bearing scenario. The trigger assembly would be dirty, though less so, regardless if what he said were correct. Again, any fluid backflow, be it liquid or gas, will follow the path of least resistance until the available unit of volume per second in the body and bottle channel is outpaced. You cannot have it work in the case of normal painting adjustments with the backflush heading into the bottle - holding airflow constant and restricting paint flow for instance - and then argue it fails in another case when cleaning backflushing is performed. Either the faulty seals fail regardless in the face of normal fluid flow changes, or good seals always protect the trigger mechanism for any kind of backflushing.
As for dissimilar metals and touching the needles to the nozzle, I am not sure why he recommends that. If it's to prevent banging the needle against the nozzle, I would argue you're more likely to do so when setting up for the next session. Why? Your nozzle and needle should wear at a relatively even rate, making their performance degrade slowly over time. Slight adjustments are needed, not a major adjustment at every session. I would think the risk of a major adjustment, and the risk of "flaring" the nozzle doing so, would outweigh the possible gain that would be there anyway doing the required minor adjustments during the life of the nozzle and needle, had you just used the airbrush properly anyway. In the case of dissimilar metals, you're having brass nozzles touch stainless steel needles (Iwatas) or stainless steel-coated brass needles (Badgers). Brass and stainless steel don't "talk" to each other; there's nothing ionic going on there like there is between, say silver and stainless steel or with gold and mercury. IF there was a problem between brass and stainless steel, the Badger needles would degrade on their own, without even being installed.
I hope this helps you out.
Kenny
This is some great stuff, but I'd like to add a little to this.
As far as flushbacking goes this is how I handle it. I flushback my gravity feed brushes when I'm using any paints that can be cleaned with either water or "Airbrush Cleaner" (Which is almost exactly like Windex). I do not flushback any airbrushes that have bottles.
When cleaning my airbrushes with any solvents, I clean out the brush with the solvent and then right away I re-clean it with the "Airbrush Cleaner". I never soak the brush in the solvent for the reasons that have been stated in this thread already. The first clean gets most of the paints out of the brush, the second clean gets the solvents out of the brush.
I am going to point this out. I NEVER let the cleaning wait until the next time. I feel that you MUST clean your airbrush after each session. I flush the brush between colors, but at the end of the painting session I clean my brush of all paint....
I would also recommend cleaning the brush by taking the brush apart if you are able. I believe that if you are using your brush a lot that you should do a "take apart" cleaning at least once a week if you are painting each day, or every 7 - 10th time you use the brush. If you are not going to paint for a while, clean the brush thoroughly before storing it. If you have a ultra sonic cleaner use it once a week with the "Airbrush Cleaner". Never use solvents in the ultrasonic cleaner.
Any airbrush can work great as long as you keep it clean...
I use a Paasche H, Iwata HP-C, and Iwata RG-2, and have been using these 3 airbrushes for the last 15 years......
Tommy
As far as flushbacking goes this is how I handle it. I flushback my gravity feed brushes when I'm using any paints that can be cleaned with either water or "Airbrush Cleaner" (Which is almost exactly like Windex). I do not flushback any airbrushes that have bottles.
When cleaning my airbrushes with any solvents, I clean out the brush with the solvent and then right away I re-clean it with the "Airbrush Cleaner". I never soak the brush in the solvent for the reasons that have been stated in this thread already. The first clean gets most of the paints out of the brush, the second clean gets the solvents out of the brush.
I am going to point this out. I NEVER let the cleaning wait until the next time. I feel that you MUST clean your airbrush after each session. I flush the brush between colors, but at the end of the painting session I clean my brush of all paint....
I would also recommend cleaning the brush by taking the brush apart if you are able. I believe that if you are using your brush a lot that you should do a "take apart" cleaning at least once a week if you are painting each day, or every 7 - 10th time you use the brush. If you are not going to paint for a while, clean the brush thoroughly before storing it. If you have a ultra sonic cleaner use it once a week with the "Airbrush Cleaner". Never use solvents in the ultrasonic cleaner.
Any airbrush can work great as long as you keep it clean...
I use a Paasche H, Iwata HP-C, and Iwata RG-2, and have been using these 3 airbrushes for the last 15 years......
Tommy