Airbrush cleaning pot

[KevHw]

Hey everyone,

I've just cleaned my airbrush by shooting some thinner through it and doing the usual cleaning the needle procedure etc. but I was wondering exactly what the airbrush cleaning pot does. I've seen a few photos of people using it and it just appears to collect the shot thinner in the pot.

I've just been spraying into a box/paper filled bin and find it a real waste of thinner. I read from some other threads, people filling a whole cup with thinner, and I just think it's really uneconomical to waste it all (hence the development of the cleaning pot I guess).

Exactly how do you all clean your airbrushes, with regards to how much thinner you use, and if you recycle it and how or whatever?

[wouter1981]

I hope my English is good enough.. so here it goes:
I have 3 glass jars with different thinners: celluloise thinner(for lacqeurs), white spirit(for enamels) and isopropanol(for acrylic). I use these jars to clean my brushes also. When I'm finished airbrushing, i put my airbrush in one of the jars so the the "head and the cup" are below the surface and spray. I don't really use it to save thinner, mostly because I inhale less thinner and the room dosn 't smell like thinner that way. After a little time, i spray some fresh thinner trough my airbrush and then I desmantel to clean it thoroughly with some tissue. Put everything together and spray some fresh thinner. et voila... clean airbrush. Becarefull with the celluloise thiner.. some airbrushes really don't like to be diped in strong thinners.
Every time before I start airbrushing I spray some thinner trough my airbrush to check if everything sprays nicely and to remove ny leftovers dust.
But never try to save on thinner, it's cheap and a clogged-up airbrush is really annoying, especially when you finaly have that supersmooth primed body ready and the only thing youre airbrush does is "splut-sssplutsplut"

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by KevHw

I've seen a few photos of people using it and it just appears to collect the shot thinner in the pot.

That's exactly all it does - collects the dirty cleaning medium (plus to some minimal degree cuts down the fumes)

Originally Posted by KevHw

I just think it's really uneconomical to waste it all (hence the development of the cleaning pot I guess).

It has nothing to do with economy, just ease of collection of waste. You cannot use the dirty stuff to clean the airbrush. Also it's not WORTH trying to re-cycle it - better a few pennies well spent on cleaning your expensive airbrush properly than the hassle and cost of a malfunctioning brush due to poor cleaning

[KevHw]

I understand completely the reasons for not recycling the waste thinner, I guess I just didn't completely think about how much I would be using. If the main purpose of the pot is to collect and reduce fumes then fair enough.

When I first saw the cleaning pot product, I always envisaged something similar to those charging stations for electric razors that have cleaning cycles built into them. I thought the fancy ones would "clean" the airbrush that way, by flushing the thinner around etc. Obviously with the possibility of solid paint particles floating around there would be the risk of clogging up, but I'm sure with filters and all that....I mean if the charging stations can filter out the little hairs....

Guess I'll just have to keep buying more thinners

[stevenoble]

Get yourself a 5 litre can of cheap lacquer thinner and use this for cleaning the airbrush.Save the best thinner for thinning your paints.I have had a 5 litre one for years and it's still half full, it cost about £5.

[pharr7226]

The cleaning station has a filter that reduces the fumes that result from spraying thinner through your airbrush.