alcohol to clean airbrush?

[Digger1]

Is it okay to clean and scrub down the innards of an airbrush with rubber o-rings with alcohol?

[irishtrek]

If you run acrylic paint through it then yes.

[Lt. Z0mBe]

Alcohol should be fine. Lacquer thinner will attack the Badger's teflon O-rings.

I hope this helps.

Kenny

[Digger1]

indeed.

respectfully,
me

[redfinger]

Is it okay to clean and scrub down the innards of an airbrush with rubber o-rings with alcohol?

I use denatured acohol from Home Depot, blue nad orange tin.....seems to work real well....I usally add just a littel water to it as well....

On a side note, I have had good results w/ denatured alcohol and future mixed w/ my Timiya color of choice in my airbrush as well.....

Ashton

[DX-SFX]

Alcohol should be fine. Lacquer thinner will attack the Badger's teflon O-rings.

I hope this helps.

Kenny

Apologies for the contradiction but I don't think so. I use acetone based paints almost exclusively and I've only ever changed the teflon ring once in fifteen years. The full size custom car boys would be pretty miffed if it destroyed the seal each time they airbrushed artwork on their cars. The pick up tube in some air brush glass jars used to be teflon and this regularly got washed out in cellulose thinners without damage. It will cause black rubber "O" rings to swell and eventually break down like the ones in the Badger 350. For the same reason, you should avoid immersing the air release valve part of the airbrush (the bit the airline screws on to) as this has rubber "O" ring seals. If the rubber rings get cellulose thinners/acetone on them, they will initially absorb the thinner and swell but should return to the right size as the thinners evaporates out. Doing it repeatedly will break them down though. I'm not sure if alcohol will effect black rubber anywhere near as much but I wouldn't think so.

[Padawan v 2.5]

Not sure where the idea that laquer thinner is bad came from. I've been cleaning my 360 with laquer thinner for years. When it gets really dirty, or when I have to shoot a bunch of different colors through it in rapid sucession, I tear it down and let it soak in a jar overnight. It cleans out everything really well and the brush shoots like new.

P@T

[TER-OR]

I don't think natural rubber is used in these brushes - most should be fine with lacquer thinner. I will soak bits in alcohol to clean, but I typically use acrylic.

[Lt. Z0mBe]

The reason I say lacquer thinner is bad to use must be qualified. I use it to clean my brush, but I flush the brush afterwards with a bit of mineral spirits or Windex, depending upon what I am shooting next.

As for why I say it is bad for teflon, that's another story. At a job I used to have, there were teflon spot applicators we used to have. At the end of each day, their tips were locked in a lacquer thinner bath. Next day, the teflon clumped out like ricotta cheese.

I hope this helps.

Kenny

[Mark Yungblut]

When I am brushing with Acrylic in any of my Paasches I typically I clean with Windex. I also keep an airbrush bottle full of Windex to run through the brush from time to time. It helps to keep it cleaner and makes for less final clean up..


Cheers,

Mark

[Vince Hoffmann]

Lacquer thinner works well, but is a bit overkill if you're spraying acrylics. I use acetone and it works exceptionally well for thinning and cleaning. Don't use the fake stuff they sell as nail polish remover it reacts differently with various brands of paint.