Airbrushes and Ultrasonic Cleaners

[Firepower]

So after a few years of use and progressively greater issues cleaning, my Iwata Neo is due for a deep relaxing day at the spa.  Specifically, a deep tissue Ultrasonic massage.

 

I'm gonna get myself a cleaner for XMas, but I need to know what cleaning agent to use.  I know not to put the air valve assembly into the machine, but there are still O-rings and such which can be damaged by using the wrong cleaning agent.  What mixture/agent should I use to clean it, with a history of using GW and Vallejo acrylics, as well as lacquer primer from many moons ago? 

 

Some folks recommend Windex, but I've heard it reacts poorly with Vallejo for some odd reason, turning it gooey and clumpy rather than the desired effect.  I often use Castrol Super Clean to strip models, but I imagine it would be too caustic.  Should I use two different agents in separate washes, one for the acrylics and one for the lacquer?

 

As a bonus, getting every iota of paint out of it at last will let me know if and what parts need replacing.  It acts oddly at times, but I can never peg whether its the needle, the needle cap, the...erm...'thing' that goes over the needle cap, or something deeper.

[Bung]

H&S User here, but if you are able to spray laquer based primer you should be able to use a bit more aggressive cleaner.

Try rubbing alcohol or if its harder to remove some Aceton (found in nail polish remover) both wont damage the metal parts, but i wont put  o-rings and other seals into Aceton.

[Arkhanist]

The neo has rubber o-rings, so they do degrade fairly quickly with more aggressive cleaners/thinners, but they'll degrade over time from normal use anway. You can get replacement o-rings, though I believe it's recommended to replace the nozzle o-ring by buying a new nozzle (with ring fitted) as it's a nightmare to fit that tiny ring without damaging either, and they're not too expensive. The others - packing, handle and cup o-ring - can be replaced by hand with care.

 

PTFE (teflon) seals last much longer, but they only come on brushes that are twice (or more) the price.

 

Since you're having issues, I'd start with a close examination of the needle and the nozzle; they're the bits most likely to need replacing, followed by the packing o-ring if paint is leaking into the rear of the brush. Assuming it's a neo CN, with the gravity feed cup - If it's not spraying much even when supposedly clean with a good nozzle & needle, you can try replacing the nozzle cap with a 0.5mm one (a neo BCN spare); the 0.35mm needle cap it comes with has a very tight clearance and I found it did improve flow quite a bit (with 0.35mm nozzle & needle still) when I was still using my neo (got that idea from here)

 

You don't want to put a full bath of neat flammable cleaner in the sonic cleaner as it can set itself alight! Nor anything too caustic, as it will vaporise and you don't want to be breathing that stuff either. You're not really supposed to use anything nastier than washing up liquid.

 

For a full deep clean of acrylics out of my current H&S brush I've had some success with putting a litte nail polish remover (primarily acetone) in the paint flow part of the main body and the nozzle and needle/nozzle caps, and then putting that in a sonic bath of warm water - it gets out a little paint I can't even see after a normal clean. But then my current brush has PTFE seals, not rubber. You might want to skip acetone on the nozzle and stick to standard airbrush cleaner/washing up liquid given the delicate rubber o-ring there.

 

edit: neo parts list if you're not sure what any of these bits are.

Edited December 23, 2017 by Arkhanist

[Firepower]

Well the needle could definitely use replacing.  The naked eye can see that it's been bent at the tip, and I've corrected it now and then.  The O-rings are an open question.  Looking at the nozzle cap under magnification, the O-ring looks perfectly fine.  I find that a bit odd because the rubber seal around the bottom of the cup has been shredded over the years, partly because whatever I used to thin the lacquer way back when (can't recall what chemical) deteriorated the rubber.

 

One really odd thing is the nozzle cap.  During cleaning, the soapy water will bubble out through the threading where it connects to the body.  There is no ring there, it just screws on.  This leads me to believe that there is perhaps a poor fit between the nozzle cap and the nozzle, causing a blow-back.  It's only during cleaning though, and paint doesn't leak out the same way.

 

Cleaning the thing has always been a pain.  I can spend half an hour wiping out the cup, cleaning out the nozzle, cleaning the needle, and sometimes I'll still get a bit of the paint in the water when I test it afterward.

 

Anyway, it has served me bravely over several years, and definitely deserves a deep clean regardless of the parts' condition.  From what I've read, acetone won't be friendly to the o-rings in the Neo.  So I may just have to go the more expensive route and pour some Medea cleaner into the warm water and see what happens.

 

Buuut all things considered, and after so long with more experience in airbrushing, I'm also thinking of just getting a new, better model   The Iwata HP Eclipse is appealing, especially for the 'thicker paint' feature, with how certain high pigment Vallejo paints like black and white insist on clogging the snot out of the Neo.

Edited December 23, 2017 by Firepower