STRIPPING DOWN & CLEANING.

The picture below shows a stripped down Harder & Stenbeck Brush. This brush has a push fit nozzle, many brushes have a screw fit nozzle but the cleaning procedure is the same.

My method for sdtripping down:

1. Clean as per instructions for changing colours.

2. Turn off air supply, bleed system & remove supply hose.

3. Unscrew rear of brush & set aside.

4. Unscrew airbrush cap & set aside.

5. Remove nozzle, if push fit - pop out, if screw fit - unscrew using spanner that would have been supplied with Airbrush. Be very careful here, you do not want to drop nozzle or damage seals.

6. The tip of your needle will know be exposed again this is very fragile. Loosen thumb screw/locknut at rear of brush (no need to remove fully) Remove needle from FRONT of Airbrush. This aviods dragging any paint or particles further into the brush.

7. Control lever will now be loose so be careful it does not drop out, you don't need to remove this item.

CLEANING.

The order of carrying out the cleaning is not really important, the steps I use are as follows:

1. Using an alcohol swab I polish the needle to remove any paint residue, this will remove all paint even hard spots.

2. Using the same wipe I will clean out the paint cup.

3. I will now put a couple of drops of airbrush cleaner/IPA into the colour cup (careful here as it will run out if you tip the brush) Now insert the appropriate sized cleaning brush into the orifice at the front or rear of the airbrush & clean using an in/out motion, you may have to do this a couple of times, dabbing the cleaning brush onto some kitchen roll inbetween.

4. Give the front cap & nozzle a good wipe. If there appears to be lots of paint (especially if it looks dried) in the nozzle, it can either be soaked in cleaner or reamed. In my experience either of these are seldom necessary. If you have one & do decide to ream. procede with EXTREME CAUTION as too much presure will destroy your nozzle. The other alternative is to pop into an ultrasonic cleaner if you are lucky enough to have one.

5. All that remains now is a quick wipe over the body & you are ready for re-assembly.

CHECK

1. Re-attach air supply & check for any air leaks. You can normally hear them.

2. Pop some cleaner into colour cup & blow a little through.

3. Add a drop of Airbrush lube into trigger asembly & I mean a tiny drop! You don't want this going onto needle. I only do this about every 10 cleans or so.

4. If you have a permanent set up then leave a little cleaner in the base of the cup, if not blow through & pop away!

Again, I know this sounds lengthy but it's only 10 mins at the end of your spraying session, which could save loads of time and prevent any poor paint jobs.

Hope this helps.

Wilfy

Wilfy, excellent tutorial and one that shows I got a few steps wrong such as pulling the needle out through the rear of the brush rather than forward.... hadn't thought of the possibility of pulling dried particles back into the brush..... thanks for posting...

Regards

Alan

Have found this thread extremely useful. Have been given permission to get one in the next few weeks. While of course cleaning it is very important can I make a suggestion for a future update. In how to set one up and use. Have never used an airbrush before so to have tips and advice from more experienced modellers would be invaluable.
Good work guys.
Gareth

Thanks for your interest everyone & glad it was useful.

Jase, I should have popped in about the cleaning station, they are very useful & prevent lots of fumes from circulating when emptying or blowing through your airbrush. I have the exact one in your picture.

Wilfy