How to clean up after using ENAMEL PAINTS

[alien]

I have only used enamels 3 times. Each time I had a mess cleaning it up. With acrylics I run the air brush, related paint aids and the eye droper through running water and then clean them with the paint thinner.

With enamels there is paint stuck to and in everything as you cannot run water through it. Is there a way to clean everything without using 20 Q-tips, 3 or 4 pipe cleaners and a couple of napkins? It takes me about half an hour to clean up with enamels as compared to 5 minutes with acrylics.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or help :blink:

Stephen

[TXCajun]

Everyone has their own tricks, but believe it or not, because I live a somewhat dry climate, I have a greater problem cleaning up acrylics because they dry so fast.

For enamels, here's what I do:

If the paint I am using is something I will only use through an airbrush, I pour any leftover thinned paint back into the jar.

Next, I spray any remaining paint through the airbrush into my cleaning station. See it here:

http://cybermodeler.com/hobby/tools/iwa/im...ata_clean_2.jpg

Next, I wipe the inside of the bowl ( I use a gravity feed Iwata HP-CS for most of my work ) with a dry low-lint- paper towel. I get these from the auto parts store. They are blue and feel more like fabric than paper). Next, I hold a clean section of the towel over the opening on a can of lacquer thinner and tip it over, wetting the towel. I use the lacquer thinner wet towl to wipe out the inside of the bowl and the outside of the airbrush.

Next, I use a pippet/eye dropper to fill the bowl witih lacquer thinner and spray it out of the brush and into the cleaning station to flush paint residue from the airbrush. Toward the end, I'll spray the thinner on a white card to see if it runs clear. If not, I spray a bit more through the brush until it runs clear.

Now, from here if I'm only going to go to my next color, then I load up the brush and start painting. If I'm going to put it away, then I pull the needle and wipe it down with lacquer thinner.

The whole process maybe takes me 5-8 minutes.

Now, having said that, even if you are spraying wtih acrylics, you still need to break down your airbrush after a session and give it a good cleaning. You didn't say what kind of airbrush you are using, but if I don't do this with my Iwata, the thing will gum up regardless of the paint type I use. Now for me, a "session" is one model unless the painting process is protracted over a long time. Which, mine usually are.

Hope this helps.

Stew

[MarkW]

+1. Whether it is enamels or lacquers, my process is similar. I always pull the needle to make sure it is clean, but even then it is still a 5-8 minute process.

Since I don't have running water at my model desk, it actually takes the same time/process to clean acrylics-just different thinners.

[Phantom ordie]

I clean up with laquer thinner. Not a problem.

[toadwbg]

I clean up with laquer thinner. Not a problem.

I second that.

Make sure you have good ventalation.

[Andy Mullen]

As with Stew, my enamels cleanup is with Cellulose thinners (US = Lacquer), and because mine is the Eclipse SBS (sidefeed), I take off my paint pot, replace with a clean one and spray neat Cellulose into my cleaning station until clear.

If it is the last paint of the session, I pull the needle and clean with Cellulose, reassemble and spray a few drops of Medea Airbrush Cleaner through to finish. If I am not using the airbrush for a while (longer than a month), I will coat the needle with Medea Super Lube, and reassemble.

If not the last paint I attach another paint pot and carry on.

Pots are easily cleaned after I am finished.

[Impatient Pete]

This may sound like a dumb question, but your sentence "With enamels there is paint stuck to and in everything as you cannot run water through it." leads me to ask the question "Are you using the proper thinner to clean the brush after using enamels?" Laquer thinner will clean the enamels from an airbrush as easily as water will clean acrylics. What I like about enamels (not trying to sell you on them) is the fact that they will remain eternally soluble in Laquer thinner, unlike acrylics which cure and stick like crazy.

My drill to clean my airbrusg is to dump the cup (or switch the bottle if you're using a siphon feed) and drain all of the paint from the brush. then add clean thinner to the cup (bottle again if using a sihon brush) and spray while moving the needle back and forth. I actaully unscrew the needle and run it all the ay out and back in while spraying. I find that more paint comes in the thinner when the thinner runs out and that last bit comes through the airbrush. I simulate that by adding a little thinner at a time and letting it run dry again and again, the airbrush comes clean faster with less thinner. I repeat this sequencxe until the thinner comes out clean.

Cheers!

Pete

[BOC262]

I have a side feed (Iwata TR). My cleaning sequence is pretty much as others here have explained, but when putting the AB away for the day I will also pull the needle, and then take an eyedropper filled with lacquer thinner and squeeze it into the "shaft" where the needle goes in--this will flush out any paint that may have been pulled into the body of the AB when the needle is pulled out (on the TR, the needle must be removed from the rear). I will also pull the paint cup and squirt some lacquer thinner directly into the body where the paint pot plugs in, then gently swab out the area with a lacquer thinner soaked short section of pipe cleaner.

I buy very high quality pipe cleaners and then cut them into 1 inch lengths--that is plenty long enough to do the work required and I get a lot more cleaning sessions per pack of pipe cleaners.

In addition to the pipe cleaners I also use paper towels (I rip them into pieces about 2 x 4 inches), and Q-tips.

The Iwata only takes a few minutes to clean between colors, and just a bit longer when putting it away for the day.

After the few times I AB'd acrylics, I spent far more time cleaning than I do after AB'ing enamels because I was worried about the stories I heard about dried on acrylics.

[Ricky]

Enamel paint is very stubborn and its really a tough job to remove it from brushes! I have a blog where i discuss about it. You can check out my post to make it easier.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Ricky

[ElectroSoldier]

Cellulose thinners.

You can buy a 5liter drum from any motor factors.

 

Use a rag, tissue or something similar to get any paint out the colour cup.
add some cellulose thinners to the colour cup and blow it through.

add another cup full and use an old paint brush to clean out the colour cup

 

Most of the paint path should be cleaned out now

 

Remove the needle, wipe it through a rag with some thinners on it to clean it.

 

If you really want to remove the nozzle and have to look to see that its clean, if not use a pipe cleaner soaked in thinners to clean the paint path. If you push the cleaner down the nozzle dont push to hard and the end will splay open.

Reassemble.