errmm, where to start, well i got an airbrush last year-ish, and it seems to have gone wrong i have an Clarke Pro-Airbrush. now what seems to has happened is it has blocked, but it hasnt it will spray clean air but when you put paint the cup on it will not "suck" up the air "at least i think thats the problem "
i need help wth this!

*coughs* well answers please

Sounds like you have a clogged paint tube. Do you have the kind of brush where the paint is in a small jar that attaches to the bottom of the airbrush?

Steve

If you have been shooting acrylic paint through it, you might try taking it apart and soaking it over night in glass cleaner. That should loosen the clog enough that it can be rinsed out - or it may just dissolve. Just be sure to rinse your bush really well once it is clear.

It's a start, anyway.

yes sort of it's a metal paint jar. and yes i have taken it apart and cleaned it with thinners and airbrush cleaner. but nothing seems to work?

Are you thinning the paint properly? If you've eliminated the possibility of a blockage, then maybe your paint is too thick. It should be about the consistency of milk.

You may want to pick up some Premi Air Liquid Reamer to make sure the airbrush is clean.

I read a review on it in a magazine, they were very impressed with what it could do (apparently it dissolves almost anything). Other than that, I'll let people more knowledgeable than myself answer this one.

Mind you, I won't dare try it on my plastic Aztek for fear that it would melt the thing right before my eyes...

Jamie

If you put water or just plain thinners in the paint jar/cup will the airbrush spray the water or thinners?
What pressure are you spraying at?

Things to keep in mind as you tackle the issue:
-if the paint isn't thinned enough, it will either not pick up to spray or you will have to increase the pressure to spray.
-If the paint is correctly thinned and it won't spray, the paint pickup tube could be blocked.

Paint should ideally be around the consistency of milk, this is a measure for you to judge by eye, add thinners to the paint until it is around this consistency. Keep in mind, there is no such thing as a set ratio to thin paint as no two jars of paint are the same consistency.

Airbrush in a pressure range of 15 - 25 psi, anything more than this and you paint is probably too thick.

Any questions you have, or anything you notice we can help with, post up here and we can try to help.

According to the pressure on the compressor we went from 20 psi for spraying to 40psi for cleaning
soaking in Aztek Airbrush cleaner for two hours got some small flakes of paint out, and gave it a complete clean and put it back together let us spray 3 seconds with thinners then stopped spraying the paint again.

We have to get to the bottom of this - we need to get you back to building

I'm going to assume this is the airbrush kit you have:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/pro-air-brush-kit-cab2p

If that is the case, let's start going through this methodically.

From your statement and other comments, maybe the problem isn't in the airbrush at all but in the pickup tube of the color cup. If the color cup is metal, let's try soaking it in some solvent (prefer lacquer thinner as this will be guaranteed to dissolve all paint types). Once you have soaked it a decent while, grab some pipe cleaners and use them down in the pipe of the color tube, let's make sure there is no paint in there creating a blockage.

If you have the siphon jar too, go through a similar procedure to make sure the pickup tube isn't blocked in that one too.

Next is check the needle to make sure it's not bent towards the tip.

If you're using the siphon jar and experiencing the issue, check the vent hole in the lid isn't blocked - if it is this will stop the airbrush from being able to suck up paint.

Please post back with any findings or progress - I will keep brainstorming in the mean time to see if I can think of anything else worth checking.

Ray

Have you tried backflushing the gun? To do this simply put some thinner in the cup/jar. Take a paper towel and wrap it around your index finger. Place the towel right at the tip where the paint comes out.dont apply too much pressure, just enough to push the compressed air back down the pick up tube. You SHOULD see bubbles in the cup/jar. experiment with this for a while, and if you dont get bubbling then there is a blockage in the supply tube. My paint cup fouled up with paint and it looked clean but the blockage was in the pickup tube (it was the side mount siphon type). So to correct I soaked the cup in brake fluid for a day or so then pished a small wire through the tube. The fluid softened the enamel enough to push the "blob" out and I was back to painting! HTH

Another solvent that I have tried on metal parts of brushea is ladies nail polish remover, otherwise known as acetone. We used to use fairly strong acetone at work with great success in dissolving even acrlics, but I only have the weaker version at home. It still works, but takes a little longer to soften the paint.
Let us know how you get on.

Don't think the post belongs in this forum tho.

General maybe

well afro man i would suggest as a friend to clean the insides and look for any gloges

hve you triend cleaning it or checking for any cloges

This may be helpful but something you don’t want to hear. My Badger airbrush was suffering the same complaint and resulted in me changing the spray head, the tip of the head had become damaged most likely through my cleaning being a little rough with it.