I a pretty new to airbrushing and I was painting with Vallejo Air acrylics. Using Grex Tritium with 0.3 needle I was having problems with the paint not flowing, the tip of the needle was caked in dry paint.
I fixed this problem by wetting a paper towel with water and wiping off the tip, did this several times.
Eventually for some reason my paint started being blotchy and runny instead of going on smooth.

I took the needle out and noticed that like the clumsy idiot that I am I managed to bend the tip in 3 different ways and directions. DOH!

Any suggestions for cleaning the tip of the needle without buggering the needle?

I retrack my needle to allow easy acces to clean the tip. Another tip could be cotton sticks with airbrush cleaner.


However, most of us have done things like that

Peter,I use a VERY soft bristled brush soaked in the thinner of choice.Jeff T.

I remove and dip the needle in acetone. Wipe clean with soft cloth. To clean the tip, I remove it from the airbrush, dip in acetone and gently ream with the needle. Make sure to wash the parts with cold water, after you have cleaned them. An alternative method, to clean the tip is to run some fine wire through it.

the tips are actually quiet soft, you may be able to gently roll it under your finger back and forth over a hard surface like a counter top. Not guaranteed to work, but you may have a chance.

Jeremy is right and yes hands up here this silly bugger has done the same thing ..but i use a nice hard flat piece of steel ..stainless is pretty good for this .
I just gently rolled the tip on the steel until it was prefect again ..worked a treat .. my old Badger 150 is rockin again

Phill

Hi Petrer. I think that most of us, if not everyone has done something like that.....so you are not stupid, just learning from experience. When paint builds up in the nozzle i use a soft brush with some thinner. As for Vallejo they are great colors, but they get airbrushes clogged very easily. To avoid that i use as a thinner their airbrush cleaner, (just use it in very small quantities). After that they never gave me a problem again.