Home made AB cleaner.

[JR]

Recently I saw a guy on U Tube talking about his use of homemade thinners and AB cleaner . Didn't bother with the thinners but decided to try his screen wash . Well I don't know what American screen wash is made from or the strength but I tried some bought here in the UK today when cleaning my ab . Did nothing to the ab, the cup has a few dried runs of paint on it , and the tip was pretty grungy. Ok the paint came off some old plastic shot glasses , but only slightly moved the dried paint on the AB .

Back to my VMS which you can get from the shop , mix it with water up to 3 to one , produces a perfect cleaning solution.
Any one else tried any of these common methods of thinners and AB cleaning that actually work ?

[Tim Marlow]

Windex window cleaner works well as an AB cleaner for acrylic paint. Since my last bottle ran out, and as I mostly spray Tamiya acrylics, not Vallejo, I just use MLT for both thinning and cleaning though. On the rare occasions I come across anything too stubborn I use cellulose thinners. In my opinion, most “home brew” solutions are unnecessary at best, and unsafe at worst.

[Mini Me]

Nah JR.........I only use the smelly stuff what requires things like MEK, Lacquer thinner, Acetone........you get the idea. I will say it don't faff about when it comes to getting the AB clean. :smiling: No mixing required either.:thumb2:. Good luck with your efforts to find a good cleaner:nerd:

[Modler bob]

Hi guys.
As I'm pretty new to this forum, reading through some of the post's and see there are a lot of acranyms in them could anyone enlighten me with a (List maybe?) of their meanings please?

[Geoffers]

Hello John,

I’ve been using home made cleaner for some time and found it works well but I only use acrylics.

I mix 2/3 screen wash with 1/3 IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol/ Isopropanol 99.9%).

I have used several brands of screen wash with no problem but suspect it’s the IPA that does the bulk of the cleaning.

A few flushes is generally all I need to clean the airbrush.

Geoff.

[Tim Marlow]

Hi guys.
As I'm pretty new to this forum, reading through some of the post's and see there are a lot of acranyms in them could anyone enlighten me with a (List maybe?) of their meanings please?

There are quite a few here Bob…

https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/abbreviations-and-acronyms-what-do-those-letters-mean.37855/

……not all of them serious or useful :tongue-out3:

[PaulTRose]

just beware if the screen wash has ammonia in it, it will damage any chrome or coating on the air brush

[JR]

Hello John,

I’ve been using home made cleaner for some time and found it works well but I only use acrylics.

I mix 2/3 screen wash with 1/3 IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol/ Isopropanol 99.9%).

I have used several brands of screen wash with no problem but suspect it’s the IPA that does the bulk of the cleaning.

A few flushes is generally all I need to clean the airbrush.

Geoff.

That addition of the IPA is maybe what is lacking Geoff. Further investigation require .Thank you.

just beware if the screen wash has ammonia in it, it will damage any chrome or coating on the air brush

Thanks Paul, i'll check the container.

Windex window cleaner works well as an AB cleaner for acrylic paint. Since my last bottle ran out, and as I mostly spray Tamiya acrylics, not Vallejo, I just use MLT for both thinning and cleaning though. On the rare occasions I come across anything too stubborn I use cellulose thinners. In my opinion, most “home brew” solutions are unnecessary at best, and unsafe at worst.

Right Tim, am I right in thinking then that most of these have IPA in the mix ?

[adt70hk]

Hi John

I use screen wash and that has 5% IPA. Like Geoff I then topped it up with another 20% or so.

ATB.

We're

[Tim Marlow]

That addition of the IPA is maybe what is lacking Geoff. Further investigation require .Thank you.


Thanks Paul, i'll check the container.

Right Tim, am I right in thinking then that most of these have IPA in the mix ?

The home brew ones, yes. It’s probably in Windex as well. Now the pandemic lunacy has died down IPA might even be reasonably priced again as well…..

[outrunner]

I only use acrylics so 99.% IPA does the job fine.

Andy.

[JR]

The home brew ones, yes. It’s probably in Windex as well. Now the pandemic lunacy has died down IPA might even be reasonably priced again as well…..

Yes it did get stupid, I remember E bay refusing to post adverts at one point. I'd paid £17 .99 IN 2020 , I see today its only £20: 99 . So not bad these days.

[JR]

I only use acrylics so 99.% IPA does the job fine.

Andy.

Thanks Andy.

[stillp]

Cheapest IPA I could find is £18.46 for 5 litres, delivered free.
Pete
Edit: sorry, forgot the link! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133424894...MAAOSwBS5gPOu9

[rtfoe]

John, I don't know a solution for cleaning your flame thrower but cellulose thinners clean nearly everything for me.

Cheers,
Richard