Airbrushes not Working

Elly Supalo

Hello! Whenever I use my two airbrushes (iwata gravity feed and siphon- both dual action) for longer than 5 minutes, they both stop pushing out paint. Before going on set, I disassemble them and soak in 99 alcohol overnight and then deep clean them with airbrush cleaner/99 alcohol. Yesterday for instance, I used my siphon airbrush with water based airbrush paint (graftobian brand), switched to using airbrush cleaner to clean it out between paints, took a break for about 5 minutes and went back to the paint and it wouldn’t feed through. I did all the tricks I’ve learned by holding it upside down to push more through with the cleaner, plugging the end of the needle and letting it bubble through the airbrush bottle (sometimes bubbles, other times doesn’t), etc. this also happens with my gravity fed brush, and also when I use alcohol paints (skin illustrator). Always the same outcome. 

I’m at a loss and idk what I’m doing wrong. I’m also using the silverjet air compressor if that matters.

Thank you in advance!

Chris Ellerby

Sounds like you might be running into "tip dry" where the paint dries on the tip of the needle and clogs the airbrush.

Depending on the paint formula you are working with you can thin the mixture or use a reducer to help with tip drying.   Wiping off the tip of the needle occasionally can also help, but be careful not to damage the tip of the needle.

This YouTube video has some tips to help with tip dry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9wRP1CHpbo

Hope that helps!

/Chris

Tom Luca

Oh! There's a helpful tip on one of the DVDs here at SWSCA. The artist simply capped the nozzle with his pointer finger and squeezed the trigger until the cup or bottle began to backup with bubbles. Before you knew what was happening it was clean to spray again.