A quick post on cleaning

I've mentioned a couple of times by now how my airbrush has been out of action, gummed up with red paint. Today we're going to clean it with a common supermarket product and also see what happens when you hit 3d prints with it! Sparkling clean or melted mess? Let's find out!

Firstly, a look at the shabby state of my airbrush. This was once a pristine looking Iwata Neo CN but it's been through quite a few sprays and when you don't keep up on the cleaning side of things, well....it starts to look like this. 

It's had a couple of overnight baths in turpentine and while that has managed to dislodge sum of the gummed up works, it still doesn't blow paint out like it was built to, so now we go the next step...with some oven cleaner!

I discovered this trick a long time ago working on a car model. Let it sit in oven cleaner for a few hours and watch the paint scrub right off leaving the plastic unaffected. How would it go with PLA+ though? And could this $3.50 off the supermarket shelf do any better than what I've tried so far? Taking one for the team, one of my badly painted and undersized Space Elf's joins the parts in a small tub. Will he be reduced to a small pile of caustic goo? There's only one way to find out!

Oh boy Christmas already? Everything gets a good covering and I make sure the inner chambers of the brush get a blast too because that's what's desperately needed here. 

Now they sit there for a few hours while the cleaner eats the paint. Before we open it up for a decent look, a word on safety. Do this in a ventilated space - for me it was in the shed, both doors wide open. Also get some gloves, you don't want this stuff on your skin. Nitrite gloves are my go when working on my car and work great here too.

When I opened it up a lot of the foam had gone a range of colors - a great sign that it had soaked up some paint. Some water to clear things up and to wash our parts off was next and now you can use things like cotton buds to get the melted paint out of hard to reach areas. Also an old toothbrush works well if you've got one handy. 

Parts came out great and the buds picked up all sorts of colors in the process. It's been a while since I sprayed anything purple and yet deep within my brush, there some lay. This makes me very happy with the deep cleaning action of cheap oven cleaner. What about the Space Elf though, is he a melted mess by now?

Er no, he's still holding strong. The cleaner ate the paint off (and the epoxy that was holding his feet to his legs) but the PLA is still intact. Something like this small model would definitely appreciate some toothbrush action but as an experiment, it's worked well!

SO HOW DID WE GO?

Somewhere in the cleaning process, I lost the airbrush needle. The long spear like part that moves backwards with your thumb press. When I find it again, I'll report on if the deep clean was a success (although with what I've seen coming out of the brush thanks to the oven cleaner, it couldn't have made it any worse!) To be continued!

EDIT: I FOUND IT!

In the backyard, washed out with the foam. Thankfully still in good condition and so I assembled my airbrush back together...and the problem still exists. There may be just enough gunk in there to prevent anything flowing once the needle is seated. Or there's something cracked that I can't see. Investigations shall continue!