I've used my air brush a couple times. After using it last night to color my "Turkey" cake, it is no longer spraying anything out. I cleaned the needle and soaked the tip of the gun in hot water. The only way I can get water to spray out is if I take the needle out! Clearly that's not good. Is there something I should be doing to "clear" the path? Or do I just have a faulty gun?

fyi-this happened weeks ago, but after taking the needle out and cleaning it, it worked again.

I had the same problem, only used the air brush several times then it started to clog up. My machine didn't come with ANY instructions on how to remove the needle or how to clean properly!
any advise would be awesome!! thanks!! cindy~~

it sounds like maybe the needle wasn't set into the right position. If it's to far "out" of the gun then it doesn't pull back far enough with the trigger and nothing will come out.

There are many different types of air brushes out there though, if you post a link or your model/type maybe someone with that particular model can help.

I have a needleless one and it's been about 10 years since I used one with a needle, so the above is the only thing i remember having issues with, except sometimes the end of the needle got bent b/c it's so easy to do that and then it would cause issues to, but not with being clogged, then it caused issues with not spraying evenly.

Could your airbrush gun have clogged from a tiny lump? I actually strain my colour to make sure then are no tiny lumps of colour. It only takes a really small dot to plug up gun. Do you use a needle to clean out tip of airbrush?

I clean my needle with an airbrush cleaner, it usually works.

I agree with the advice to check the placement on your needle. Also, when I worked in a high volume bakery, our airbrush would clog all the time, usually what I would do is get a bowl of hot water and not just soak it but turn on the air brush and submerge under the water and pull on the trigger a bunch- if that didn't work then my next move is soaking the gun in heated vinegar to get any residues or build off taken care of.
Other culprits might be that the needle got bent, the little screw-on tip thing isn't screwed on tight, the trigger might be out of it's track....a sprinkle caught in the gun lol, (I only mention that 'cause it's happened to me before)
It's hard to say with out having it in front of me, lol. Good Luck and I hope you don't have to order a replacement part- so annoying!

I ended up taking the gun apart and soaking it in hot water overnight. It cleared up the clog and I'm good to go. Thanks for the insight everyone! Keep cakin!

Back flush it. Put some cleaner or water in the gun bowl. Hold your finger over the end and push the spray button. You will see the bowl of liquid bubble up. I get clogs all the time from using luster dust.

What kind of cleaner are you guys using? Is it food safe?

KAMI

My cleaner is from Bakery Crafts. It doesn't say food safe on the bottle.

It does say run 2 to 3 brush capfuls of warm water after using. It definitely says do not soak in the cleaner or water.

My instructions that came with my brush always recommended back flushing.

I also only use distilled water since I have massively hard water.