Cleaning a spray gun in 3 minutes

When I first investigated HVLP spray guns I was apprehensive about cleaning them. It sounded like you needed a fairly large project to justify the time and hassle of maintaining the gun. I have two gravity type guns, a full size one with a 20oz cup and another gun with a small 4oz cup intended for detail or repair work. The small gun is more than sufficient for 90% of my spraying jobs and the bonus is that I can clean it in less than 3 minutes.

So far, I'm have only used the small gun for spraying water-based dye and water-based finish. On my projects, I typically spray dye first and after it dries (usually in less than 30 minutes) I then spray Bulls Eye Clear Shellac to protect the dye from the water-based finish. While I could spray the shellac with gun, for most small projects, I use the Bulls Eye spray can. Finally I use the small gun to spray two coats of Minwax Polycrylic.

 Cleaning the Air Cap, Needle, Nozzle, Cup, and Gun body

These are the steps I take to clean my gun after using it to spray water-based dye and finish. I usually have a milk container filled with water and a plastic bowl that I clean over.

1. Remove the air hose from the sprayer
2. Pour left over dye or finish back into their containers.
3. Rinse out the cup several times with water.
4. Fill the cup with a couple ounces of water and pull the trigger until the dye or finish has drained and only water is being passed through the gun. You may want to back the needle off to make this faster.
5. Remove the air cap. Run some water over it to clean.
6. Remove the nozzle. Run some water through it from the back. Blow some air through it from your mouth. Looking through it from the back, verify that there are no obstructions.
7. Run some more water through the gun. This will clean the cavity in the gun body.
8. Whip the cup dry with a paper towel. Sometimes you may see a residual color on the cup from the dye. Dampen a paper towel with alcohol and whip the color off.