Cleaning brushes

Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit

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I have some quite small areas to varnish so cleaning brushes after each coat is not something I want to do. I'm currently giving brushes a quick rinse in white spirit and leaving them in the jar with the spirit (Epifanes varnish) until the next coat. What other methods do people use to save cleaning brushes?
 
Wrap them tightly in cling film, keep them out of the sun, they'll stay OK for hours.

When I'm antifouling, I use one brush for several days, it's fine overnight if well wrapped in cling film.
 
For varnishing, I prefer to clean between each coat anyway. For a short time, standing in spirit can be OK, so long as there isn't a tide-line on the bristles, though purists will be critical if the brush is not suspended off the base. Normally, I rinse in white spirit and then massage washing-up liquid into the bristles and rinse out with warm water, repeating if necessary. At the moment I am using a synthetic brush which, to my annoyance, is at least as good as bristle or foam. For varnishing, you really don't want to risk generating particles that might spoil the next coat.
 
I do clean them after each coat and sometimes more frequently. A paintbrush spinner makes it a very quick process.

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If it's a tiny area, a tiller say, I sometimes chop up a washing up sponge into small pieces and throw away each bit after I use it.

I hold it at the scouring pad end, and try not to dip my fingernails into the varnish... too much.
 
In one of their books, Lynn and Larry Pardey describe a 'system' they used for small varnish jobs.

If I remember correctly it consisted of a small screw top jar with a varnish brush through the centre of the lid with the bristles inside.

The bristles were submerged in varnish and did not dry out.

A piece of sandpaper was wrapped around the jar and kept in place with an elastic band.
 
If your doing a fair bit of oil based painting or varnishing then this is a great item.
There is a vapour pad in the box that keeps the brushes up to 6 months in the same wet condition as when you were using them.
Buy Brush Mate Trade 4 Online | Brush Trade 4 | Brush Mate
Generally synthetic is for water based, natural hair for oil based.
I've often found that synthetic brushes do not hold anywhere near the amount of paint that a natural one does.
If you put your natural hair brush in water it absorbs water which is why it's puffy the next time you use it .
The range stores sell their own synthetic brushes very cheaply and they are great value for money
 
For small areas, I use some so-called 'artists' brushes', which don't need much white spirit to clean and don't waste much paint or varnish.
I rinse in a jar of used white spirit, then clean with a little clean white spirit (add that to the jar) then fairy liquid and warm water.
Never had much luck with wrapping brushes except for antifoul, which dissolves in its own solvent.
 
Rappey said:
If your doing a fair bit of oil based painting or varnishing then this is a great item.
There is a vapour pad in the box that keeps the brushes up to 6 months in the same wet condition as when you were using them.
Buy Brush Mate Trade 4 Online | Brush Trade 4 | Brush Mate
Generally synthetic is for water based, natural hair for oil based.
I've often found that synthetic brushes do not hold anywhere near the amount of paint that a natural one does.
If you put your natural hair brush in water it absorbs water which is why it's puffy the next time you use it .
The range stores sell their own synthetic brushes very cheaply and they are great value for money
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'

+1

They are very good. I have two at home, one for varnish brushes and one for paint brushes. I take them to the boat when she is laid up but I don't leave them on board.

Instead of buying new vapour pads, I bought a bottle of the solvent and re-wet them from that. It's cheaper.

Brushes are kept ready for use indefinitely.

Which reminds me it's time I annointed the pads again.
 
When using varnish and oil-based paint, my father used to stand the brushes in water overnight, with the water level just above the paint and not up to the ferrule. He used to slap the brushes against the back of the garage door to get the water out, extracting the last of it by squeezing in a rag.
I've tried this, but but any residual drops of water show up on the painted surface, causing problems. I prefer the more modern solution; clingfilm, which can also be laid on the surface of the paint in the tin to prevent skinning.
 
lw395 said:
For small areas, I use some so-called 'artists' brushes', which don't need much white spirit to clean and don't waste much paint or varnish.
I rinse in a jar of used white spirit, then clean with a little clean white spirit (add that to the jar) then fairy liquid and warm water.
Never had much luck with wrapping brushes except for antifoul, which dissolves in its own solvent.
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+1. That exactly describes my method of brush cleaning including saving the used spirit, in which the solids drop to the bottom between one use and the next, leaving relatively clean spirit to initiate the next cleaning job.
As an added refinement I do the cleaning in a suitably sized cut-off plastic bottle, a flat one that will fit closely around the brush, minimising the quantity of solvent required. Pumping the brush up and down rapidly in this container produces quick results, first with the solvent , then with the soapy water.
 
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pvb said:
Wrap them tightly in cling film, keep them out of the sun, they'll stay OK for hours.
Click to expand...

I do the same and also put then in a fridge. I even have done this with 2 part epoxy both on a brush and in a small pot for a second and third coat.

Its the same trick used for sikaflex as sikaflex used the moisture in the air to cure as do some of the polyurethane paints and varnish
 
Kukri said:
As Johnalison.

I can open the biscuit tin which contains my brushes and see old friends from thirty years ago and more.
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Now we know who ate all the biscuits.
lw395 said:
For small areas, I use some so-called 'artists' brushes', which don't need much white spirit to clean and don't waste much paint or varnish.
I rinse in a jar of used white spirit, then clean with a little clean white spirit (add that to the jar) then fairy liquid and warm water.
Never had much luck with wrapping brushes except for antifoul, which dissolves in its own solvent.
Click to expand...
This is my preferred option but between coats and if using the same varnish I would like to dispense with the soap as it requires hot water to do it thoroughly which means boiling a kettle and having a cup of tea too!
 
Paintbrush spinners are something I came across not too long ago. They work really well, much to my suprise. I have one which fits into an electric drill.
 
Give them a thorough rinse in a jar of acetone then leave them to dry. Keep a tight lid on the acetone to stop it disappearing.

I only recently discovered this after 50 years of leaving brushes in white sprit then forgetting them and trying to resurrect them with a wire brush and failing.
 
I drill a small hole through the brush handle, insert a piece of stiff wire (ex coat hanger) and use that to suspend the brush in a jar with white spirit. The wire, resting on the rim of the jar, keeps the bottom of the brush above the bottom of the jar so the accumulation of dissolved paint doesn't get stuck to the brush.
 
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