Howdo you clean your epoxy brushes ?

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MagicIsland

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I have been using a lot of resin lately, repairing rudders and building a stich and glue dingy, all is going well apart from the amount of brushes i'm going through.
It doesnt seem to matter what I clean them with when I next try and use them they are either rock solid or soft and sticky often resulting in the bristles falling out.

Is there a magic solution ?:confused:
 
I clean mine in 'cleaning-grade' cellulose thinners - about £10/gallon from vehicle spray shop suppliers.

I find the trick is to use 2 or 3 jars (Tesco cooking sauce jars - 500g size is ideal), paint 1, 2 or 3 on each lid, and then fill each with about an inch of thinners.

Then wash your brushes out using these jars in sequence, shaking the excess thinners off between jars.
Eventually, jar number 1 will become viscous, almost gel-like. That's the time to dump it's contents, and re-fill it with fresh thinners. Then swap the lids over so that jar 2 becomes the new no.1, and so on, with the new no.3 ending up with the fresh thinners.

It's a lot easier to do that describe, and once you get into the habit, it's a way of using just 1 brush each year.

And because I can predict that one brush will easily last the whole year, it means I can afford to use a fairly decent brush, preferably one with synthetic bristles as they're much easier to clean than natural fibre.

And because you only need to change the thinners around every couple of weeks or so, a gallon tin of thinners should last 10 years or more. Much cheaper than buying brushes.
 
If its epoxy you are using acetone will struggle to clean them . Methelated spirits is what you want for cleaning epoxy brushes.
 
dgadee said:
Buy a box from a grp supplier and clean them with low cost acetone. I use mbfg.co.uk for my stuff.
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Well, the question was what do I do with my brushes :) The answer is B&Q, although if I were doing much more epoxy stuff I suppose I might look for a cheaper supplier. Definitely sticking with disposable brushes though. Good brushes matter for painting, but not for splodging epoxy around as far as I can see.

Pete
 
clyst said:
If its epoxy you are using acetone will struggle to clean them . Methelated spirits is what you want for cleaning epoxy brushes.
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?? Been using acetone for years and its dead easy. Only a few drops are needed, so its worth cleaning even the humblest of chip brushes.

Now two-pack polyurethane - that is a $%£* when it comes to cleaning brushes. Any suggestions?
 
I've variously used cellulose thinners (actually aircraft dope thinners), acetone or even MEK, depending on what Her Majesty had available at the time. Now I'm paying for her, instead of her paying for me, I use Acetone bought from a boatyard usually. Don't do that much fibreglass work these days though so don't need a lot.
 
I am a bit surprised nobody has mentioned white vinegar. If there is some strong reason not to do this I have not yet heard it.

It is very cheap and seems to dissolve most of the epoxy, or at least some components of it. Acetone or thinners will then take care of the the rest.

Throwing brushes away is probably the most economic way to do it, but I just can't drop the old attitude that tools should be cleaned and re-used.

Also cheap brushes can lose bristles into the work or fall apart.
 
Vinegar is the way to go. Just chuck the brush in a can of vinegar when done. when you need it again, pull it out and rinse in acetone. Only a small amount needed for rinse. the vinegar get rid of most the epoxy and and keeps it from hardening on the brush, but not completely cleans it. If you use the same vinegar a few times the resin will actually harden in the bottom of the can. Can use the vinegar 2-3 times but it is cheap.

I build the first hull of my 10.5m catamaran with one brush so far!

Jeff
Sailingcatamarans.blogspot.com
 
Conachair said:
Thanks for taking the time to share that :cool:

Steel boat, I go through loads of brushes, will give your method a go. Cheers.
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You're welcome. The '3 jar method' is best, but even just using 2 is an improvement over none at all !

I think that's called "gun thinners" usually.
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Could well be, although I've not heard that expression myself. The stuff I use has a very slight amber tint (bit like petrol), and apparently is used for cleaning paint-spraying gear after use. The best quality thinners (the stuff used to actually thin the paint) is a lot more expensive.

BTW - acetone works well - in fact it's probably a slightly better solvent, but my sources of it are around £15/gallon (plus carriage) - so I use easily-sourced thinners instead. I tried vinegar once ... it was a disaster. Never again.

Electrosys' methodical approach isn't much use to liveaboards.
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Fully agree. Only really suitable for building/ major repair work where lots of brushes would otherwise be used.

BTW (2) - to extend the life of bulk volumes of epoxy, keep the activator in the fridge (salad drawer is best). The resin can happily stay at room temperature. I've found that by doing this, a one-year shelf-life can be extended to 3.
 
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