After you clean them with acetone, place them into
a zip-loc bag and place them in the freezer of your
hanger refrigerator. These brushes will last literally
for years. One brush was 5 years old when it finally
went to the great resting place of brushes.

My method was to trim a 2" wide down about a half
inch to give it a bit more stiffness.

Cleaning: I used a four wash procedure that took all
of 3 minutes. First I got three 1 gallon empty cans
and label them one, two and three. "One" was for the
first wash. After a while the contents of #1 got to
be really nasty looking but that was O.K. as it was to
simply get the major goop off the brush.

Next was #2 wash. I would pour enough out of the #2
can into a MT cat food can  and put the brush through
the cleaning again and pour the contents of this back
into the #2 can for cleaning next time.

The last cleaning was to pour some of the #3 can into
the cat food can and clean again and pour that back.

The last step was to use a small amount of virgin
(new) acetone in the cat can, clean the brush one
last time, put the brush into the zip-loc bag wet
and place it into the freezer. The contents of this
last cleaning go into the #3 can.

Before using them, be sure to warm them up and let
air dry for 10 minutes to remove any traces of
acetone.

This method saves a bundle on brush buying and
acetone too. Each can should have about 1/3 gal of
acetone to start.

Oh yes, the gloves are called "Nitrile". Can buy
them from MSC (1.800.645.7270, about $13.65 a box
more for the "lightly powdered" "Touch-N-Tuff"
4 mil "green" disposable Nitrile gloves. Regular
Latex, which you shouldn't be using anyway, cost
$6.64 to give you and idea of the costs per 100.

Gary Hall, FXE
http://www.uslan.com/hinge-kit.html




Subject:[LML] Re: Cheap Brushes
From:"the colwells" <colwell@innercite.com>
Date:Sun, 11 May 2003 18:14:28 -0400

 > source for cheap paint brushes
 > that don't lose quite as many bristles.


Squeeze the excess epoxy off with a paper towel, then dab the brush in about
1/2 oz of Acetone and wipe again, repeat.  (wear acetone proof gloves)  Let
the brush dry/cure bristles up.  This will result in progressively stiffer
brush for better stippleing and no more bristle picking.

Steve Colwell   Legacy   (530) 621-3408  Placerville, CA