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rjwood_uk · 14-09-2006

try this to clean your brushes. its an old trick and works a treat.

Have on your desk 3 pots of thinners. (weather it be acrylic thinners, enamel thinners, white spirit, water...etc)

when you clean your brush use the one furthest away from you first. clean it the best you can in that. then move to the next one. finaly clean it in the last one.

the theory is the first pot gets the dertiest, the 2nd a little less and the 3ed should stay perfectly clean.

try it its great!

**wonwinglo** · 14-09-2006

Excellent tip that,make a wooden cradle into which fit the three jars of your choice marking 1st,2nd,3rd,after use always run your brushes through water, and a bit of baby shampoo,just wait until you see the colour in the water that you thought you had got out ?
The Zest thinners ( safe to use ) settle the paint in the bottom of the jar,simply de-canter off and re-use again.

alan2525 · 14-09-2006

Another trick artists use when using white spirit to wash out brushes.

Get a very fine piece of zinc mesh - the stuff they sell in car shops and form it around the inside of the jam jar. Fill the jar up enough to cover the mesh and when washing the brushes you can brush against this mesh to remove the paint - kind of looks a little like a tea strainer with a bowl shape pushed into the jar.

Also get yourself a large capacity steel container and stick it in the shed on a bench off the ground so the bottom doesn't rust out, An old catering sized container and then any old white spirit can be poured into this. The paint crud will settle in the bottom and the white spirit recycled - clean stuff can be poured off from the top. The really fussy can also filter the white spirit through a coffee percolator filter.

A bit stinky but a nice way to get a supply of clean white spirit and gets rid of all those murky jars in the cupboard under the kitchen sink.

**wonwinglo** · 14-09-2006

Great idea Alan,you can actually use one of those old metal tea strainers with the handle cut off,place the domed portion upside down inside a suitable jar,pour in your thinners and swish your brushes against the mesh,once you have used this system you will not go back to just ordinary bottles of cruddy thinners.
It is interesting that with Zest the solids sink quicker than with standard turpentine or white spirit,you can buy bottles of Zest ( grapefruit juice based ) from art shops,no unpleasant smells in the workplace.
Love these tips,keep them coming.