Question for the hand painting folks. I'm just a vinyl/digital guy for the most part and am dabbling a little with hand painting and have some beginner questions regarding brush cleaning.
Assuming your using something like 1shot, how do you properly clean your quills? I've see some various brush preserving oils and thought i even read about some people using transmission fluid?? do you just clean with paint thinner then rub in some oil afterwards? do you leave the oil in prior to the next time you use them? or do you clean the oil out first then begin painting??
I realize these are stupid questions for the seasoned painter but i'd like to know what I should be doing as a beginner.
Thanks in advance.
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
No, the questions are not stupid. We all begin with the same questions and go from there.
This is my procedure...you will probably hear some different ones and each will be right for that person.
Before you use a new brush in enamel paints, clean it well with mineral spirits and then oil it with some perservative. I use regular motor oil, but others use various ingredients. The purpose of the oil is to keep the paint from drying in the ferrule (the metal band that holds the hair to the handle). Some use mineral oil, castor oil, transmission fluid or some special oil for brushes. It just needs to stay oily and not dry out.
I put oil in a container like a soup can and dip the brush in and out of the oil so that all the hair is completely soaked. Then gently work the oil into the hair with your fingers. Don't pull on the hair, just massage the oil gently. You can repeat the process several times.
Lay the brush down flat in a tray or some container that will not soak up the oil. Make sure that the hair stays straight.
Before you use the brush, wipe off the oil with a clean cloth, then rinse the brush in mineral spirits or some type of paint solvent. Use the same up and down motion with the brush in the solvent that you used to oil the brush and this will force the solvent up into the ferrule and remove most of the oil. Some oil will stay in the ferrule, but that's not a bad thing. The objective is to keep the paint from drying out up inside the ferrule.
After using the brush, wipe off excess paint and clean the brush in mineral spirits or a specified brush cleaner (One Shot has a special fluid for this) using the same up and down motion. It's not a bad idea to have a "dirty" rinse solvent and then to repeat the process in a cleaner container of the same solvent. When there is no longer any color coming out into the solvent you probably have the brush just about as clean as it's going to get.
Then you go through the same procedure again to put oil back into the brush.
By keeping the brush cleaned and oiled they will last a long time. Don't leave a brush out with paint in it for any length of time or the paint will dry out and the brush will be ruined.
Don't drop a brush into a can of solvent and leave it. The hair will be bent and you'll have trouble trying to make a stroke, unless you want to paint around corners.
Hope this helps.
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Bruce...Clean your brushes thoroughy in thinner spin them between you hands to dry them then clean again in fresh thinner. I use the 3 can method, 1st can is slop solvent to get most of the paint out, 2nd can is kinda clean solvent to get the rest out, and the 3rd can is fresh solvent to get out the last traces.
Some people will store them dry...most will oil them with tranny fluid, baby oil, mineral oil some even use neatsfoot oil. I stopped using neatfoot oil after some rodent or insect ate all the hairs off my brushes!
Before using them again, rinse in the cleabn solvent.
PS>>>> After the solvents start to get uurrky, dump the 1st can's solvent and pour the 2nd cans solvent into it, then pour the 3rd cans int the second can ...then fresh solvent into the 3rd can....rotating saves solvent.
Posted by Bruce Evans (Member # 44) on :
Thanks guys!! that's great info.
Posted by roger bailey (Member # 556) on :
Try cleaning after use with Rapid Remover, should only take a minute then dry as necc. and shape with fingers and store. leaves brush supple, no need (in most cases) for oil.
Really good for getting out dried old paint when you have forgoten to clean after use.
Roger
Posted by stein Saether (Member # 430) on :
for acryl i use water, warm water if the paint is halfdried
for oil paints try this rub it good with some good drops of eatable oil, then rub in with dishwashing detergents. then clean with water
sounds easy and is easy too
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
Another tip:
I work a lot with water based paints. I never put a brush down with paint still in it. Dries fast in this climate.
I always have a bucket of water by my bench, signwall or in my van working on site and drop the brushes in when not in use. The water needs to be deeper than the brush lenghth and they tend to partially float. You will find the hairs don't bend then, even left overnight.
Bent hairs? Wash in warm to hot soapy water, reshape thru your fingers. Spin dry. Then set shape again with petroleum jelly or oil. Treat it like setting human hair.
I use the 3 can wash like Si does for enamels and inks.
Posted by Michael Clanton (Member # 2419) on :
One of the oldtimers that I first worked with liked to use vegetable oil, but it seemed to attract all kinds of bugs and such, and his brushes never lasted very long.
Posted by Ken Henry (Member # 598) on :
Quite a few years ago, I very often ruined good quills by either setting them down to answer the phone ( or do something that I thought would just take a minute ). I'd sometimes stand them in a can of thinner, and like Raymond said, it would result in a bent haired quill.
Then I smartened up and got into the habit of clipping a spring-loaded clothespin to the side of the cans of thinners I was using. Now, instead of standing the quill in the can, I clip the clothespin around the handle of the quill, use the clothespin to bridge across the top of the can, and adjust the height so that the hair is in the solvent, but not touching the bottom. Since I started doing this, I haven't ruined anywhere near the number that I used to, and the quills I do have perform better and for much longer.
Good quills/brushes are an investment, and should be taken care of as such.
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
For awhile I used regular lard, but then found out that mice loved to eat the hairs of the brushes when they we "cooked" up with lard.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Bruce, not far from you is Patrick Smith. I hear he's re opening PS Signs. If you contact him, he'd be a wonderful teacher. He might be around Rancho Cucamunga. Look him up and mention my name.
Posted by Neil D. Butler (Member # 661) on :
I have my seldom used brushes sitting in a bath of 10w30 like most have suggested, but years ago I used to rub some simple Grease into them, not the white stuff, but simple Auto type, I used to find that I could shape them like a chisel and then lay them flat. When I went to use them again, I would clean like the other "Masters" above had said, lol
Posted by bill riedel (Member # 607) on :
Leaving the brushes dry after cleaning invites bugs that love to feed on brush hairs. Only by keeping them in an air tight container with camphor balls will they keep. Lemon oil furniture polish has served me well for 50 years. It cleans out easily and will not harden the brushes like neetsfoot oil does. Bill
