Thread: Soaked my estapol brush in turps which turnede to jelly

Hi
If the turps has gone to jelly it's probably because too much has evaporated.
If it got water in it it would be a cloudy white colour. In either case a good clean with fresh turps should fix the brushes. Failing that use paint stripper.

When leaving brushes between coats I have simply wrapped them in glad wrap to save cleaning them twice.


Steve

If the brush is a good one then get some brush restorer from the paint shop and see how that goes. Otherwise chk out a citrus based paint stripper to see if it will work with the hair type of the brush.

Thanks guys ---This lil ol Lady appreciates your help----

If you don't have good success with the above suggestions another one is to wash out your brushes in lacquer thinner. You still may have to "comb" the brush with your wire brush though. By the way professional painters avoid using a brand new brush on fished coats! I think teir resoning is to stop the "shedding" of those pesky loose hairs.
I'm pretty sure you can salvage the brushes as they are too expensive to replace every time you have a job to do.
I have read (but should practice what I am saying) that after all the paint is washed out with the appropriate solvent give them a good wash with warm soapy water to make the soft again and get rid of any trace of painty solvent. Another tip from the professionals is when you are about to paint something (oil or acrylic) wet the brush in the appropriate solvent, shake out and commence painting. The little bit of residue of solvent in the brush helps the paint wash out easier

Best of luck with your project

Pleasure LOL ;-}

Yeah, following Rod, on good brushes after using house paints I use Brush Restorer.

Amazing how much more comes out even after following the normal cleaning inst'ns.

Thanks Ern
I'll have to checkout brush restorer. My brother is a Painter/Signwriter of the old school! When he visits me I am sure he is quite disgusted with my treatment of brushes. Its easy for me to pass on his tips but not so easy to implement them in my shed.
For his 50th birthday he got me to make a box to put his Writing brushes in. The box was made from white cedar with a hinged lid. It has a nice grain to it as one would expect from white cedar. Well, he lined the outside with black pinstripes and a very good looking gold leaf motif (circa art deco era). His brushes, when stored, are "greased into shape" with petrolium jelly so when he wants to do a particular line or flurrish the brush is shaped ready. To watch the way he controls his brush strokes is quite amazing. And he's left handed
He was telling me he lined an old car (like a Stutts Bearcat) on the weekend. It took him 6 hours and I think he has a bit more to go

What a wonderful gift, a fine box for fine brushes. Do you have a pic?

Yeah, back in the day Brit bikes often had deep black tanks with gold pinstriping, and 'the man' to redo one here in Victoria was a bloke called Bogner. His free-hand work was something to behold.

It also helps if you have your brushes as dry as possable , that is with as little paint or esterpol still on them when you put them into the turps/thinners, brush them out well on some scrap , or the back wall of the shed
Id'e be willing to bet that you had used that turps for several brushes before it went to jelly , it doesn't last forever and you need fresh turps regurlary not just topping up old stuff in a container .
As chambezio said wash them in warm soapy water until you get a good lather , then in fresh clean water to get rid of the soap . Good brushes at $40-50 each are worth the effort and last for many years when well looked after

Another tip is to wash the brushes after cleaning with hair conditioner and rinse out. It makes the bristles soft and sit straight.

Wow!
Theres some good tips in this lot,, My late husband was a house painter and I was his time manager, preparer and cleanerupera. I hadnt had this problem before but then we cleaned up properly after each day ..

Now, I got a bit lazy I must admit ..

I will know for next time . My brushes were my good ones we used up to 20 years ago and I was doing a favour for my nephew..Job is done and he is thrilled

Pleased to inform you that the brushes are back to normal but I will do a restore on them.


Thanks again