How to Clean Oil Paint Brushes - with ALL White Spirit Recycled!
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 26. 07. 2024
- In this video I will be showing you how I clean oil based paint off my paint brushes - using a simple technique that uses very little white spirit - and AMAZINGLY - all white spirit is recycled at the end and can then be reused to clean the next paintbrush.
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- Containers - 2 glass containers - one to clean the brush in, and the other to transfer the used white spirit into
- Additional container or bin to put used tissue in
- Tissue paper/ toilet paper
- White Spirit
- Wire brush - Purdy short handle 11 inch geni.us/9Lzt (Amazon)
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Thank you, from a chick here who used a whole jar of white spirit, made an awful mess , and still a messy brush. Will now head to the shed to reclean my brush đ
Snap! This video is a revelation. Much appreciated :)
Thank you for tip; also, you have a very pleasant way of keeping the viewer engaged.
Absolutely marvellous tip mate! Iâve been washing my brushes out wrong for years and wasting so much! You have made my weekend! Keep up the videos they are great đ
John Wareham Thanks John - will do đ
Great tip. However, you can save yourself loads of time doing it the way I've been doing it for decades. Just put plenty of white spirits in an old mug, wash your brush in it, wipe it off with paper of a rag, and pour spirits into a jam jar with lid. The jar stores nicely in the mug ready for next time. After a while, the paint drops to the bottom and you can then decant spirits into the mug and clean the next brush. This process can go on and on for years until there is so much old paint in the jar. Time for a fresh jar.
After pouring from the jar back to the mug why not clean the jar out before pouring it back to store?
Because every few months he finishes a jar of jam and throws it away anyway, so itâs not worth the effort to wash.
Does this method also work with methylated spirit?
or even easier, just fill a jar with water, yes, tap water, put the brush in, ensure that water doesn't evaporate and that the brush will stay in water while waiting for the next paint job, when you need it, pull it out of the jar/container, wipe it with magazines or rag, start using it
I have several containers filled halfway with water in which I keep my brushes for months, one has over a year, remember: water and oil doesn't mix and your brush will be preserved so long as it's covered in water
@@duminicad This maybe good if you are always painting with the same colour or type of paint (eg white, eggshell or gloss or matt)
Great vid for cleaning and saving paint brush. Reclaiming the white spirit was gob-smacking-ly brilliant!
I normally end up throwing away some good brushes, so today Iâm going to give your method a try đ thank you
Great video and very informative. I'm aged 73 now and thanks to you Charlie,I'm still learning. If I may compliment your technique. I always take my white spirit cleaned brush to the sink and standing the paint brush on end, bristle pointing up, squirt a small amount of dish/washing up liquid onto the open end of brush, then using a hand, grip the top of the bristles and work them round making the liquid penetrate right down to the captive end. You will be amazed at just how much paint, varnish, whatever the medium gets flushed out. Do this a couple of times rinsing well with hot water. Finally I always rinse the brush in clothes softener. The bristles shine and are much softer next time you use. Thanks once again Charlie
Many thanks for this, Alan. I'm humbled to hear I'm teaching you a thing or two, and am very grateful for the tips. I agree it's well worth giving the brush a final clean with washing up liquid, but hadn't thought of the clothes softener đ
For your audience outside of the British Isles, Wikipedia tells us that: âWhite spirit (UK) ... or mineral spirits (US, Canada), also known as mineral turpentine (AU/NZ), turpentine substitute, petroleum spirits, solvent naphtha (petroleum), Varsol, Stoddard solvent, or, generically, "paint thinner", is a petroleum-derived clear liquid used as a common organic solvent in painting.â
Anonymous98 Thanks mate - that's extremely useful & informative!!
My dad was a painter and, when painting with oil-based paint, he used to put his brushes in a tin of water (rather than wrapping in cling film) to prevent them drying while we had a tea break. Then you simply shake off any water clinging to the brush and continue painting.
Yes that's a nice tip, Kim. Thanks for sharing đ
Absolelty one of the most helpful you tube videos Iâve ever seen thank you so much.
So pleased I found your channel . This is a fab tutorial on brush cleaning .
Great system for paintbrush. I was a little disappointed that you didn't have a super duper filter system for reclaiming the white spirit. But that works quite well enough! Also I wear rubber gloves as white spirit makes my skin rough! The jar with the paint residue can be left inverted on some newspaper and should in its own time fall away, leaving a nearly clean jar.
A coffee filter paper is a relatively cheap and easy to use filter for this purpose.
Nice one Charlie, what I like about your video's is that you tend to use tools that most of us have. There are many tutorials about DIY and woodworking, were the presenters have hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds of tools and equipment.
Thanks Russell. That's exactly what I'm trying to do - because I don't have a sophisticated workshop like some of those you see on CZcams. But you can achieve so much without thousands of pounds of tools. Thanks for taking the time to comment - massively appreciated!
Used this method when I decorated my house. Loved being about how to recycle the old white spirit.
After I had put the old white spirit to separate in a jar the paint solidified not only on the bottom but also around the sides of the jar leaving the white spirit in the middle. Recovered loads but looked weird.
Wow I'm impressed đ I'm a lady aged 76 and been decorating all my life in my homes' I've always been upset contaminating waste water, never again, better late than never. Thank you đ
You're welcome Pauline. Dave a couple of jam jars with the lids, and have a couple of jars with white spirit in - the second cleaner solution for the final clean. Then when you're finished pour everything into one jar. Screw on the lid and a week later you can pretty much pour the separated white sprit back into the bottle, leaving the residue behind, which you can then just remove with a tissue.
@@CharlieDIYte I'm actually painting doors at the moment I've got my jars ready. This is another step to stop polluting our waters.
Fantastic information. The letting it settle my grandfather showed me that eons ago. Thanks for the vid!
Love it! Just about to start painting my room. Excited about the clean up now đ
That's great. Thanks so much for getting in touch, Paula đ
Thanks, that's great for the environment too
Magic! I love this method. Totally cool! Thanks so much for these top tips!
Glad you liked it! Saves buying all that white spirit and definitely makes you more tempted to clean your brushes rather than throw them away. đ
Amazing video. Very helpful and with added bonus of being able to recycle most of the white spirit. Thank you Charlie & Z man.
Thanks James đđ»
Thanks for this tip. Iâve used it & itâs brilliant .
Thank you! Just the information I needed.
Never thought about recycling the spirits..clever that..class video.đ
Thanks đ
Brilliant !!! And the tip at the end on how to re-use the white spirit, priceless. Many thanks for making the video.
Brilliant tip . I will be doing it this week .
Thank you .
Nice one Charlie - saving brushes AND the planet! I'll never have to buy white spirit ever again!
Dave Roxburgh Thanks Dave - you'll certainly get through a lot less of it!!
Fantastic trick again, thanks!đ
That was amazing ! Thank you so much for your time and effort.
You're welcome. Thanks for the comment đ
Great thanks. Love the tip about recycling the white spirit.
You're welcome. Thanks for the commentđđ»
You absolute STAR. I use so much white spirit cleaning my brushes that I find it more economical to just throw the paintbrush away and buy a new one. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIP.
You're welcome. Also I really recommend a mini wire brush amzn.to/3SZn01D as it's great at removing the caked on paint. đ
@@CharlieDIYte Thanks Charlie. The brush is ÂŁ3.97 but the delivery to where I live is ÂŁ10.48 so that's a no-no. Will wait till one of my friends comes over to visit and get them to bring a couple. Love your site.
You've made my day đ off to clean my brushesđ
Did it work?
Thank you very much for this video; very helpful. And an amazing tip about saving the white spirit for 5 days and then pouring back. I would never have thought of that. Thank you!
You're welcome Philip. Neither would I, before someone suggested it in the comments section of a previous video. That's why I love these forums, for their ability to share knowledge.
Thank you!
Great tips for me as a beginner, thanks
Really helpful and informative! Thank you very much.
What a genius little tip! Thanks đ
Thank you Charlie, your guidance in this video helped me a lot, now just waiting on those jars of spirit to do their magic and I'll have saved spirit in another 4 days.
You're very welcome. Yes it's satisfying recycling the stuff!
Thanks a lot for your great tips. Wasted so much brushes đȘ before. I like you recycling tips as well. Many thanks again
Once again - very useful. Thank you.
Very useful tutorial !
Thank you
You can use an old pair of the mrs tights (or yours đ) as a filter when pouring the used white spirit.
As a newbie painter I found your two jar method works really well. Just a couple of my own twists. I used old newspaper instead of toilet roll coz it's free and premium paraffin (not the nasty heating stuff) 5ltrs cheap from B&Q as I use it to clean motorbike chain. Brushes came up like new, even one I had left from two days intending to throw away.
Thanks Chris. Great tip. You can also get a small wire brush set, which is great for getting stubborn hardened paint off the bristles.
Thanks for the tip, apart from it going on for a while (I did whizz forward a couple of times) good presentation
Great tip to recycle thinner, the only reason Iâve been throwing oil brushes away, the cost vs the thinner!
Great, Charlie. I envy your thoroughness.
Thanks James. It's also worth getting one of those small wire brush sets to remove the stubborn hardened paint amzn.to/3UL07QH
Good presentation great tips and something new learned as well
Cliff Letts Thanks Cliff - much appreciated!
2020 calling to say that you might as well buy 10 sets of ALL paint brushes instead, since a single loo roll is worth more ;-) Thanks for the video :-)
As a gentleman said in a comment below I've been cleaning brushes wrong for many years and wasting vasts amount of white spirit thank you for a great video
You're welcome Alan. Thanks for the comment.
I was shown by a retired painter to clean brushes in a similar fashion, but after the first dip in white spirit (the purpose is to just wet the bristles, not to get all the paint out) and then to work in a few drops of washing up liquid and then rinse water. To keep the shape, I wrap the bristles in a piece of kitchen roll, or even a strip of newspaper and fold over at the tip and leave to dry. I too leave the white spirit to separate and salvage the good stuff.
Thank you for this! Just looking for white spirit to buy online becuase I only have a little bit left and the prices were ridiculous for something that is normally under ÂŁ2. Now I don't need to buy it at all. Definitely subscribing :-)
This was very helpful thank you . Fabulous tip at end for saving money
Thanks Sarah đ
Excellent! Thank you.
Dara Daly You're welcome!
I've been recycling my white spirit for a while in just that way. It's saves a fortune and I don't have to mess around going to the trouble of disposing of the chemicals safely.
Good tip about the bogroll and wire brush.
Good work. Yes a small set of wire brushes like this amzn.to/43BbBJV are brilliant for cleaning off the caked on paint.
Wow, thanks for this !
Subscribed. Thanks for all your trial and error.
Thanks for subscribing, massively appreciated!
absolutely awesome, thank you so much for making this video.
You're very welcome, mate & risks for the comment đđ»
Going to try that. If it filters the black paint I will be really impressed. Cleaned some paint brushes yesterday.đ€
Well did it work for you?
Dude thanks ! It helped ! Appreciated & Liked !
Thank you so much for the marvellous tips!
You're very welcome. Thanks for taking the time to comment đđ»
Great video. Thank you for your time and effort to do that. Greetings from Croatia.
You're welcome. Thanks for watching in Croatia. Always humbled by my international viewers đđ»đđ»
Helpful video mate
That bit at the end was like magic. It would really make you think how not to waste.
I agree. đ
Awesome Tip!!!!
Thanks Allie!
that last tip was great, thanks to you and your viewer :D
Terrific video! I have been just throwing away used brushes. Now I know what to do. Thanks!
Thanks Christopher. Yes and get yourself some of these amzn.to/3iO5r3m as I find them fantastic for scraping off tough to remove paint from the bristles. Just lay the brush on an old piece of wood and scrape the paint downwards off the brush then clean it again in the brush cleaner and it'll look like new đđ»
@@CharlieDIYte Good idea! I'll just have to remember not to brush my teeth with them!
Nice tip Charlie. But I use a Brush mate storage box. Not cleaned my brushes at all for two years now and still working perfectly. I've been doing a lot of painting in that time to be fair. But for the occasional paint job your tip is a good one.
Cracking video mate!!!!! Many thanks for the info
Thanks, glad you found it useful đ
Great tips Charlie and Z-Man, I will certainly be changing my habits. I would imagine that this could be applied to water soluble paints, not using white spirit of course, the principle is the same and not using as much water.
Never thought about it. I just assumed once it was used it was done. Shall do this from now on, I have loads of jars with air tight lids that had candles in them.
Very useful. Many thanks!
Thanks Barry đ
great tip on the white spirit
Thanks đ
Great tip
Very helpful .. well worth a subscribe.
Dave Thanks Dave. Really appreciate that!!
Thank you that was so useful I've been throwing out paintbrushes each time because I found it so hard to clean them and didn't know what to do with the white spirit! Now I'll buy better quality ones and reuse them.
You're welcome. Glad you found it useful. đ
That Is Amazing Thanks Good Tip
Thanks đ
thanks mate. i will try it tomorrow.
wasted a lot of white spirit today.
Brilliant tip. Thanks to you - and Z Man!
Cheers Nigel. Yes, good old Z Man. đđ»
That was brilliant that!
Thanks David. Also worth getting a set of mini wire brushes like this amzn.to/3G6omjT to get the stubborn, caked on paint residue offđ
So helpful. Thank you đ
You're welcome, Tom đđ»
Should have paid more attention to this the first time round. Have a reasonable amount of residue on one of my brushes and I thought Iâd cleaned them quite well.
Thank you very much Mick i seldom using paint brush so don't know how to clean it,
Great tip cheers
Excellent video.
Thanks
Great channel Charlie [new subscriber] i save the waste white spirit in a sealed jar with the paper and use this as a starter for my garden incinerator.
Colin Cooper Nice idea Colin, and massive thanks for subscribing!
Fumes from this probably not good for air pollution
Thanks for brush cleaning
Thanks. It's a pain but satisfying keeping those brushes from the bin. You want a small set of wire brushes too to get the stubborn paint off.
Excellent
Great video! Thanks a lot :)
You're welcome Mikko. Thanks for taking the time to comment!!
Great tips
Thanks Eileen!
You are absolutely right about duct tape and verucca removal. It got ride if mine.! It deprives the verucca of oxygen and if applied well also moisture. đ
What should you do with the jar that has the gunk in?
Great idea thks
I am not a perfectionist like Mr. Charlie.
I don`t care if brush fans after drying or has a bit of
residue left. I also am lazy..
1)Get jar or can, put white spirit in -enough to get paint on brush to thin .
2)Get yourself an old newspaper.
3) Repeatedly wipe brush on it -changing pages until brush is left with minimum residue.
4) Water in new jar or can -leave brush in for a minute.
5) New dry pages of old newspaper -start wiping brush until drier. Job done.
Saved loo roll for a bigger job,ahem! The newspaper is not recycled. Thank you for reading .
Thanks for sharing and also thanks to Zed Man.
I am Learning You're welcome! I'll pass on your thanks to Zed Man!
Also in order to reclaim your paint thinner straight away instead of trying to sloose it out after letting it set up. Take a coffee filter and rubber band and with a small diameter tall jar or bar glass, push as much of a droop sag as you can down into the glass with the coffee filter as you can without being too low to not stay clear of the area the liquid will occupy, and wrap the rubber band round the filter onto the glass, then just pour it in. The healthy amount of droop sag will impart more weight into the filter helping it thru. When u get to a point where it stops flowing gently agitate scraoe the filter with a plastic spoon more will continue to flow. When you get to where you've poured the entirety of your thinner into the filter and its stopped flowing, carefully unwrap the rubber band off the material taking the loose end of the filter together in your hand closed where you've now got a bulbous sack of liquid in your hand and slowly twist tighter and tighter forcing the liquid thru the filter into the glass being VERY careful not to let the paper rip. After its all wrung thru and into the glass, pull out 1 more new coffee filter, do it once more, (this time it will flow thru it much much faster) And Walla you've now got pristine liquid ready to be poured back into its original container, successfully executing the 'Breaking Bad' extraction method.
Nice! Thanks for that David. đđ
Nice one , been doing it wrong for years , thank you
Thanks đ
I remember you. I watched your condensation video a few months back. The no breathing thing I mentioned your comment section didn't work out by the way. Anyways, thanks for the heads up on this. I've just been glossing the skirting boards and I'll definitely give this tip a whirl. Stay awesome my friend.
Thanks James. Which was the no breathing comment?
Ty !!!
Very good.......fan of oil based paints.......I always waste so much cleaner......thanks...
Not a lot new there except the idea of using only small amounts of white spirit each cleanse which is worth a try so worth watching your videp, thanks. P.s. A old nail brush can be used instead a wire brush, probably gentler on the bristles.
Thanks đ
Genius. Thanks.
You're welcome. Thanks for the comment. đ