Clean oil paint brushes with water in the kitchen

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VTCrestliner

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This is going to get me in trouble because it's going to get a lot of other people in trouble, but here goes.......

When nobody is looking, and you have enough time to get away with this, you can clean oil based enamel paint off brushes in your kitchen with three things found there:
1.) salad oil,
2.) dish soap
3.) a sink with a faucet that water comes out of (for the faint-hearted, or merely intelligent, substitute a dishpan of your own).

here's how:
1.) First wipe as much paint off beforehand on newspaper or cardboard etc.
2.) Over the sink, gently pour a small amount of salad oil onto the brush bristles -- like a teaspoon full. Work it into the bristles thoroughly by scumbling it on the bottom of the sink. Oil based enamels are made of vegetable oils in the first place, like linseed and soybean oils. They dissolve in them. Edible vegetable oil acts like a perfect thinner for oil paint. They mix.
3.) Now squirt a little dish soap onto the bristles, and again work this into the brush. Dish soap is designed to emulsify vegetable oils and fats....... like what is on you dinner plate, or in this case, the paint brush.
4.) Rinse the brush off with plain water under the faucet. I actually bump the brush with my palm while rinsing. Yup, paint gets on my hand, but also rinses right off.
5.) If not thoroughly clean, repeat the above. Dry the brush with paper towels and hang up to dry. Dish soap and oil will emulsify and rinse away any paint in the sink, or your hands, too.

No need for expensive smelly paint thinner, brush cleaner, turpentine, mineral spirits, etc. No old cans of paint thinner collecting dust. Just a teaspoon full of vegetable oil and a little dish soap and water. No muss no fuss. Just as easy as cleaning a latex paint brush. Water cleanup.

btw if earlier in the day, you also happened to get paint on your clothes, and want to make sure it comes out in the wash, rub into the spot some veg oil and dish soap, and chances are good you'll never see where that paint was after laundering. That's for paint that hasn't completely dried, naturally. But often even recently dried paint comes out.

Well hope that helps.......

NOTE --- the above is for oil based enamels, and varnishes. NOT epoxies, two part polyurethanes, automotive lacquers, etc. which are completely different chemistries!
 
Thanks LDUBS.

Well one very commonly used oil based enamel is Rustoleum. I do use a lot of that for various projects/machinery. A little canola and Dawn and brushes are like new after.

Also most spar varnishes and one part polyurethane varnishes are oil based. I use zspar Captains 1015 polyurethane varnish and the brush cleanup works the same with that. Anything you'd clean or thin with ordinary paint thinner, mineral spirits, or turpentine will work.

Not however coatings that thin with acetone, toluene, or alcohol. Those are not oil based finishes.

Of course if you're unsure, test first in a disposable container or tub, rather than the kitchen sink, unless you like to live dangerously.
 

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