I’m curious what glassing supplies you guys bother to clean for re-use and what you toss. (ie…brushes, buckets, etc.) I don’t really bother to clean my stuff and it’s getting pretty expensive. Just looking for some tips. Thanks.
Most people use acetone to clean up I belive- I hear it’s pretty toxic and dangerous though. If your using Epoxy I hear Vinegar and coconut oil works fine for clean up. Can’t say from experience though, My first glass job is a few hours away (Epoxy RR)
Cheers,
Austin
Yeah…I have plenty of Acetone. Sometimes I just don’t think it’s worth all the effort to clean everything. Brushes can get pretty expensive, though.
buckets - reuse plastic & paper ones (I find it helps to turn them upside down to drain before resin gels; and plastic buckets can be gently flexed to remove hard resin from inside)
Another alternative is to use recycled soda cups (you know those Mega Sized ones) from fast food joints. Bring them home & wash them out. You can sometimes find them for sale in 99 cent stores, a whole stack of them for a buck. Pour a measured amount of water into one (1/2 quart) and mark the side with a magic marker, then do it again for a quart. Once you have one cup measured and marked it takes a few seconds to mark those same lines on all the cups. Voila, a whole bunch of cheap buckets for small batches of resin.
Sometimes you can find those “disposable tupperware” things on sale too, at a price cheaper than disposable buckets. They are handy for storing (on a short term basis) smaller amounts of resin premixed with pigments and/or thickeners, since they come with lids. I use these for mixing up batches for fin boxes, leash plugs, cherry coats, etc.
brushes - use once & toss chip brushes (buy them by the box, much cheaper), clean and reuse good bristle brush for gloss coat
check the archives too. I recall lots of good recycling/cheap supply tips from Herb…
I pretty much toss everything.
Paper cups, brushes - with acetone costing what it does and being no less of an environmental worry, plus my time, plus the aggravation of maybe missing a wee speck of hardened resin before it comes out in the midst of a gloss, I kinda figure it’s not worth it.
I do try to line up as much as I can, so that I will be doing as many repairs as possible with one batch of resin, cup and brush. When I can, I’ll use discarded paper coffee cups, a faint tinge of brown actually helps when I am trying to match older, slightly sun-browned foam.
Oh, and a cheap and easy trick - a few grains of instant coffee dissolved in a little acetone makes a nice old board repair tint. Only reason I keep any around, cos I refuse to drink it. Gotta have some standards.
Only thing I clean are good-quality squeegees, and even then if I can get away with using some cardboard or a few index cards rather than using and having to clean said squeegee, I will.
hope that’s of use
doc…
Sorry, read question wrong…
Cheers,
Austin
Doc you don’t drink acetone? What a wus! Definitely part of the breakfast of champions.
here in the 3rd world, i clean everything that is strong enough to handle the acetone. brushes, buckets - i hate the clutter of a full trash can all the time- squeegees, etc. i recyle my acetone in that after doing a few boards, and cleaning up, i pour the acetone in a gallon plastic water bottle, put the lid on tight, and leave over night. in the morning, the solids have settled out, and i can carefully pour the acetone out, and use it for a ‘pre-wash’ soak for dirty tools. and save the clean acetone for a final rinse.
i hate to do it, but it saves me money to clean up.
doc is right tho, try to line up a bunch of work at once if you can, extra dips in the toxic stuff isnt worth it.
Well, I’ve tried to cut down on the acetone I drink, especially in the morning. The red eyes, the shakes and the impossible-to-hide acetone breath…well, people start talking and the word gets around and either ya wind up in a gutter or else you’re standing up in the midst of a bunch of other people and saying ‘Hi, my name is Doc and…’
Ah- slightly more seriously - I spent some time in the jungle, as it were, and following the example of the local folks I washed out my resin brushes in water and lots of strong soap. Not only was the cost of a brush about 1/5 of their daily pay but it was a seven hour trip ( 3 1/2 hours each way ) to get another one. And, given time and patience, you can get a brush quite clean that way.
Acetone there was sold in little medicine bottles as a skin disinfectant or something and I used it as resin thinner only. And rum was cheaper…
doc…
now you mention it i should have tried rum when i was still in the bahamas. you can get some pretty strong stuff for about $8 a bottle!
of course, when i went in the house and explained why i reaked of booze all the time might have me in some trouble… hi mi name is rob, and… i work in a rotted shack and…