Ok, for many of you this will no doubt be old news, but it came to me as a surprise.
I’ve been lamenting the disappearance of a product that I remember from my childhood, “Paintbrush Cleaner/Restorer”. I remember it being somewhat expensive, but it worked well and resolved the problem of throwing out a good brush that was absentmindedly clogged with paint. I’ve been wondering where this product went; now I know.
Yesterday I found an old clogger in my motley brush collection and for some reason I decided to soak it in acetone, mostly because I have lots of it thanks to a big fiberglass job that my FIL and I did. Acetone is cheap, and it turns out to be a most effective brush cleaner. It works in a matter of minutes, but I accidentally left it soaking over night with no deleterious effect on the brush. The bristles are as soft and supple as new. Both oil and latex paint is softened, but latex might take a bit of brushing with an old toothbrush.
Hope this helps someone.
Replies
The old standby "cleaner/restorer" is MEK, but it tends to take the "starch" out of brushes. Never tried acetone on regular paint brushes, but I have found out that it's a good cleaner when prepping for applying silicone tub caulk. (You do want to take care not to drip it on anything plastic, though, or any finished surfaces.)
(The other advantage to acetone is that if it doesn't work you don't really care.)