RE: Gum questions - 101

I always clean my brushes straight after coating - warm to hot water, soak
first then a good wash with detergent and rinse thoroughly. I've never had
any problem with buildup.
I also use foam rollers. There's one kind that comes with a handle and
several little refills. That way you can always have a new dry one (well ok
nearly always then). The trick to using rollers is that you need very little
emulsion - if the roller gets wet it will make lots and lots of bubbles on
the surface. The only cure is to roll the roller on a clean paper towel and
then reroll the emulsion.
The rollers I use are cheap and nasty and you buy them from the hardware
store - just soft foam with smallish cells. They work just fine.
Kate

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Brubaker [mailto:jack@jackbrubaker.com]
Sent: Saturday, 12 November 2005 10:57 a.m.
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: Gum questions - 101

Don wrote:
>
> My brushes seem to have a dichromate stain built up. What is the
>> proper
>>>> way to clean these?

Is that really a dichromate stain or a buildup of sensitized gum? I haven't
noticed dichromate stain in my brushes. But I am very careful to wash or put
gum brushed into a cup of water so they can't start to dry. When coating
paper I have three containers at hand. One is the round bottomed tea cup I
mix gum in, another is source of clean water, the third is like a soup bowl
(wide enough that my wide hake brush can rest in it. Any brush that has come
in contact with sensitized gum goes into the bowl propped up so it will sit
with the bristles in the water. I can take out a brush that has been in
there and wring it out and brush it on a dry newsprint and keep working or
later take them all to the sink and wash carefully.

I have watched house painters who have a constant problem with latex paint
drying on their brushes as they work. When they clean up they hold a garden
hose (no nozzle, low flow)with the brush handle right under it in one hand
and brush with a wire brush in the stream of the water. The brush works from
the handle to the end of the brush hairs. After brushing for a while on one
side they turn over the brush and work on the other side. This can continue
for several minutes. It really cleans the roots of the brush of stuff that
had set up enough to be insoluble. They use a steel brush which is
perpetually rusty. I have revived some of my "good" brushes by using a brass
brush in this manner but under the water flow from a faucet.

Jack

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