exx1976 Posted December 12, 2020 Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 Engineered Angler recommended these. At $2.49 for 36 brushes, I wasn't out much if they sucked (as some posters on here indicated they might). The 1/4" brushes I was using were in the neighborhood of $25/100, so the HF ones are SIGNIFICANTLY less expensive, and being twice as wide, they make epoxy topcoat application much quicker. Opening the package, I did find them to be of questionable construction. However, quickly smashing the end down in a 6" bench vise and giving the bristles a good stiff tug to remove any loose stragglers was all the convincing the brush needed. Granted, my sample size of 1 brush is quite small, but I used that 1 brush to coat 4 baits, and didn't lose a single bristle. At a cost of less than 7 cents per brush, crushing it in a vise and giving the bristles a quick tug are both operations I am willing to endure for a near 75% reduction in cost vs the previous brushes I was using. I also did find the application to go MUCH quicker than with the 1/4" brush. I'm not normally one to recommend specific products, but if you do epoxy topcoat, for the price, you'd be silly not to give these a look. https://www.harborfreight.com/36-pc-12-in-horsehair-bristle-acid-shop-brushes-61880.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
21xdc Posted December 12, 2020 Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 I have been doing the same thing for years... Works for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted December 12, 2020 Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 I prefer inexpensive nylon artists’ brushes. I bought a set of 5 flat bristle brushes at Michaels a decade ago for less than $10 and have used them to apply hundreds of coatings since then. The finer bristles burst bubbles in clearcoats much better than other options. Clean them with lacquer thinner. You can’t beat the cost/benefit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted December 12, 2020 Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 13 hours ago, exx1976 said: Engineered Angler recommended these. At $2.49 for 36 brushes, I wasn't out much if they sucked (as some posters on here indicated they might). The 1/4" brushes I was using were in the neighborhood of $25/100, so the HF ones are SIGNIFICANTLY less expensive, and being twice as wide, they make epoxy topcoat application much quicker. Opening the package, I did find them to be of questionable construction. However, quickly smashing the end down in a 6" bench vise and giving the bristles a good stiff tug to remove any loose stragglers was all the convincing the brush needed. Granted, my sample size of 1 brush is quite small, but I used that 1 brush to coat 4 baits, and didn't lose a single bristle. At a cost of less than 7 cents per brush, crushing it in a vise and giving the bristles a quick tug are both operations I am willing to endure for a near 75% reduction in cost vs the previous brushes I was using. I also did find the application to go MUCH quicker than with the 1/4" brush. I'm not normally one to recommend specific products, but if you do epoxy topcoat, for the price, you'd be silly not to give these a look. https://www.harborfreight.com/36-pc-12-in-horsehair-bristle-acid-shop-brushes-61880.html I'm still working on the same pack I bought 15 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LHL Posted December 18, 2020 Report Share Posted December 18, 2020 DJ Custom has a nice short video showing his process for taking care of the harbor freight brushes: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
