Tips: Toothbrushes, Not Just For Teeth
By Sean O'Hara
When the trusty Oral-B has outlived its service in the bathroom, it can begin its new life in the shop. I was reminded recently that old toothbrushes are incredibly handy to have around when you need to get nasty stuff less nasty.
The little nylon bristles can work all kinds of modern miracles, like getting the grime out of textured auto dash material or getting dirt out of vents. They’re small enough to fit in almost anywhere and the business end is tough enough to conquer big-time funk.
In short, your brush is ready for a whole new tour of duty after the last bit of toothpaste has touched the bristles.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Hell yeah! I keep a couple toothbrushes in my gun cleaning kit. They work wonders for scrubbing gun parts clean.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I use toothbrushes and Simple Green to clean pitch from my router bits. I bought a brass brush to do the same job, but I’ve found old toothbrushes actually seem to work better.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Yup. Toothpicks and dental floss are useful for lots of things, too.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:52 am
The cheap motorized toothbrushes do an amazing job cleaning stuff in tight places and in corners. I was really impressed after using a regular toothbrush with little success that the motorized one did such a great job with less effort.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
The tough, flexible handles of name-brand toothbrushes have been real useful to me. Shape the end furthest from the brush into a bevel with a coarse file and you have a non-marring chisel, great for removing caulk, or anything that you might use a thumbnail for (until your thumbnail breaks).
Heating the handle lets you bend it with ease, resulting in a purpose-made brush to clean inside places a straight brush just can’t fit.
Yay toothbrushes!
July 18th, 2008 at 10:45 am
And in a pinch you can make a dandy shiv out of one. In a real pinch.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I cut the brush off 2 of them and made wheel brushes for my bandsaw. I just epoxied them to a small piece of aluminum, just like the nice Carter ones.