I use water based acrylic for most of my painted projects. I often am changing colors and have discovered that Dawn Powerwash really helps clean my brush. I take my brush full of paint and wash it in the sink and brush it round on my palm. A lot of paint is removed but not all. I then give a blast of Dawn Powerwash and again wipe the brush around my palm and more paint comes out. I then do it for a second time and rinse the brush. I use a paper towel and brush it and dry the brush thoroughly. I then go back to the shop and change color without waste of time or cross contaminating my colors.
Here is an example I just painted with 2 colors in about 5 minutes. I did apply Zinssers Universal Sanding Sealer (dewaxed shellac) before painting to avoid the paint adsorbing in the surrounding grain.
Dawn must have a trademark on thier blue (like UPS does on their brown) because all the Dawn soaps look alike to me. I thought the Powerwash was just their dish soap in a fancy dispenser until the BIke Farmer talked about it glowingly for cleaning bicycles, on his Youtube channel.
I have the Powerwash sitting on my kitchen counter. When I have a dirty dish I hit it with the powerwash and use a vegetable brush to give it a clean and set it in the sink waiting for a sink full.
It works very well and I use it on greasy things even outside like a lawnmower or anything I want to clean and can take washing with water. It cuts grease just as advertised.
Cleaning the acrylic paint was found by accident. I was washing out a brush in the kitchen sink and saw it sitting there and gave it a try. I rinse out the brush and spray a squirt of the dawn powerwash and rub it around in my palm. A lot more color comes out. Then I rinse and give it a second squirt and repeat. After rinsing I use a paper towel and swipe the brush up and down it until dry and lastly I pull the brush from top to bottom inside the paper towel to reform the shape of the brush. I either let it dry or go back and use it for another color. Then it is just rinse and repeat.
