Can I re-use glass jars

[Luis Oliveira]

Hi all, I wanted to get your oppinion on how to re-cycle food glass jars to store stains and thinners.

Every once and a while we have an empty pickle glass jar. so how could I wash it/clean it so that I can safely used it for left over stains, thinners, etc.

Should I just buy new.

[Larry Fox]

Luis, I use pickle jars all the time for mixing shellac. The way I clean them is I put some DNA in it and let it sit for about a week. I shake it around whenever I walk by and remember. I have never had a problem with contamination doing this.

For other things, I tend to use the plastic snap-top tubs from homestead finishing. They are dirt cheap so I keep a bunch of them around.

[glenn bradley]

I use old jars as well. I just wash them well and if they had something oily like spaghetti sauce in them, I'll let them ride through the diswasher a couple times when doing a regular load. I find the wide mouth Ball or Mason jars to be easy to reach into and dirt cheap. Six or seven bucks a dozen around here, with lids.

[Robert Parrish]

My wife never throws a glass jar away. She washes them gives them to me. I use them for all types of finishes and experimenting with stains.

[mike holden]

In the chemistry lab, we just used powdered dish detergent to clean the glassware. The rinsing rule was: fill three times with clean distilled water and then air dry.

Dont over think this, unless glass has been filled with something that etched its surface (unlikely if it held food) then a run through the dishwasher is sufficient.

Mike

[Ralph Okonieski]

Although they are getting more difficult to find, baby food jars are excellent to use. They are small so I use them for mixing small samples of stain colors and other things like that.

[John Timberlake]

I use glass jars all the time. Just run them through the dishwasher after the food is gone.

My favorite jars for shellac are the plastic peanut butter jars. That way, it is easy to get the lids off if the shellac dries on the threads of the lid.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I tooks some glass jelly jars with twist off lids and cut holes in the lids. I bought some cheap natural bristle 1" brushes and put through the holes and sealed the hole around the handle of the brush with silicon caulk. I have Deft brusing lacquer in one jar and Zinsser's dewaxed shellac in the other. Periodically I have to add a little DNA to the shellac or a little lacquer thinner to the lacquer but....the finishes are handy to use when I'm frictioning finishes on the lathe.

[Luis Oliveira]

Thanks guys, this are all great ideas.