In my previous instructable, Straigtening Plastic (PET) Strip, I was showing how I straighten plastic bottle strip to change it's propperties and make it more suitable for some projects. Also, I promissed to show how to make a simple brush using straightened strip for bristles, and this is what I'm going to do in this instructable

Step 1:

So, first of all take plastic bottle, remove lable, cut the top section off and cut a strip. I'm using my improvised plastic bottle strip cutter, and if you don't have one, just google, how to make it, or buy one online.

The bottle I'm using is 1,25L beer bottle, and I used two of those to make this brush.

Step 2:

When you have your string cut, straighten it the way I'm showing in my previous instructable. You can use not straightened strip but it won't give you as good results.

Also, if you find all this straightening routine a too cumbessome, I'm going to make an instructable on an alternative method of making plastic string brushes, so stay tooned for it.

Step 3:

For making bristles of a consistant lenght I made the "chopper". It consists of wire cutter, cruedly screwed to a piece of scrap wood that acts as a basis, a spring, and a small piece of wood that screwed to the base and acts as a stopper. You can change the position of the stopper to regulate the lenght of bristles (8cm in my case).

With the chopper I was able to cut a few strands at a time, which saved me a lot of time.

You can also use a regular scissors to cut bristles. Use one bristle as a template to cut others into lenght.

Step 4:

To make a handle we're going to use the top portion of the bottle that we've discarded earlier.

Cut the neck with the cap off.

Step 5:

Sand the edge of the cut to remove burrs.

Step 6:

Now take a bunch of bristles and fill the cap with the neck with them. It's better if they sit there a bit loose, since it'll be beneficial for further gluing.

Secure a bunch with rubber band for convenience.

Step 7:

Screw the cap off and apply hot glue to the bristhes ends within the neck. Then, screw the cap on and push the bristles inside before glue cools.

As far as I know epoxy resin does not stick to polyethylene plastic, so concidere that it may not be an option.

At this point, before gluing everything, you can screw the cap to some sort of a handle, or a basis. This way you can use multiple brushes, like this, as modules and produce a variety of products of different designs, like brushes and brooms.

Step 8:

If, after the glue cools, you have some bristles falling out, here's what you can do.

Pour a couple centimetres of water into a pot ant heat it until boiling. Then submerge the bottom of the brush into water and leave it for a couple of minutes. It'll remelt the glue and it will flow into previously unfilled gaps, securing all britles. Take the brush then out of water and let it cool

You can also perform this step just as a profilactic measure to ensure better gluing.

Step 9:

In result you'll get a nice little brush that can be used in many ways. The bristles are stiff and have nice sharp edges. I gave this brush to my mom to be used for scrubbing dishes.

So, in this instructable I showed one posible implementation for straightened plastic strip. I'll keep experementating with it further, and, I hope will be able to produce more instructables with the results. But this is all for today, thanks for your attention and have a nice paper planes.

While I enjoy working with practically waste materials, I have ideas for all sorts of projects, so I'll make use even from humble support. Just saying.

Step 10:

P.S.: I thought, I am so clever, when I came up with this idea, but today I was looking through different videos on Youtube about different stuff made with plastic strip and... In two words, its not my idea. I just saw a video a couple of years ago and forgot about it. So now I kind of feell that I have to give a credit to Alokin AlokinAlokin,and here's the link on his tutorial (wheter it was his original idea or not).