DIY Brush Cleaner with UV LEDs

If you use brushes on a regular basis, you've probably been annoyed with how long it can take to dry the bristles. This project uses a small fan to help dry up to 9 brushes at a time. We even added Ultraviolet LEDs to help sterilize and disinfect the bristles.

Most people aren't aware that brushes used for cosmetics actually need to be sterilized to prevent bacteria from growing on bristles. 

Ultraviolet photons harm the DNA molecules of living organisms in different ways. In one common damage event, adjacent thymine bases bond with each other, instead of across the "ladder". This "thymine dimer" makes a bulge, and the distorted DNA molecule does not function properly.

Our UV/UVA 400 nm LEDs causes distinct mutations in bacteria and enough UV light will kill bacteria. UV light is often used to sterilize equipment and even water.

Double-Ended brushes

We also solved the problem of damaging double-ended bristles. A detachable ring holds variable sized brushes and allows you to easy push brushes in from the side via a slit with out fraying the bristles.

Muti-Material Design

The ring holder is dual printed in PLA and NinjaFlex, so the flaps can easy bend to accommodate different brush sizes. The ring securely snaps into the grooves on top of the box.  It can even hold two brush at a time to maximize space on the brush box.

Prerequisite Guides

We suggest walking through the following tutorials to get a better understanding of LEDs and soldering.

• Collin's Lab: Soldering
• All About LEDs
• Adafruit Powerboost 1000C

Parts, Tools and Supplies

Adafruit’s UV LEDs, PowerBoost and our enclosure design, makes it easy to build your UV brush dryer.

You'll need: 

• 15 UV LEDs
• 15 100-ohm resistors
• half-size perma-proto
• Powerboost 500 Basic or Powerboost 500C
• USB Power Only Cable with Switch
• 5V 1A USB Port power supply
• 2500mAh Lithium Ion Polymer Battery
• silicone wire in red and black
• soldering iron and solder
• wire strippers
• diagonal flush snips
• helping third hand tool
• Panavise
• 2 M3x.5x6mm phillips flat head screws
• 4 M3 x.5x20mm phillips flat head screws and nuts
• 4 M2.5x.5x5mm phillips flat head screws
• PC Fan

Download and 3D Print

The 3D printed parts can be downloaded with the link below. 

Materials & Slice Settings

This project utilizes the flexibility of TPU materials and 3D printers with dual extrusion capabilities. If your 3D printer isn't capabile of dual extrusion, you could print the pieces separately and glue them together. Reference the slice settings in the table below – We're using Simplify3D to slice the parts.

Make supports easier to remove

Some of the parts in this project will require support material. To prevent supports from bonding to the parts we used the following settings on supports.

• Support infill percentage is set to 20% with the pillar resolution at 4mm.
• Make sure to use at least a .3mm horizontal offset from the part for support separation.
• Set upper and lower vertical separation layers to 1 and drop dense infill percentage to 50%.

Support removal

A pair of flat pliers can help remove support material. Use the tips to grip onto the material and loosen the bond for easy removal.    

The rubber stopper can be dual extruded or printed in two pieces and then glued together. Use a .4mm nozzle to print the small ninjaflex details. 

Speed up print times by using a large .6mm or .8mm nozzle to print the mid section of the box.

Wired Connections

The circuit diagram above shows how the components will be wired together. This won't be 100% exact in the actual circuit but it's a very close approximation.

Arrange the LEDs evenly across the two sides of the boards. It's helpful (but not strictly necessary) to keep all the LEDs in the same orientation (all long legs towards one side). Here's an LED layout diagram:

USB 5V Power

This circuit will be powered by the Adafruit Powerboost via 5V power supply. You can optionally connect a USB battery pack into the Adafruit Powerboost to make it portable. To turn on and off the circuit, you can use a USB cable with a on/off switch.

Success! You're ready to dry your brushes!