Scott G wrote this yesterday:

Dollar Tree is selling good old sodium hydroxide (lye) as drain cleaner
for a buck.
   Its still good for cleaning your coffee pot (dipit) your paint brushes
(brushsaver), your oven
or anything else that it won't hurt.
   It dissolves many crusty things.
Including your favorite natural bristle brushes if you leave it too long.
   ("Nair" is hair removal by modified sodium hydrox.)

   Don't soak forever and keep it far away from your eyes or aluminum
(they use heated high pressure lye to actually mill aluminum)
      yours scott

Scott, I need more instruction in resurrecting gummy paint brushes with lye.
I've got a pretty good Purdy brush that I let get gummed with poly.  I thought
I had cleaned it, but when I went to use on some oil=based paint, I found
the goo.

Care to give this galoot, and any others listening in, a lesson in sodium
hydroxide for paint brush cleaning?  I've got a Dollar Tree store a few block
over.

Best regards,
Bob Hutchins, Temple, TX, USA