Work Boot Brush

I made a brush for my dad’s boots so that he can get dirt off of them before he comes in the house. The goal was to make a better version of one that he had a few years ago, but making it more durable by changing the weak plastic frame for a wooden one and using more durable brushes, designed for extreme wear.

MATERIALS

1. 1/4 in wood sheet
2. 7”x3” horse brush x2
3. 7” tent stakes

MACHINES

1. Fusion360
2. CNC Mill

In order to decide the ideal size for my boot brush, I made a cardboard prototype to decide how wide and how tall I wanted the frame to be, as I wanted it to be custom to what my dad needed. Using the cardboard frame, I could visualize where the brushes would stop and where they would make contact with his boots. This mockup showed me that the frame should be a lot more narrow, but the sides were approximately where I wanted them to be. The original measurements of the frame were 9”x4.5”x4”, but using this prototype I decided that the new measurements should be 5”x4.5”x4”, meaning I grossly overshot how wide I thought the frame needed to be. Along with dimensions, this was where I started going back and forth throughout the manufacturing process about how thick the wood should be to maximize the strength of the project.

Making my CAD model was pretty easy. After I was set on the dimensions that I wanted, I was able to make the pieces easily based off of an initial paper design before the prototype. Originally, I wanted to make the brushes replaceable, just in case that in a few years time the brushes were worn out and I wanted to replace them, which is what the [diameter] holes were for. Later on, I decided that, considering the durability of the brushes, it wouldn’t really be necessary and I ended up not using them. The larger [diameter] holes are for a long stake to go into our lawn, making anchoring the brush renter friendly. At this point, I was still on the fence about the thickness of the frame’s wood.

At this point, I had to make a G-Code to use on the router. This was where I needed to make a decision on the thickness of the wood, between 1”, 1/2”, and 1/4”. I found a good in the middle with a piece of stock that I stumbled upon which was 0.34”, a good medium between what thought would be too much and too bulky and what would be too thin to hold up.

What followed was a very silly 11 try effort to cut my pieces out. Issues ranging from tab depth, to tab amount, to cutting speed, and order of cutting out. Eventually I had a code that worked and all I had to do was sand down the tabs and cut off the imperfections.

Using the bandsaw and a hand operated saw, I was able to cut the brush intended for the bottom about 1” shorter and cut the one for the two sides in half. This was pretty easy except for the metal anchors in the brushes, which I didn’t think of for some reason, and made the bandsaw make some pretty sketchy noises and some equally sketchy sparks. On the bottom brush, which was the second one I cut, I didn’t want to repeat the bandsaw drama so I cut it out using a hand saw, which worked fine just took a little more elbow grease.

The backsides of the brushes were super smooth, so I scored the back using an X-Acto knife to give the glue more texture to use and made a bond with wood glue. I made a use for the holes meant for interchangeable brushes by using them as an additional guideline to that the sides were symmetrical.

The brushes I used were extremely dense, so before I could put the sides on the base, I needed to cut down the bristles. I did this by removing sections of the bristles using scissors one at a time until the pieces fit together more comfortably.

Once the brushes fit together well, I set the sides to meet the base at a 90 degree angle, used painter’s tape to set their distance, and put wood glue on the bonding spot. When I pressed them together I used tape at an angle as a clamp.

My goals for this project were to make something effective at removing dirt and strong enough to withstand lots of use.

To test these aspects, I used a pair of shoes that had been worked in for a few days between being cleaned. Using the boot brush, I was able to clean these shoes easily. The photos with 2 shoes shows the before and after along with the show of wear on the brush. As you can see, the brush worked and held up for the first cleaning. The only way to test the longevity of this project is with time, but the wood glue bonds look strong and don’t wiggle at all as of now.

An improvement I would make is moving the holes for the stakes to the sides of the base, to make them actually useable. Without an anchor, I just lodged the project between rocks in my yard to hold it in place for the cleaning.