My New Paint Shaker

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vincegamer

Active member
Thought you all might find this amusing.
As anyone who remembers me knows, I haven't painted anything in a couple of years but just started up again.
Well what happens when you don't paint? Your paints separate and get lumpy.
I used to have a Robart paint shaker but it broke.
Also, I've been out of work for a while so I'm broke too. Can't buy a new one, but can't shake my paints fully fluid with my bare hands.

So I got innovative. What do I have that shakes?
A Black & Decker detail sander!
Slap some felt (a tiny crown royal bag) onto the velcro base instead of sand paper, hold upside down, hold paint bottle on the sander with free hand and turn it on.

My arms feel kinda funny afterwards, but it works pretty well :D
Maybe I'll take a photo of it in use.
 
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supervike

Super Moderator
Seems to be a very effective fix.....I'd like pics as well.

I still use my Robart shaker all the time. Luckily, it still does what it's supposed to.
 
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vincegamer

Active member
Wow. I hadn't noticed that.
I wonder if it's a setting on my Photo Booth program on the laptop. I've never really worked with it before.

Did a quick google and it seems it's because I was using Apple Photo Booth and it just does that. It's so that it feels more comfortable to the person making the video, but it doesn't come with a way to flip it around.
Next time I'll use iMovie instead.
 
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vincegamer

Active member
Yes. The sander surface is velcro (fabric hook-and-loop fastener) so it's abrasive. The sandpaper sheets come with a fuzzy backing to grab on to.
When I held the pot to the velcro surface and turned it on it began to rub away the plastic of the pot.
 
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vincegamer

Active member
A - I don't have any rubber bands (don't keep them cause the cat has a tendency to eat them)
B - I don't know that a rubber band would be able to hold it as firmly to the surface as I can by hand.
C - Seems like extra effort to strap and unstrap the paint pot.

BUT - I'm going to try that because... I bet I could strap 5 or 6 bottles to it at once!
 
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tadme48

New member
I found a small salad shaker is good for shaking the pots, mine has a handle that spins a drum inside. Though you have to remember to make sure the tops are on secure and that the wife wasn't going to dry out the lettuce
 
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vincegamer

Active member
Wouldn't that have a centrifuge like effect though?

I saw online a suggestion of using an electric carving knife and strapping the pots to the blade. I'll keep my eye open at garage sales for one of those.
 
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finn17

New member
That's a great idea Vince :)

Like you, I've just been examining some very old paints and trying to revive them. Luckily, my Robartes still works so that sorted most of them. A couple of airgun pellets added to the mix always helps...Some of the pots were completely fubar'd but a few were inbetween, beyond a mere shaking but too good to chuck. I found that the addition of some airbrush thinners which seems to be very thin, un-pigmented acrylic paint and one of these did the trick:

BGR121.jpg


They aren't too expensive and seem reasonably priced, in America at least.
 
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vincegamer

Active member
Heya Finn. Good to see you again. My point is to avoid spending since I only just started working again and that temp for now, but once I've got some reserves built up I'll be hitting the hobby store.
 
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finn17

New member
Good to (literally) see you too Vince!

Yeah, I know I missed the point slightly but I thought I'd slip that one in here as I've only just found these and I thought others might be interested.
 
DannyBoy2k

DannyBoy2k

New member
Thing that occured to me was to open the bottle(remove the squirt top), put a BB in it, and then chuck it into the bag. That should agitate it quite nicely, I would think.
The upside to this, above the 'hold it against' method would be that, 1, you'd avoid 'vibro-hand', and 2, you could stick more than one bottle into the bag at a time.

Just a thought. :)
 
H

heliodorus

New member
vincegamer said:
You reminded me I have a youtube account :)

Click to expand...

This wins the "I love the internets" award for me for the year. I'm restarting after 3 years, and was just daunted by the enormity of the shaking task. I think I can do this. Terrific help to me, and morale boost as well. Going to save some money on paints :)
 
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