Paint saver

Made this contraption to resurrect many of my old jars of paint. Sawzall with a clamp attached to an old blade. Drilled a hole for the role pin to go through and a bit of tape. Brought a bunch of paint back to life after 1-2 minutes of shaking. A couple of really set in acrylics had to have small ball bearings added. Overall worked like a charm.

 

Now that there would make Foxworthy and Engvall Proud!! Just plum puddin' proud!!

 

Don't forget the 'Thank You' to Harbor Freight!

 

Actually got the sawzall for free from the neighbor, they cleared out a bunch of tools and gave them away. Too bad there wasn’t a table saw in the mix.

Managed to save all but 4 paint bottles, some dating back 15 years.

 

I always appreciate inventiveness (is that a word?) ........ good job.

If anyone is looking for a fancy one, and I'm hoping my GF sees this, try one of these.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3547750...oweP4itXs84LZNxgt+i63ryarLh5|tkp:BFBMrKqDt5Ji

 

With free shipping, these Vortex Mixers are available from Amazon for far less.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Vortex+M...sprefix=vortex+mixer,aps,107&ref=sr_nr_p_76_1

 

Somewhere I read that dropping a few BBs in paint jars will help mix paint that's settled out.

 

That is correct. Be sure to use stainless steel ball bearings as they are more non-reactive to the paint. But, in the end, you still have to use elbow grease to shake the bottle.

 

Don't see how a table saw would help mix paint

 

I think he meant that there wasn't another free tool that he can have/use like a table saw. Not something to mix paint with. Just more freebie tools being thrown out.

 

How about one of those oscillating tanks used for cleaning parts.

 

I doubt an ultrasonic cleaner will work to mix paint. It’s designed to create bubbles to do the cleaning, it wouldn’t actually mix anything. I’ve never tried though.

I wish there would have been a table saw in the lot of free tools. I need one of those.

 

Mine was used to mix small bottles of Testers. Many years ago.

 

I would never try such a thing. One "incident" and I wouldn't feel very smart anymore. (I mean, what could go wrong? LOL)

 

Then there is this:

Cordless Mixer For Model Paints | eBay

But the shipping is atrocious.

 

...... or mixing really small cocktails provided you're not James Bond. ...... and they don't even ship to Australia !

 

could just make one from a small motor . this motor came out of a toy i think or a printer i dunno i got a ton of these motors ...

 

I made a mixing bit for my drill and it worked ok as long as the paint wasn’t really caked at the bottom. The sawzall contraption was able to cure the bottles that were really congealed.

Now that they have been shaken back to life, I’ll mix the paint by hand before using in my airbrush.

 

I still look at CRAIGSLIST: https://louisville.craigslist.org/ for stuff for sale or even FREE. Never know what will be there.
Never have had problems with adding a few BBs to my paints to help mix them up in the bottle. They will agitate the contents just fine. Keep the rims and tops CLEAN on your paint bottle and store them upside down. The paint will form a seal, not letting any air/moisture into the paint.

 

Seems like a few minutes with a wire coat-hangar, or other source of similarly stiff wire, could result in a serviceable model paint stirrer attachment for a drill.