Spray paint can shaker

[galaxiex]

Hope this is the correct forum for this...
I didn't see a place for home made tools.

I do some painting on kit guitars, home builds, etc.
Mostly with spray cans.

THE key to using spray cans is to.... Shake the can!

I got tired of wearing out my arm so I built this...









12V battery operated, with a timer so I can set it and walk away.
Surplus car power window motor.
(could use a car wiper motor too)
Some scraps of wood, aluminum stock, nuts and bolts, metal straps, a bit of welding...
Charge the batt with any old car battery charger.
I built it all with the TLAR method. (That Looks About Right)

[Chuck H]

Stellar idea

And since you do more than the average Joe with rattle cans, remember that Deft clear lacquer is indeed lacquer. They have a great spray nozzle and I've done some very nice finishing with this product. I've even used it on nitro finished cabinets for extensive touchups and it burns in just like regular nitro does. Just super easy to use and I can't say enough good things about it.

[galaxiex]

Thanks Chuck!

I've tried to get Deft here in Canada, but it can be a problem getting it shipped.
I do have some Deft sanding sealer and some Lacquer in quart cans.
I do have spray equipment too, but last time I used it I just brushed it on.
Worked ok.

[nosaj]

Stellar idea

And since you do more than the average Joe with rattle cans, remember that Deft clear lacquer is indeed lacquer. They have a great spray nozzle and I've done some very nice finishing with this product. I've even used it on nitro finished cabinets for extensive touchups and it burns in just like regular nitro does. Just super easy to use and I can't say enough good things about it.

Someone on the antique radios site did something similar with a jig and a jigsaw.

It's always neat to see someone and another idea. Like they say there is nothing new under the sun(but I don't always believe it)P.
nosaj

[Chuck H]

Well I'm actually a painter and I don't try to brush lacquer because it's just too hot and I'm not fast enough to avoid lap and brush marks. When I have to brush something clear I usually go with Minwax polyurethane. The Varathane brand use to be my favorite, but they changed it a few years ago and it's real hot and persnickety now.

I do use the rattle cans of Varathane poly though. You need to be more patient with it. You can't stack coats fast like you can with the Deft lacquer. But it's a good finish and more durable than lacquer is.

[galaxiex]

Someone on the antique radios site did something similar with a jig and a jigsaw.

It's always neat to see someone and another idea. Like they say there is nothing new under the sun(but I don't always believe it)P.
nosaj

Thanks!
I goog searched and saw lots of ideas for this...
...ranging from mounting the can offset in a lathe to duct taping the can to a sawzall blade... Yikes!
None of the other ideas appealed to me so I built this with the TLAR method. (That Looks About Right).

[J M Fahey]

Cool idea.

I just shake the d*mn cans while I watch some silly 10 minute YT video , then chalk it up as "Doctor mandated exercise".

FWIW I load my own lacquer cans.

Regular stuff available everywhere tends more towards Synthetic paint and such, which takes a lot to dry up.

Or to be more precise: it *dries* up reasonably fast, but does not really harden until some hours later, and it stinks almost overnight, whils Nitro or Acrylic , Thinner based paint dries in minutes and hardens real fast, since it only relies on evaporation and nothing else.

Problem, itīs not easy to find so I load my own out of old Raid cans, or any other as long as it is steel (and not Aluminum) based.

And since they have no mixing balls inside (nor way to add them) I must shake them a lot.

Although I am thinking about adding a few headless nails through the loading hole.

[Chuck H]

We use to load cans for customers when I worked in a paint store. I bet one could find a used unit for doing it pretty reasonably. It's been a long time ago, but as I recall the cans came already charged. So those are probably available.

But (no surprise) you must be charging your own since you're repurposing old cans.?. How do you do that?

[J M Fahey]

No big deal.

I get empty galvanized steel cans, in my case insecticide ones, because I use them a lot and they have almost no residue and what little remains does not contaminate paint, so they are solderable with normal rosin core solder.

With a standard center punch I punch the base twice: a center 5 o 6mm hole for loading (1/4") and a small 1 mm one (the tip of a small nail) on one side as near to wall as possible so air can exit while loading

Then mix in a glass glass 1/3 car type lacquer, any colour (although lacking a mixing ball heavy pigments or powdered aluminum, copper or brass are not recommended), 2/3 paint thinner (so as to make it quite liquid and spray well under Butane pressure, which is not very strong) and pour that into the can base ... does not take much.
Then wipe base clean.

Then solder both holes shut with regular solder and a 60W iron.

Then place loaded but unpressurized can on a table, spray tube exposed (no cap) and upside down over it a butane recharging can, those used for lighters and such.

They come with 5 or 6 various size adapters, one csn be slightly enlarged so both cans are joined "mouth to mouth", the top one upside down of course, then I transfer butane to the bottom one.

IF you wish, you can put the bottom one in the fridge , or even the freezer but in that case for no more than 5 minutes, while you keep the top one wrapped inyour hands for warmth, so top pressure is way higher than bottom o0ne.
But only if you want maximum pressure, normal temperture is fine and worst case you reload butane when/if you feel pressure gets low.

By the way, I also recharge butane the same way into old paint or WD40 cans which sound still loaded but lost pressure.
No case punching in this case, just trying to squeeze the last ounces left over.

Base punching and solder plugging:


Adapters:


Butane charging:

[nosaj]

No big deal.

I get empty galvanized steel cans, in my case insecticide ones, because I use them a lot and they have almost no residue and what little remains does not contaminate paint, so they are solderable with normal rosin core solder.

With a standard center punch I punch the base twice: a center 5 o 6mm hole for loading (1/4") and a small 1 mm one (the tip of a small nail) on one side as near to wall as possible so air can exit while loading

Then mix in a glass glass 1/3 car type lacquer, any colour (although lacking a mixing ball heavy pigments or powdered aluminum, copper or brass are not recommended), 2/3 paint thinner (so as to make it quite liquid and spray well under Butane pressure, which is not very strong) and pour that into the can base ... does not take much.
Then wipe base clean.

Then solder both holes shut with regular solder and a 60W iron.

Then place loaded but unpressurized can on a table, spray tube exposed (no cap) and upside down over it a butane recharging can, those used for lighters and such.

They come with 5 or 6 various size adapters, one csn be slightly enlarged so both cans are joined "mouth to mouth", the top one upside down of course, then I transfer butane to the bottom one.

IF you wish, you can put the bottom one in the fridge , or even the freezer but in that case for no more than 5 minutes, while you keep the top one wrapped inyour hands for warmth, so top pressure is way higher than bottom o0ne.
But only if you want maximum pressure, normal temperture is fine and worst case you reload butane when/if you feel pressure gets low.

By the way, I also recharge butane the same way into old paint or WD40 cans which sound still loaded but lost pressure.
No case punching in this case, just trying to squeeze the last ounces left over.

Base punching and solder plugging:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]49583[/ATTACH]

Adapters:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]49584[/ATTACH]

Butane charging:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]49585[/ATTACH]

If there's a way to do something you can just about bet Juan has done it.

Did you come about this method by your thriftyness or by your location(not being able to get what you need?)

Some of your ideas bring to mind the way the cubans would keep their motorcycles and 50's era cars going during the embargo years.
nosaj

[J M Fahey]

A mix of thriftyness, lazyness, not having *exactly* what I need, plus the challenge and pride factor, of course.

For *ages* I made custom amp front panels, starting with my very first Bassman clone in 1969, out of scratched black acrylic and white Letraset transfer lettering, looking very much like then much respected Japanese Hi Fi stuff, think Akai and Sansui, which used black anodized aluminum in the "Pro" looking models.

Letraset *needed* some clear lacquer sprayed on, I used either "true" Krylon (USA made) or a local equivalent.
In both cases it seemed to be made out of finely ground transparent Acrylic , dissolved in Acetone or some other strong solvent.
Crystal clear, dried in 1 or 2 minutes and quickly became hard and not sticky .... hey!: "Acrylic" , what do you expect?
Later started painting panels as a background, same thing.

Then learnt silkscreening which is the proper way to do things, but problem is you have to print at least 6 or 10 panels (which takes 3 minutes) to make it worth because thoroughly cleaning the screen takes half an hour, you saturate the area with flammable toxic solvents, a mess.

And you only print what you have on the screen, so when somebody asks for an added effects loop, earphone out, compensated line out, different EQ frequencies, added reverb, extra inputs, etc. , it either goes unlabelled, hand written on silver Sharpie, glued paper printer label, all of which look amateurish, or gets white Letraset lightly sprayed on which looks almost like silkscreening.

But "thanks to globalization" local Manufacturer had to close, *everybody* now has racks of USA made Krylon in all colours plus Silver and Gold and of course transparent, but the #$%&?ŋ*^` Krylon "brains" changed the formula.

We also have racks chock full of Rustoleum in all colours, plus simulated wood, stone, Hammerite, etc. ... same thing.

The new formula (maybe itīs "greener" or some other silly excuse) takes 10 to 20 minutes to dry just enough to not take fingerprints forever, really hardens overnight, if you apply too much it makes waves (because earlier coats didnīt dry enough), in thick layers itīs not crystal clear but whitish (very noticeable if you spray a black panel), the works.

So I applied a light spray of transparent acrylic or nitro car paint, just the "base" can without pigment pouches added and was back on the race.

Problem is that again I have to load the spray paint pistol, fire up the compressor, *clean** the pistol tank afterwards, again a mess.

But once a customer told me he works at an aerosol can factory, they custom load "anything" for other manufacturers, from insecticide to hair spray tp deodorant to .... so he was subject to third grade interrogation, he he.
And told me they load cans through the tip, first the product, then Butane ... that was enough for me.

I donīt have the $60000 specialized machine but "knowing the principle" I can kludge something

So I split charging operation: product+thinning solvent (to make it more sprayable) through bottom, Butane through top from a ready charged can ... costs peanuts.

And some products are not available over the counter: real Nitrocellulose or Cellulose Acetate car paints , PCB rosin+alcohol varnish, my favorite perfumes in sprayable form, etc.

Tried aluminum cans with holes sealed with Epoxy but those canīt be trusted, had a couple **messy** accidents, while soldered iron works wonders .... and is a Natural for an Electronics Tech

To all that add the Economic angle: any spray can has not more than 25% useful product, the rest is solvents and Butane: very expensive by the pound, my reloads cost peanuts.

[Chuck H]

And as a tip to anyone who may wish to try this, but has trouble telling if a can is iron or aluminum, use a magnet to be sure.

[Chuck H]

Wait a sec...

Juan, the flash point for solvents like acetone and lacquer thinner is much lower than soldering temperatures. How do you manage this without danger?

[nosaj]

Wait a sec...

Juan, the flash point for solvents like acetone and lacquer thinner is much lower than soldering temperatures. How do you manage this without danger?

There in lies the rub. Life ain't fun if it's not dangerous..

I bet it's similar to putting a match out in gasoline. Or simply have the iron hot enough to do it quickly and it's done.

nosaj

[J M Fahey]

Wait a sec...

Juan, the flash point for solvents like acetone and lacquer thinner is much lower than soldering temperatures. How do you manage this without danger?

From Wikipedia :

The flash point of a volatile material is the lowest temperature at which vapours of the material will ignite, when given an ignition source.

No spark or open flame: no ignition.

In any case, soldering iron tip does not touch liquids, which at that point occupy the lower 1/3rd of the can.

besides that, I have submerged soldering iron tip in my jam bottle half filled with rosin+alcohol or thinner: nothing happens (except it boils and cleans soldering iron tip).

In fact, solvents, including gasoline, do NOT catch fire if you drop a lighted cigarette into them ... which is a way higher temperature.
Paper or cotton are way more dangerous in that respect.

And of course this scene is FAKE, on MANY counts:

not the lesser one being that jet fuel is refined Kerosene (Paraffin in UK) which has very low vapour pressure, feeble vapour concentration does not reach flammable mixture levels, and in any case, flame propagation speed is lower than plane speed , they are visibly in sub zero temperature, etc.

But hey, donīt let facts interfere with Hollywood fiction

But why do crashing planes explode into a gigantic ball of fire?

Well, to begin with , fuel is atomized into a huge cloud of very fine and well mixed fuel tiny droplets + air mist, and there is always *some* source of flame (if anything, inside of still running jet engines, where fuel is atomized, mixed with air, compressed *and* ignited).

When I was a kid in the middle of the Pampas, stoves used "gasified" kerosene, which had to be preheated with burning alcohol inside of a copper pipe "gasifier" , then it burnt with blue flame.
And it had to be pushed by hand pumped compressed air.

This is the minimalistic version: