Paint in the bottle: shaken or stirred?


tomstockton

Tom Stockton
With apologies to Mr. Bond, this has nothing to do with martinis... ;)

How do you prepare your paints in the bottles for use; are they shaken, or are they stirred? (Or is there another option I'm missing?)

I've tried several different methods; drop some BB's in the bottle (bad move -- they rust!), and have now tried stainless steel nuts -- but at 25 cents a throw, am I getting my money's worth? (That was in a 100-pack at $25.00.) And I think they're beating the daylights out of the cardboard insert under the lid -- concerned about that. I've tried all kinds of stirring sticks, and recently bought a Badger paint mixer. If I pull the mixer too far out of the bottle when it's running, it throws little bitty spots of paint all over the place... but if I turn the mixer off too soon, there is a lot of paint left on the mixer -- and cleaning it up is no fun.

Anyway -- I turn to wiser minds than mine for answers. What works best in your experiences, and why?

Thanks in advance for your helpful answers.

Regards,
Tom Stockton
 
I use the wooden stirrers that are available in the store arts and crafts dept. Stirring the paint till there's no lumps left stuck to the bottom or sides. I try to keep the seal clean of paint. If shaking, I place a piece of aluminum foil over the bottle's neck and screw the cap on. I do the same when storing the bottles and always remove any paint from the neck's face and thread before closing.
 
Always, always ALWAYS stir! Shaking gets air bubbles into the paint and with acrylics that will start the curing process, and you can get little tiny flakes of dried paint in your bottle. It also gets paint on the lid and rim of the jar when you open it. That paint dries and keeps the lid from making a good seal when you close it back up. I sometimes use the wood coffee stirring sticks, but I got one of those little battery powered mixers as a freebie from Micro Mark some years back. they aren't terribly expensive either. They do a great job.
 
Always, always ALWAYS stir! Shaking gets air bubbles into the paint and with acrylics that will start the curing process, and you can get little tiny flakes of dried paint in your bottle. It also gets paint on the lid and rim of the jar when you open it. That paint dries and keeps the lid from making a good seal when you close it back up. I sometimes use the wood coffee stirring sticks, but I got one of those little battery powered mixers as a freebie from Micro Mark some years back. they aren't terribly expensive either. They do a great job.
Good thought on the reason for not shaking.
 
I better stay out of this as I don't know much of anything about acrylics.

Floquil was always my choice, and I would place a piece of foil (like RAY) over the neck - and placed one or two small fishing weights in the bottle in order to "shake".
NOTE: Also used buckshot pellets as well.
 
I better stay out of this as I don't know much of anything about acrylics.

Floquil was always my choice, and I would place a piece of foil (like RAY) over the neck - and placed one or two small fishing weights in the bottle in order to "shake".
NOTE: Also used buckshot pellets as well.
The pigments in acrylics seem to settle more over time and become 'gluggy' at the bottom. Stirring is the only way to get them mixed in again. I've got some Velago rust washes, and even they do to a certain extent.
 
The pigments in acrylics seem to settle more over time and become 'gluggy' at the bottom. Stirring is the only way to get them mixed in again. I've got some Velago rust washes, and even they do to a certain extent.
You mean Vallejo? (pronounced Bal-YAY-ho)
 
With apologies to Mr. Bond, this has nothing to do with martinis... ;)

How do you prepare your paints in the bottles for use; are they shaken, or are they stirred? (Or is there another option I'm missing?)

I've tried several different methods; drop some BB's in the bottle (bad move -- they rust!), and have now tried stainless steel nuts -- but at 25 cents a throw, am I getting my money's worth? (That was in a 100-pack at $25.00.) And I think they're beating the daylights out of the cardboard insert under the lid -- concerned about that. I've tried all kinds of stirring sticks, and recently bought a Badger paint mixer. If I pull the mixer too far out of the bottle when it's running, it throws little bitty spots of paint all over the place... but if I turn the mixer off too soon, there is a lot of paint left on the mixer -- and cleaning it up is no fun.

Anyway -- I turn to wiser minds than mine for answers. What works best in your experiences, and why?

Thanks in advance for your helpful answers.

Regards,
Tom Stockton
Tom,

Don't pull out the mixer when it's running. Keep it submerged and let the impeller circulate the paint. You can move the impeller around the bottom of the paint bottle to make sure everything gets broken up. To clean, submerge the mixer impeller and shaft in Windex or denatured alcohol for acrylics or lacquer thinner for anything solvent based. That cleans it right up.
 
I place two small hematite beads in the paint jars, both acrylic and others, and then use a palm sander to agitate the paint. 30 seconds and I'm good to go. Haven't noticed any issues with bubbles or premature drying.
 
I never use acrylics. Scalecoat and Scalecoat 2 and testors flats for weathering. Always put a little bolt in every opened bottle.You waste paint coating a pop cicle stick while stirring.
 
I place two small hematite beads in the paint jars, both acrylic and others, and then use a palm sander to agitate the paint. 30 seconds and I'm good to go. Haven't noticed any issues with bubbles or premature drying.
My love of cartoons has you holding the sander, the paint bottle standing still and you doing the shaking.
 
I never use acrylics. Scalecoat and Scalecoat 2 and testors flats for weathering. Always put a little bolt in every opened bottle.You waste paint coating a pop cicle stick while stirring.
Coffee stirrers are a lot smaller than popsicle sticks. I used to just rake the paint off on the side of the jar. You will waste a lot of paint (and maybe a pair of shoes, a shirt, and a bunch of solvent) if the bolt breaks the bottle :) That happened to a friend of mine once.
 
I have a little battery operated stirrer, looks like a milk foamer, that I use for enamel paints such as MonelMaster and Humbrol.My eyedropper bottles of Vallejo paint each have a small ss nut in them that agitates the contents when I shake the bottle. For extreme cases where the paint may have sat for a year without being touched I have a small shaker, its a miniature version of the shakers used in a paint-store.
 
Someone at work brought in a box of old Floquil paint. By old I mean square bottles that cost 70 cents. I used one to paint my last project, a rotary dumper. I made a shaker awhile ago and use that to mix paint, especially when it's been in a box for 40+ years. Here's a video. It started out as a joke but actually works pretty well.
I've since replaced the steam engine shown with a double acting PM Research #5 and works a lot more efficiently.
 
Coffee stirrers are a lot smaller than popsicle sticks. I used to just rake the paint off on the side of the jar. You will waste a lot of paint (and maybe a pair of shoes, a shirt, and a bunch of solvent) if the bolt breaks the bottle :) That happened to a friend of mine once.
I've been painting loco's n such since the mid 1970's. Bolts are not large enough to do bottle damage and I don't go crazy shaking them.
 
I've been painting loco's n such since the mid 1970's. Bolts are not large enough to do bottle damage and I don't go crazy shaking them.
I'm sure you have. And I'm sure it's never happened to you. That doesn't mean it's never happened to anyone else, or that it can't happen. All it takes is one crappy bottle.

This reminds me of the four stages of troubleshooting computer issues with tech support:
Stage 1: "That can't happen."
Stage 2: "That's never happened on my machine."
Stage 3: "That's not supposed to happen."
Stage 4: "How did that happen?"

:D

When recommending methods to new folks I tend to be conservative. I use copper plated BB's myself with thinned clearcoat and thinned dullcote, but I swirl instead of shake. For full strength paints, and especially Scalecoat (which I also use on pretty much everything), if it sits long enough the solids settle to the bottom of the bottle the mixer is the most reliable way of getting everything broken up and back into suspension. An ultrasonic cleaner works pretty well too, but most modelers don't have one
 
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