Paint Shakers

[InnsmouthMedic]

Any suggestion/recommendations for paint shakers out there? I'm having a tough time finding a hobby sized one. I've thought of rigging up a vibrating sander that I have but I'm not sure that would work so well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Angorak]

Google a shaker made by Robart..I have one and love it.

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/rob/rob411.htm

[All-Terrain Monkey]

From the search

 

[morganm]

Hmm... I already have a jigsaw and a recipricating saw.... just need some strong rubber bands methinks =^.^=

 

http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/IndustryAr...03172F3891.html

[Rastl]

Actually I have all the pieces to make this at some point in the future.

 

Personally it's not about being lazy, it's about having problems with my wrist. Shaking paints HURTS after a while and this way I would be able to have them well mixed.

 

Being me I'll probably make an enclosure from Hirst bricks and turn it into terrain at the same time.

[haldir]

Google a shaker made by Robart..I have one and love it.

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/rob/rob411.htm

 

 

Yup, great product. Only thing I ever replace is the rubber strap that holds the paint & I can get replacements through my local mom & pop hobby shop (where I bought the shaker as well)

 

RM

 

(wow, monkey's link goes all the way back to 03, ha ha)

[Doug's Workshop]

Google a shaker made by Robart..I have one and love it.

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/rob/rob411.htm

 

 

Yup, great product. Only thing I ever replace is the rubber strap that holds the paint & I can get replacements through my local mom & pop hobby shop (where I bought the shaker as well)

 

RM

 

(wow, monkey's link goes all the way back to 03, ha ha)

 

 

I'll chime in on this one, too. I've had mine for about 4 years, and I have no complaints.

[GreyHorde]

Motor or power supply - something - burned out on my Robart shaker after a few years of fairly light use. Picked up a new one at Hobbytown USA. FWIW, I recommend the AC powered unit rather than the battery version.

[Angorak]

Google a shaker made by Robart..I have one and love it.

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/rob/rob411.htm

 

 

Yup, great product. Only thing I ever replace is the rubber strap that holds the paint & I can get replacements through my local mom & pop hobby shop (where I bought the shaker as well)

 

RM

 

(wow, monkey's link goes all the way back to 03, ha ha)

I use rubber bands...bought a bag at Walmart several years ago and haven't barely used any of it yet.

[Angorak]

Motor or power supply - something - burned out on my Robart shaker after a few years of fairly light use. Picked up a new one at Hobbytown USA. FWIW, I recommend the AC powered unit rather than the battery version.

I have the AC powered one and have run it thru the paces on numerous occasions.

[awong]

Actually I have all the pieces to make this at some point in the future.

 

I actually built something similar following the specs given in his article. It was terribly under powered and labored when trying to shake up a Vallejo or similar dropper bottle. In fact, I was getting a strong burning smell which started to raise red flags with me. I eventually bought something like this.

 

 

It's a laboratory vortex mixer. I found mine second hand on the internet for about $45-$60 many years ago. Very rugged and it'll shake the beeswax out of even the stubbornest paints. I just go until I hear the happy rattle of my agitators (glass beads and lead shot). No rubber bands to fiddle with, just press the bottle to the rubber cap and hold on.

 

-AW

[InnsmouthMedic]

I'd like to thank everyone for the great links and suggestions!

[Kang]

After reading some of this late last week, I was inspired to give my entire collection of RMS paints a good shaking this past Saturday.

 

FWIW, I used a battery-powered jigsaw and a few zip-ties, both of which I happened to have lying around the house. I'm sure a reciprocating saw would work as well, plus it might even be a little easier on the arm, what with the 2-handed grip you could use. It was a fairly simple matter of zipping the bottles onto the end of the blade at the narrow point of the bottle's neck. After wasting a few ties & lightly scratching the caps & bottles of the first few colours I shook, I dicovered the correct tightness for being able to securely hold the paint bottle on the blade without damaging it while running the saw, yet still being able to fairly easily remove the bottle after it's mixed & re-use the same tie on the rest of the bottles. I just had to use the blunt side of the tip of my pocket knife to pry the zip-tie up a bit to avoid sawing into it a bit each time I pushed it onto and off of the saw blade. Took about 30-45 seconds of saw power per bottle (moving & rotating the angle of the bottle for the duration - not a bad workout for the forearms BTW... until my 3-year old son put all his weight right *there* with his elbow a couple hours after I was done; wotta charley-horse!) & they're all really well-mixed now - the skull agitators rattle around like crazy in all cases; even the few bottles I couldn't get to rattle at all when I started out. I ran through IIRC 3 batteries this way, but I have 2 and they recharge pretty quickly, so there was no real delay even though I started out with only one of them charged. I only had a couple or maybe 3 bottles I decided to put back on the saw after the first 30-45 second shake; I think those were some of my oldest ones & they hadn't been touched in at least a couple years, probably more like 3.

 

I also have a few Vallejo Model Colours (smoke, plus a few metallics I've had for years, since before the FLGS replaced all their Vallejo stuff with RMS), but because the shape of the lids is a little different (tapered), I wasn't able to come up with a reusable zip-tie tightness - wound up having to cut them off after shaking each bottle. But then I didn't have nearly as many of those to do trial-and-error with as I did with the RMS droppers... Putting a few little cut-up bits of various broccolectomized DHL bases into the Vallejo bottles really seemed to help those ones mix up better, since they don't come with agitators like the RMS paints. I have some glass beads somewhere I bought for extra agitators, but I didn't feel like ransacking the house to find them. I think pewter probably works better anyhow, since it's a little heavier.

 

Not quite as easy as using one of those actual paint shakers that you just have to turn on and look at, I guess, but definitely easy enough that I am not planning on spending any money on a paint shaker. Especially since this cost me nothing - I still have several hundred zip-ties in the bag left over from when we moved several years ago for future use (though the pre-fitted one I ended up with should be good for at least another shaking up of all my RMS bottles before it starts getting too worn, I'd think).

 

It worked really well for me; I was pretty sure some of my older paints were going to be beyond salvaging, but they're all absolutely good to go from what I can tell, so I have no reason not to fully recommend this method. I may try and see if I can get some new life into my older (by a couple years) GW pots and even older still craft paints, in which case I'll post again with the results, but I'm not in any rush with those, so not something to hold your breath for.

 

Good luck,

 

Kang

[dragonbutt]

For years I have held a bottle of paint in my right hand and smacked it repeatedly on my left palm, (like some people pack down smokes), but that hurts my feeble old hands now, and I would rather save my energy for painting. So I made a paint shaker out of a "ReachEasy" shoulder massager, basically making a pouch out of tape right on the vibrating head, so the bottle can bounce up and down in there, against the head. Am very surprised (and delighted) at how well this works. It will hold many size and shape bottles, one at a time.