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I was reading several posts of people who heat up their rattle cans before they use them. What is the point of this? What part of the can do you heat?
Warming a spray can is said to lower the viscosity of the paint, allowing it to flow better. It also raises the pressure, So in theory it delivers a finer spray, giving a smoother finish.
However, I will restate "warming", not heating. Stand the can in a basin of warm water. If it's too hot for your hand, it's too hot for the paint. DO NOT use hot/boiling water.
Tap hot is perfect (as long as it doesn't scald!). Put the can into a deep pot and pour the hot water up to the top of the can. Do not immerse the can entirely. Water does bad things to paint jobs, and even a drop caught in a hidden recess of the can will ruin your paint job.
So long folks!
Phil_H Warming a spray can is said to lower the viscosity of the paint, allowing it to flow better. It also raises the pressure, So in theory it delivers a finer spray, giving a smoother finish.
I see the two ideas, lowering the viscosity and increasing the pressure, as tending to offset each other. Lowering viscosity is nice, but I feel the spray cans already have too high a pressure. With my airbrush I spray at 15-20 psi.
Maintaing pressure is something else. If you spray a lot from a can continuously it will cool a lot and drop in pressure. I have used room temp water to warm it back up to room temp.
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
Thanks for the feedback....
Seems like warming up the cans is a good procedure. I'll have to try it the next time I use one.
One thing that I did not see mentioned was outside temperature. I live in Washington State, and store my rattle cans in the garage. In winter, even though I can and do keep my garage warm, it will still be 50-ish degrees, so warming the can before my multiple shaking sessions is a good idea. In the summer, however, when my garage is in the 70's, I don't need to warm the cans.
A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life."
I'm in the same boat as Killjoy, my paint is stored in the garage, so in the winter it can get pretty cold out there, so in colder weather I'll warm the paint up, during the summer I don't bother. It does seem to make a noticable difference vs using a cold can of paint, but not so much in warm weather.
I have a 5 gallon bucket I'll fill up about 4" with hot tap water, then I'll stand the can in that for 10 or 15 minutes. You do have to watch the well used cans as they will float and tip over, then you have to dry the can before painting.
If you use the little hobby paint cans you probably want to use less water, the 4" I mentioned is for full size cans (Krylon, Duplicolor etc).
Hot tap water should be fine unless you are one of those people who keeps the temp set at 140 degrees instead of the recommended 120 degrees. As mentioned you should be able to put your hand in the water and keep it there without injury. I find straight from the tap the water has cooled enough to use by the time I get to my garage, 90-100 is probably an ideal temp if you are fussy enough to take a thermometer to it.
You have to figure that the can and its contents shouldn't reach 120* and by the time your120* water and paint equalize the temperature will be lower than that. Not to mention the lose of heat to the air.
I have done this in the past and it does thin the paint a bit so it will better atomize and the cans will clog a lot less.
On Ed's bench, ???
Yes, warming it makes the paint flow smoother.
When I used to airbrush my kits in the garage I would warm the airbrush, color cup and the paint under a 100 watt bulb for 10-15 minutes before I painted. It really helped the paint flow much better.
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