Paint mixing

Those things are supposed to be awesome !

I'll stick with my Badger power mixer since I already have it. Since I'm mostly using acrylics these days I just mix in the kitchen sink and rinse the shaft residue down the drain with hot water. Nothing drastic has happened yet in the mess or spillage department that is..

Hi!

        Funny this should come up! I was just recently rebuilding a tool I had made years ago. Yes, it's paint mixer! It started life as an Oster-Full body massager! Like the barber used to use on your head after a haircut and wash! I made a stand for it and a receptacle that held paint bottles securely. It worked well for over forty five years. Then it just stopped one day and I was gonna throw it away!

       Well, I ran across it and said to myself,("Well, self, it doesn't work, so how can I hurt it if I try to fix it") So, I tore it down and found the problem. A wire from the controls(Yeah, No circuit board here! ) broke off from it's place. A wee bit of clean up and a resolder of some Contact points and she runs like new.

       I was going to buy a new one because I have found this, If you paint is over forty years old and you can stir it up and if it tries to re-integrate itself, You might be able to save it! Two or three hours on the mixer with a few drops of thinner, You can salvage a lot of paint! I have recently gone through all my old paint. Shocker Here!!! Eight bottles of PACTRA! Mandarin Red Gloss I had forgotten about!

       Yeah, most folks would've tossed them. Not cheap old self! Stirred one after adding one teensy drop of thinner. Guess What? After an hour in the mixer, I tested it on an old paint Mule car body I keep for such stuff. The Plastic one! (I have one for Metal Models too!) Yes! I brush painted the top. Guess what happened? Nope! It didn't fail me.The paint acted just like it was designed to even after all this time and No brushmarks!(I just had to add the last). So a good shaker mixer is a great tool to have. Take care of yours, If you have one.

Tanker-Builder

Eight bottles of PACTRA! Mandarin Red Gloss I had forgotten about!

  

I probably would have tried to save the Pactra as well, those were the best enamels ever, IMO !!

Do you really need a power mixture?  Maybe you are overmixing?  I find model paints mix very well.  Even my old muscles can stand 30 seconds of stick mixing.  I find that sufficient.

missileman2000

Do you really need a power mixture?  Maybe you are overmixing?  I find model paints mix very well.  Even my old muscles can stand 30 seconds of stick mixing.  I find that sufficient.

 

Actually i do need it i find it wasteful to stick mix and waste the paint that sticks to the mixer. To each his own

missileman2000

Do you really need a power mixture?  Maybe you are overmixing?  I find model paints mix very well.  Even my old muscles can stand 30 seconds of stick mixing.  I find that sufficient.

You can overmix?

I also hand mix, or shake the bottles with my arm. I find this usually works just fine. However it would be nice to toroughly mixx something just by pressing it agains a thing like that.

There is a guy that refurbishes and sells lab mixers like that.

https://www.typhoonpainting.com/product-page/typhoon-paint-mixer-2-tops-super

oldermodelguy

I'll stick with my Badger power mixer since I already have it.

I'm mostly using MRP lacquers, which are really thin, so nearly all of the paint slides right off the end of the mixer, back into the bottle, before I even fully get it out of the bottle's neck.

It works perfectly for Testors enamels too without much waste, because I mostly use those to brush paint, so what's left on the mixer goes right into the palette to be used.

Might try one of those lab mixers some day though because of the ever-present possibility of knocking the bottle over while mixing.  Hasn't happened yet, but that MRP paint is expensive stuff, so it always makes me a little nervous.   Just not sure something like that would work as well on paint that has been sitting a long time and has partially congealed.  The Badger always does the trick in that situation.

Eaglecash867

 

 

oldermodelguy

I'll stick with my Badger power mixer since I already have it.

 

 

I'm mostly using MRP lacquers, which are really thin, so nearly all of the paint slides right off the end of the mixer, back into the bottle, before I even fully get it out of the bottle's neck.

It works perfectly for Testors enamels too without much waste, because I mostly use those to brush paint, so what's left on the mixer goes right into the palette to be used.

Might try one of those lab mixers some day though because of the ever-present possibility of knocking the bottle over while mixing.  Hasn't happened yet, but that MRP paint is expensive stuff, so it always makes me a little nervous.   Just not sure something like that would work as well on paint that has been sitting a long time and has partially congealed.  The Badger always does the trick in that situation.

 

I've had Badger Stynylrez separate to where mixing with a stick or shaking gets you absolutely nowhere. The glop in the bottom just goes around with the stick once you get it moving. And shaking is just futile. Especially the black after sitting around on a shelf several months. The Badger mixer always puts Humpty back together again in a minute or two.. I've gotten to where I periodically just mix the Stynylrez on general principals because you can't tell by looking in the bottle if it's actually still together or not. So I just mix it, since when you want to use it you want to use it..

I only keep the black and white, if I need grey, a drop or two black in some white gets me the grey I want. But Stynylrez isn't all I use, I also have Mr stuff so there are times the Stynylrez sits a bit. Still no question Stynylrez is the main offender in truly needing the mixer now and then. I question how many bottles of the stuff has been tossed because modelers figured it went bad. To me freezing is about all that turns it bad. Otherwise it can be power mixed. Model Master Acryl could use it too but that's basically a done deal these days.