Mixing Paints...

I use metal measuring spoons to measure, and for transfering paint from cans to airbrush, spray into a small dixie cup. I stir with popsicle sticks. Hope this helps.
Lee

Hi Wingman_kz
The pipettes are the best way I know of to make sure you get accurate paint measurements. I think you're stuck with that one. A lot of folks will put a small steel bb in their paint and use it as an agitator. Micro Mark even sells a small mixing machine, or at least they used to. Another option is to solder a small gear to the end of a dremel shaft. The teeth will mix the paint and you wont have to worry about the paint flying all over the room. Micro Mark may have one of those too. Instead of toothpicks I use bamboo skewers because they don't absorb any paint or thinner which helps to keep your paint from drying up too much.
Good luck
Dave

I use a combination of different droppers for transfering paint. I have a nice glass one with lots of different increments on it from a chemistry set. I also use left over droppers from childrens liquid medicine bottles, I scribe my own graduations on those. You can also get droppers at the local pharmacy in the baby aisle. I always mix my paint with a piece of sprue cut to length. I don't like to shake the paint too much because you get a lot of air bubbles trapped in it. I use the plastic screw tops off of soda bottles to mix my paint in. I also went to the local 1 hour photo shop and asked for any film canisters they have left over. I walked out with a bag of hundreds of small plastic containers and lids for free...what a great country! I use these for mixing larger amounts of paint. They are also great for cleaning up airbrush parts.

Darren

I use disposable graduated pipets... but NOT the ones that are 5 for a buck or so from hobby stores. I bought mine at a lab equipment supply store... 500 pipets for $18.

For stirring... I have a little battery powered stirrer (badger and other companies make them). They are about $8 and do a great job. I also have a small hobby paint shaker someone gave me (Micro Mark has them) but it's better for that last bit of mixing.

I use pipettes and graduated eye droppers (Glass not plastic, purchased at the drug store) for measuring. Cleanup is quick and easy with pipe cleaners.
Stirring I start by shaking vigorously. I use a Tamiya stainless steel stirrer, or the same battery operated one as mentioned above. Sometime it is a tool of opportunity (toothpick etc.) I find the effort in stirring is directly related to how long the paint has been sitting around. I usually mix and store excess mixed paint in 35mm film containers.

Good hints guys... think I'll try some of those myself....

One note about mixing paint. The problem with using a toothpick to mix paint is that you're not going to get enough movement to get a good mix. You need something a little larger to move the paint around. I noticed this when I was mixing resin. When I used a popcycle stick the resin mixed real well in the 30 seconds I had available. When I tried it using a toothpick I didn't get a good mix.

Good luck!
Dave

I was looking in the latest Micro Mark catalog and they have an electric paint mixer in there for $10. Has anyone had any experience with it?
Dave

Yes... I have two of them... one from Micro Mark, and a Badger that was $8.

I use this A LOT. it gets all the pigment that has settled to the bottom, and pretty quickly too.

I had a really nice little device for this. It was a 'nail manicure' tool that was battery operated and had various bits for filling and polishing. Basically, it was a very small, battery operated dremel. I got it at a discount/surplus store for about 5 or 6 bucks and it worked great. There was one size of brass tubing that would fit in the end perfectly, so I made a special 'paint stirring' end for it. Unfortunately, the motor went and now it is kaput. Still looking for a cheap similar replacement (Those Badger/Micro Mark ones are big $ up here in Canada...)

M.

I generally use eye dropers (glass). Simple to clean with a pipe cleaner. I stir with bamboo or pop cycle sticks. Depends on the amount and type of paint. Always make sure the paint is stired well prior to adding thinner. Get all the pigment off the bottom of the jar and then mix with thinner. Clean up??? Take your time at this. You will have some money invested in your tools over time, and learning to take the time to clean them from the start will save you some headaches. There will be plenty of time for those "parts enjoyable".

I use pipettes and I got this stack of small plastic mixing cups from a hobby shop I visited on my way though a town (Tacoma, WA if memory serves). Got like 100 of them for a buck or two. I also use 35mm film canisters when I reckon I'll need to mix a bunch and keep it for 2 or more sessions.

Just be careful - some of those plastic cups have raised gradations on them and I've been known to make splatters when the toothpick I use to stir scrapes over them!!!

I use the glass lab pipets mentioned earlier in this thread, and I have the BAdger paint stirrer-great litle tool. I mix in the plastic medicine cups you get in hospitals and with some over the counter cough medicines -They're cheap, disposable, and usually hold enough paint to complete the average paint job. - Ed

First of all, thanks to all of you for your input. There's several things here that I hadn't thought of.

Buying pipettes in bulk is a good one. And I have a bunch of 35mm canisters already. Don't shoot as much film as I used to but there are a lot of empties around. There's a couple tubes of BBs in the gun cabinet. I think I'll invest in one those little mixers too, sounds like a good thing.

One thing that bothers me about this is the amount of paint that gets wasted in all the transferring and handling. I guess that can't really be avoided though. Let me ask you a couple of other things. Is there a shelf life for paints? Is it ok to thin a whole bottle of paint at once and save it for future use? Maybe I'm way off here but that seems to be a way around wasting paint by thinning a little at a time.

On the other hand, I saw a mixing system in FSM that used syringes that could be coupled together for mixing or thinning your paints and special caps for the paint bottles. Evidently there is even a cap that you can use on the syringe to attach it to your air brush. I know, I know, more money and more things to keep up with but if it works as well as it appears that it would it may be a good investment. Here's a link to the site.

http://www.precisionmixsystems.com/shop/shopdisplaycategories.asp

And I do keep my tools clean. I live in an apartment and any way that I can lessen the chance for a spill or splatter is a major concern. Thanks again for the tips and my apologies for taking so long to return. I was here the other morning after work and fell asleep at the keyboard. hehe