Paint mixers, yes or no?

Which one? You talking about the little badger stirrer? I use one of those and love it. I can stir up the paint in a jiffy without getting it all over the underside of the cap like shakers do. Makes for a cleaner process and less dried paint flakes in the paint.
Disadvantage would be super thin paints or jars that are full to the top. Way easy to conjure up a paint hurricane with those.

  I love mine .

Ditto.  I have the little Badger "AA" battery powered one.  I just got back into the hobby after a two year break and the old paint (Tamiya, Model Master) was back to new in a jiffy.  Like everybody has said, no paint on the cap makes paint last so much longer.  And no Vice Grips needed!

I have both the  battery operated rotary paint mixer and the shaker and I love both. I use the rotary mixer om MM and Tamiya paints and the shaker on the Vallejo paints.

I haven't tried one- I am afraid of spattering paint all over my workbench.  Do these things spin slow enough to prevent that?

I prefer using my cordless Dremel and a craft stick. This lets me watch to make sure the paint is mixing properly and that it is still viable. Shaking a bottle of paint for several minutes only to open it and find it never mixed at all.  Besides I like tools that multi task!

I made my own from a project box ,some wiring and a small motor all from Radio Shack. I did add the business end from the badger one a friend had broken. I love it and it seems to do a great job with less cap mess and is quicker than shaking.

I would love to use it for the Valleijo but it will not fit inthe bottle. I do find that they tend to be a little thicker and could use the stir motor a little more.

Ok, I see all of you are very happy with yours. I use min too, but I noticed that when I mix acrylics, a lot of bubbles appear and was guessing guess if that is good for the painting process. And Don, yes it spins really fast and you have to be very careful if you don´t want to spread the paint all around.

Don Stauffer

I haven't tried one- I am afraid of spattering paint all over my workbench.  Do these things spin slow enough to prevent that?

 I use my Dremel, much like Hawkeye, but I use a piece of sprue, shaped like a "T". My dremel has a high and low setting......use the low. I haven't had any problem with paint splattering. I have noticed a HUGE difference in paint quality and longevity. All my caps stay white as snow now, and I can actually get through a whole bottle of paint without it going bad!

fermis

 

Don Stauffer:

 

I haven't tried one- I am afraid of spattering paint all over my workbench.  Do these things spin slow enough to prevent that?

 

 

 I use my Dremel, much like Hawkeye, but I use a piece of sprue, shaped like a "T". My dremel has a high and low setting......use the low. I haven't had any problem with paint splattering. I have noticed a HUGE difference in paint quality and longevity. All my caps stay white as snow now, and I can actually get through a whole bottle of paint without it going bad!

Thanks. I have a battery dremel with marvelous speed control. I'll give that a try!

I use a badger rotary mixer modified with a push button on/off rather than the slide. It saves getting paint on the cap and the related problems. As for getting paint everywhere, I use a toilet paper core, split about 1" or so in a couple spots lengthwise on one end. I can drop the tube over the bottle and hold it steady and it keeps paint in the tube not on me or the bench.

Ben

Very cool idea! I'm going to use it, thanks!

My paint mixer is a toothpick and I havent had to replace the batteries yet!

hkshooter

Which one? You talking about the little badger stirrer? I use one of those and love it. I can stir up the paint in a jiffy without getting it all over the underside of the cap like shakers do. Makes for a cleaner process and less dried paint flakes in the paint.
Disadvantage would be super thin paints or jars that are full to the top. Way easy to conjure up a paint hurricane with those.

I agree. I wouldn't mix paint any other way.

montague

My paint mixer is a toothpick and I havent had to replace the batteries yet!

And it takes you far longer and you don't get as good of a mixing.

I have been using mine for years and always get great results with it.

Thad

I would have never thought to use the dremel.  My first impression would be it moves to fast and would make a mess.  But I am going to give it a try. I especially like the sprue idea

I always used the toothpick stirrer, holdover from the way my Dad stirred paints.  Then a buddy of mine (Fox) made a battery operated stirrer and I haven't looked back. Makes quick work of even the most separated enamel paints.

Did have to learn to keep my finger well away from the switch when lifting it out of the bottle. Fortunately, the paint (black) spatter didn't land on any models, just me.

Paul

padakr

.

Did have to learn to keep my finger well away from the switch when lifting it out of the bottle. Fortunately, the paint (black) spatter didn't land on any models, just me.

Paul

That's precisely why I'd be afraid to use a battery-operated paint stirrer. Somebody early in this thread mentioned a "paint hurricane."  Knowing my luck, that's exactly what would happen to me.

I use cut-up greeting card holders from a florist shop (they look like very long plastic forks). I buy the longest ones (about 18 inches or something like that), cut the "tines" off, then cut the stem into about six pieces to make paint stirrers about three or four inches long. (An old pair of garden shears makes quick work; don't forget the safety goggles.) These holders often have little hearts molded into them for decoration and I cut the holders in a way so that the little heart can be inserted into the paint bottle and used as a paddle for stirring brand-new bottles or bottles that have sat around a while and need a bit of extra work; just twirl the heart "paddle." The stirrers without the paddles are used for paint that I recently used and doesn't need the extra help.

I've got a lifetime supply of wooden coffee stirrers (They're about half the size of a Popsicle stick).  They move the paint around pretty well and don't take too much paint out of the bottle.  I like Gerold's idea of the variable speed Dremel.  I think that I would have to have some serious separations to pull out the power tools to stir up a couple ounces of paint.  I always chuckle, when I use more paint wiping the stirrer than what I put on the model.   Rick

Hi A.S.  I use Tamiya paint stirrers - metal and each end has a different shape - one end for stirring, another for dripping in paint, by drops.

Regards,

Bill

I use the Tamiya Paint stirrer and got the Wave Paint-stirrer(same as the badger).

Both system work well and I have had no problems or splatter.

I've tried the Dremel approach.  It works.  I have a little home made battery powered stirrer.  It works too.  But, I find that a small screwdriver with a long blade is just about as fast and effective.  Maybe having shaky hands helps. 

Don

What about the bubbles when mixing acrylics? Aren´t they a problem when painting with a brush?

A.S.

Some words of caution about using a Dremel tool to mix flammable paint - Dremel tools use a brush driven armature and arcing/sparking occurs where they come in contact. Dremel's User Manual states, "Do not operate power tools in explosive atmospheres, such as in the presence of flammable liquids, gases or dust. Power tools create sparks which may ignite the dust or fumes." This would not apply to water-based paint.

Badger's paint mixer is my choice to mix solvent-based paint.

Air bubbles are not a problem, a non issue.

I had used a dremel tool with a toothpick to mix paint before and man was it messy (that idea with the toilet roll would work though) and it did leave a lot of bubbles. But that dremel tool didn't have a slow RPM.

I had been using the old hand method for the longest time but I'm going to break down and buy a paint mixer. Too many times I have spend 5 minutes stirring paint only to find a glob still on the end of the stick.

I finally got the paint mixer in the picture above (badger) and it works better then I would have thought.

My biggest problem before the mixer was bubbles forming as I brushed on the paint but as it turns out I never did have the paint mixed up enough. After using the mixer the paint was more consistent, flowed better and no more bubbles when brushed on.

30 seconds Vs 5 minutes of stirring also helps.

I love my electric paint stirrer, was skeptical at first, but once I got it, I never looked back.  Got it 'free' as a gift from Micromark for ordering some dollar amount in a promotion a few years back.