I got one of the Harbor Freight “Refillable Aerosol Cans” to do some stencil work with acrylic paint instead of spray paint cans(my touch-up spray gun just blows the stencils off the board). I mixed the paint to a consistency that I would spray it out of a touch-up gun, put it in the aerosol can and pressurized it, but the paint just came out in a stream, not a mist. I tried different pressures (10-70 psi) and different nozzles that came with the can. I got it because someone on this site said they had used it with success. I was wondering - is there a trick to using it? (really thick or thin paint, buy a different nozzle,optimum pressure, etc?) Maybe my can is defective and not charging to the pressure I am supplying? http://groups.msn.com/thegrasshoppersurfboard/shoebox.msnw
yea… long time ago I tried one of those…I couldn’t get it to work either. toss it in the trash.
Did you try another cap? Are these cans using standard caps? I didn’t know these exist…are the available in the EU somewhere? Want to sell it and send it over?
It came with 4 caps and all gave pretty much the same result - like pissing paint out of a can; no spray/mist action at all. The caps have slightly narrower stems from a normal aerosol cap - I took a cap off a spray paint can and it didn’t quite fit. You can get them for $10 off harborfreight.com but I wouldn’t recomend it right now. http://groups.msn.com/thegrasshoppersurfboard/shoebox.msnw
strange thing. sorry for asking, but did you follow the manual, filling half of the can? Would they keep on selling something that doesn’t work? want to sell yours second hand? [smile]) Sounds like fun to convert an old spraycan into a refillable can. regards Marcus
I was at a car-paint supply shop one time getting custom paint mixed for my '66 bug. They gave me two options for delivery, a quart can or aerosol can. The aerosol can worked great. I forget they shop but I’m sure other shops could set you up with a custom spraycan of your own mixed paint. Good luck.
pressure is the problem. once i had the same problem with an aerograph.
what do you mean? to little pressure? How much pressure do you need to get spray? Ever tried to launch water bottle rockets? I built a launcher out of car ventiles and plumbing tubes…a 1.5l coke bottle can withstand ~10 bar (~150psi)[smile]) these spraycans can hold 90psi…after the color is out it should still be at ~40psi and you can put air in when the pressure gets too low. But 40Psi should still be enough for most colors… I believe you that these bottles (or the caps) are crapy and don’t work… This will be my next project after shaping a tileable minimal. Just take the top of a quality spraycan, weld it to some metal ring and turn a thread inside the ring and make a pressure can. the carventile goes into the ring…then I can use any fluid and any standard cab I want… I have never thought about that since I saw that thread. I am teaching arts and crafts and the kids have used quite some one way cans last year for graffity works like that one I have linked too [smile]) The school wants to be enverimentally friendly and I had a a guilty conscience everytime… Indoors everybody uses kompressor paintguns (which are a bitch to clean) anyways…but not outdoors and believe me, I only work outdoors with spraycans and 20+ children. Thanks for this thread. I have found another refillable bottle where the fuelgas doesn’t come out…but you need a station to refill it with color. http://www.pentisol.fi/refeng.htm the gas is trapped in a bag under the fluid…so you need to load the color with pressure. http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/40625/display/918087
I just tried it tonight with water and it had a mist with the finer nozzles. I need to thin the paint more and try again… It is still not as good as a can of spray paint - maybe it would be if I can get a hold of some better nozzle caps… I will try to post a picture of the spray job soon - it came out really good and it glows in the dark!
one more thing. check at a graffiti store which cap works on your bottle. not all caps work on all bottles. http://shop.puregraffiti.com/ maybe you can find fitting caps I use Montana cans, they just work great. Do you mix the color in the bottle? Is there a mixing ball inside? In ready cans the color and the thiner are not mixed when you buy them…they are filled in the cans sepperatly. I hope everything works out. cheers Marcus http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/40625/display/918087
using a scuba tank is a great trick ,very quiet and compact.i have sprayed many areas in stealth with a scuba tank and a touch-up gun.
I too had no luck with the Harbour Freight deal.I bought a similiar one from Home Depot and it was fine.It may be OK if you have the time to mess with it but its now in my junk tool pile.One good thing is that Harbout Freight is an honest company and will treat you right by refund or credit.
Just a thought here, could you hook up an adapter to a paintball canister? They are refillable, fairly cheap and easy to get, so maybe try changing one of those into what you need? I gotta say that I have no experience with refillable spray paint systems, but I was reading the thread and the idea just popped up. Regards, Red