Will this be the absolutely silliest "Hint & Kinks" contribution that has ever been posted?

Lately it seems I have been doing a lot of cosmetics on radios. The spray cans usually
designate they be shaken for 1 or 2 minutes. While this isn't a big deal it does get
tedious for multiple sprays or when breaking for lunch and having to re-do the process.

I have long admired those paint can shakers at the hardware store and some day I will
own one for the gallon sized paint cans. However for right now I am just happy to rid myself
of the 1 to 2 minute chore every time I am trying to turn a radio hag into a radio starlet.

Actually this came to me while I was cutting a template on my jig saw for an ornate wooden speaker grill last weekend. I noticed the arm of the jig saw moves up and down and I thought if there was a way to harness that movement I might be able to get those balls clacking inside of paint cans and save me the effort. So here's what I did:

Hose clamp...L-bracket...a piece of scrap metal from a shelving bracket and a couple of bolts, nuts and washers. I just tighten the two nuts to clamp the thing onto the end of my jigsaw arm, strap in the paint can in and let 'er fly.

Hopefully I (or one of the ARF community) will refine my very rough design in the future and make it even better. But it works nicely and with my jigsaw's speed control I can control the oscillation
from very slow to very fast. Mid-range does sufficiently to really keep that internal ball clacking. It might be my imagination but it seems like I am getting better spray coverage now that I am super-shaking the paint first. I must admit that in the past I sometimes would shake the paint can for ten or fifteen seconds and deem it "close enough" to the two-minute manufacturer's recommendation.

Looks like a good solution.

- Leigh

Not silly at all, especially as arthritis enters the picture.

I may rig up something in this vein to use in my SawsAll-type saw using a worn out blade as a basis.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Good idea !!

On the subject of paint shakers ...

Many years ago a couple of my wife's uncles were showing me their butter churn, basically a cream can with a wooden paddle on a dowel thru a hole in a wooden plug that closed up the can. They'd put milk in the can on Friday night and while they watched whatever sports was on TV they take turns churning up some butter.

I bought a new paint can, washed it, filled it 3/4 with milk from their farm and stuck it in the paint shaker at work ..... it worked a treat. They weren't impressed

Ingenious !

I wonder if this might work on a regular hand held jig saw?
It looks like very good idea, because everytime I use toned lacquer I have to take it to the paint store
and have them shake it up.
Shaking toned lacquer by hand just won't mix it properly.
Dan in Calgary

I found this MixKwik a year ago or so and use it with my battery operated reciprocating saw. Works great! No, I have no affiliation with the company.

Here's a link to the manufacturer (also available in some stores):

http://mixkwik.com/

Brilliant ideas! May have to rig something up like this myself!

Geoff

Looks like somebody beat me to the punch!

And here I thought I had an original idea for a change.

Since telegrapher posted his idea, it got me to thinking. so I took my orbital sander and strapped a can to the bottom of the sander[with the sandpaper on].
I used zip ties and put it on tight. .
After about 2 minutes of shaking,I used the toner and it worked fine.
Without some thing like this I had to travel 5 miles to the paint store and get them to shake up the cans.
It is great to be on this forum as so many ideas crop up.
Dan in Calgary

Jig Saw, Sawzall, Orbital sander, you guys are clickin'...Great innovation!

I was just about to post on a hand-held jig-saw option! Will try it...
Cheers,
Roger

Unless the scroll saw arms are roller/ball bearing mounted I wouldn't go that route. Many of them use the simple sleeve bearings and those round out too quickly from the extra mass they are subjected to, versus that of the saw's parallel arms and a tiny blade. I'm not subjecting my high-end scroll saw to a task it wasn't designed to do - just my personal take on it.

Put a soda pop in it, then hand to somebody unsuspecting. (evil laugh)

I,m going to try this on my jig saw.Mine is variable speed,and on the lowest speed.I don't think it would be particularly hard on the bearings.I just found out today how important it is to shake the can properly.Up till now I usually shook the can maybe 10 or 15 seconds.Today I read the instructions and shook a full 1 to 2 minutes.The job turned out better than ever before.