Palm Sander makes great Paint Mixer

[pauld]

62 Euro, that is fucking outrageous for a little plastic box with some gears and a battery motor!

That's kind of what I was saying.  I was about to spend £45 on something I wasn't sure would work while something I had in front of me works great.  For free!

It may not be elegant but the results are pleasing.

[Mr.J]

Mine was about £22 with postage from China. I was pleasantly surprised to find they’d included a UK power adapter too which was unexpected. I’m guna keep going with it and see how I get on.

[snitcythedog]

62 Euro, that is fucking outrageous for a little plastic box with some gears and a battery motor!

The nail polish ones are cheaper and are the exact same things. 

[Hammers]

Mine was about £22 with postage from China. I was pleasantly surprised to find they’d included a UK power adapter too which was unexpected. I’m guna keep going with it and see how I get on.

Good man. Gotta linky?

[Mr.J]

Yeh the vortex one on the last page.
You have to hold the paint tho so might not be what you are after.

[AndrewBeasley]

I pressed the order button for a U.K. supplied one a week or so ago (unnamed / 'white box' type) and have used it on four bottles of paint with mixed results:


Army Painter white - currently like sludge but slight improvement
Army Painter red - normally clear liquid comes out first but now good coverage
Vallejo blue (no idea the actual number) - similar to the red but now great coverage
Flesh (AP I think) - better but it's taken a good three to four minutes to see any improvement


All bottles have agitator balls in them (a mix of rusty eBay and decent Army Painter ones).  Oddly the rust does not seem to bother the paint after a year or so (not proud on that saving) and two balls do not seem any better than one.


My paints are anything from six months to four years old and so far it's a reasonable win for me.  Not the panacea YouTube shows but it will cover its cost over buying / trying paints.


Biggest drawback was the cheap 'euro' adapter and two pin mains block.  Risked it once while I was next to it (and excited to try it) then dug up a decent 12V 3Amp adapter from my 'spares'.  I see the eBay link now states EU adapter :-)

[Johnny Boy]

Has anyone tried any of the higher priced  vortex mixers that you see on Amazon for £99 and upwards? Although you still need to hold the bottle perhaps more expense = more speed and better results? Just wondering

[Andrew_McGuire]

Artis Opus makes one specifically for model paint. I read a review of it a year or two ago but don’t remember the details. I think the link was in the Fauxhammer newsletter, but it shouldn’t be difficult to find.

[Spinal Tap]

Can confirm that the palm sander works for me as I tried it yesterday whilst painting figures, but it's use has raised some issues:

Army painter paints with less than half a bottle left now seem to have too much pigment in and need more thinning, consequently I used too thick a paint initially then once thinned to go on smoothly they are very translucent.

I put this down to me using them poorly shaken for a while leaving less medium than there should be, and an excess of pigments that have lived in the bottom of the bottle undisturbed for a year or two.

[dampfpanzerwagon]

"I use a jigsaw with a taped blade and bottles held on with a spring clamp.
Works great!"

I also use a jigsaw with a screw clamp attachment which does a great job of mixing up mi paints - even Army Painter acrylics.

Tony

[Mr.J]

Just an update, mine has seen limited use since I bought it. It has improved the consistency of some of my paints, tho know to the level that I had hoped. However the main lip has already started to deform. With that in mind I am requesting a refund from Amazon.

[fusilierdan]

Pauld, thanks for the suggestion. I tried three local Beauty supply stores and couldn't fins a mixer. But I didn't need to I had a new belt sander in the box right next to my paint table. 

[DS615]

I hold the paint bottle on the back knob of my scroll saw.  It bounces, so it has the same result.  Works on acrylics and spray paint cans.

I'll have the try the sander, that sounds like another promising idea.