What to use to measure paint and thinner

[vintagestang]

For airbrushing. I have heard of syringes but won't laquer thinner melt or cloud the plastic?

[Longbox55]

I use dose cups for measuring and mixing paint. For thinner, I have used syringes, which work very well. Never had an issue with the plastic clouding, even with laquer thinner. I did have problems with the rubber on the plunger gumming up, though. Anymore, I tend to use the pipettes that Testors sells. You can get them pretty cheap, last time I got some, they were in a set that had 6 1/2 ounce jars w/ lids.

[Steve Keck]

glass eye droppers

[Erik Smith]

I use pipettes. Google them online and buy them in bulk - they are considerably cheaper and you will get so many you won't feel bad every time you are too lazy to rinse it out.

[Mike Kucaba]

Pipettes are the way to go! Get them in bulk like the others said.I think I've even seen ones as large as 1/2 oz. You can also use empty paint jars like the Testors ones. They have 1/4 oz. 1/2 oz. and 1 1/2 oz size. I never or rarely toss a jar,they go in my super clean bucket to get the residue out.

[tabsscale1]

I use the pipettes and the dose cups that way if the paint says 4 to 1 mixing ratio I can put 1/4 once of the thinner in one dose cup and then 1 once in the other. the pipettes are just to transfer the 2 componets out of the can or bottle they are stored in. Most of the time though I just mix the paint to a milk consistency.

[vintagestang]

Thanks. I never would have thought of dose cups.

[Tonioseven]

Like the others, I use the plastic pipettes; lacquer thinner doesn't cloud the plastic ones.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Tonioseven

[MikeMc]

I use graduated epoxy cups from great plains...

I get them thru Tower for 3.00 for 50...they are lacquer proof

[CadillacPat]

Look in your local Yellow Pages for Medicinal Supply Stores.

You can purchase 1oz. graduated medicine cups usually $4 for 100.

I buy mine online by the 5000 lot for about 1/2 cent each.

I also purchased a 10,000 lot of graduated Pipettes but since the Medicine Cups are so easy to read I rarely use the Pipettes except for adding small amounts of prepared paint directly into the AirBrush cup.

I've sold most of my Pipettes to other Customizers online.

Both Pipettes and Graduated Medicine Cups are made from LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene), the soft squeezable type plastic you find in Ketchup Bottles or Barbecue Sauce Bottles.

These type plastic bottles are great for storing premixed paint or paint you have removed from aerosol cans.

This LDPE will not react to Petroleum products as does HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) similar to Styrene.

CadillacPat

[DavidChampagne]

I use and old empty paint bottle of the same size. I fill it up with thinner and use that amount to rinse out the actual paint bottle.

I get as much paint out as possible, use half the thinner to get the residue out then the other half to finnish it of.

If you going one to one or two to one, whatever..seems very accurate to me.

Hope this lo-tec method helps.

[CadillacPat]

The absolute cheapest way to go,

Empty 35 millimeter film cans.

Before cameras went digital I would go around to Film Processing Shops and ask for their discarded film cannisters.

CadillacPat

[Dr. Cranky]

You can get small paint measuring cups from EZ-MIX, and they have the right mixing ratios . . . paper or plastic depending on what you are mixing. Cheap stirring sticks and some mesh screeners and I'm good to go.

[Dr. Cranky]

I'v also made a few videos that I hope will be useful for those interested in mixing paints . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTmTuWw3H4o:

[vintagestang]

Good video Dr. Cranky.

[Dr. Cranky]

Thanks, Patrick. Mixing paint should not be stressful.

[Lownslow]

pipettes

[vintagestang]

I have had an airbrush for about a year but it was a cheap one. I will eventually get around to using it