Archive for the 'Paint' Category

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Finds: An Inexpensive Paint Respirator

Friday, February 23rd, 2007
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Another tip to the casual rattle-canner: pick up a decent respirator.  Yeah, you can probably “get away” with filling your lungs with chemicals and your nose with paint a few times, but why take a few years off your life when you can pick up the a bare minimum decent respirator for under $30?

We picked up the AO Safety model pictured above at Lowe’s for $29, though they list it online for $28.  Better yet, we found it on Amazon for $25.  It’s not the finest available, but it’s quite reasonable.  We didn’t have any trouble adjusting it for a good fit, and it made a big difference in how we felt after painting for a few hours.

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Posted in Safety, Accessories, Paint, AO Safety | 11 Comments »

Finds: Steck’s Portable Paint Bench

Friday, February 23rd, 2007
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We’ve been doing some serious rattle-canning in the TM shop this week, and we’ve learned a couple of things: 1) Any kind of painting takes a tremendous amount of patience, and 2) all the same tools the pros use work great for rattle-can work as well.

Don’t doubt the fact that the guys at the paint supply shop will definitely laugh at you when you come in.  They’ll give you s#!&, lie to you about the gear they sell, and generally treat you like the total poser you are.  But they do have tools that’ll make the difference for you, and you may need to deal with ‘em to get what you need.

Thankfully you can mail-order some of the stuff you need, like this portable bench from Steck.  One of the first things you’ll discover when you start trying to do more than just make something roughly a different color with paint is that you need to be able to comfortably get at all areas of the part you’re working on.  And seeing how anything you use to prop it up will get completely and totally covered in paint, you really need something designed for the task.

This bench folds up to get out of the way, and when unfolded stands 45″ tall with 38″ between its foam-padded rails.  Using the two chains you can adjust it slightly for height, and Steck claims it’ll hold up to 500 pounds — probably more than you’ll need.

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Posted in Paint, Steck | 2 Comments »

Hot or Not? Cheap Paint Sprayers

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

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I fully realize that no reasonably-priced paint sprayer is going to give you the same kind of finish you can achieve with careful brushing, but what about a guy who just wants to stain a fence or two?  Would it be worth buying a cheap sprayer to save one’s arms?

Black & Decker’s “Plus Paint Sprayer” (pictured) sells for $80 at Sears right now (and the same from Amazon). B&D claims a “1 gallon in 15 minutes” flow rate, and it ships with a couple of tips and two “replacement atomizer valves.”

I’ve seen a number of other electric sprayers in this price range, too, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to buy one because I’m concerned that they might not make it through the job — or that it might not do the job at all.

So what do you Toolmongers think?  Have you used any of these less expensive models?  If so, how’d they work?  Are there others you’d recommend, either in this price range — or higher priced models that we should consider as an investment?

Let us know in comments.

Plus Paint Sprayer [Black & Decker]
Street Pricing [Froogle]
Buy It Now from Amazon [What’s this?]

Posted in Power Tools, Paint, Hot or Not | 15 Comments »

Doh! Never Leave Kids Unattended With a Gallon of Paint

Monday, January 15th, 2007

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I came across this on Digg this morning.  Apparently no one owned up to actually being related parentally to the kids in the photo, though that’s probably no surprise.

Just a thought: What if it’s not their living room?

Related:

Posted in Doh!, Paint | 1 Comment »

Reader Find: Lacquer-Stik

Sunday, December 24th, 2006
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Rick (who was concerned about the difference in visibility between engraved vs. laser-etched sockets) writes: “A buddy of mine who besides being pretty handy, etc. is also into fire arms mentioned this product as something that gun collectors often use to highlight engraved logos and other writing on their guns.  He also mentioned that a standard crayola crayon would work as well, but it seems to me that this might just last a bit longer since it was expressly designed for this task.  It’s available in White, Yellow, Red, Black, and Gold.”

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Posted in Hand Tools, Paint | 1 Comment »

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