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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