Straining Paint from the bottle.

[Amra]

Everyone except me probably already does this, but thought I might share just in case! This is a pretty old tip/trick.

Bought some 125micron paint strainers pretty cheap. Like 8-10USD for 100 strainers. Thats enough to make strainers for 200 bottles of paint! I don't have anywhere near that many, so this will be plenty for this project, and many others

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First thing to do is split it open where its glued along the edge, then start peeling the nylon mesh out of the paint strainer. Just start from the corner and peel slowly, if possible from the inside area of the mesh towards the edge of the paper (less residue that way).

Here is the nylon straining part removed. As you can see, there is some paper residue, but wont be much left after the next step, and the part we will actually strain from is right in the open area where no residue was anyways. Best of all, it looks like plenty enough strainer for two bottles of paint!

I found a teflon tape roll was about the perfect size, so I put a peice of paper down and traced a couple circles with a permanent marker, then cut it out with some scissors.

Then, just put the new strainer over the paint, press your cap over, then tighten down per normal.

I like this method a little better than nylon stockings because the mesh can change for stockings depending on how tight you stretch it over, where this one will guarantee a consistent strain every time. Leggings are good enough for most people though, so if you can't get paint strainers, or dont want to spend the money, use them instead.

Thanks!

 

[bex]

haha, i use to do this with the ones it the paint shop.. i also use the tights too (not sure if you call them that in other country's nylon stockings ) i did find that worked great for me. cut to size and secured around the top of the pot with an elastic band as you say.

 

[Malky]

I've always done the same as you've done here, but I just use cut up pieces of nylon panties, far cheaper than those filters, far stretchier too and a lot less waste, I use the leftover over crotch part for robbing banks to pay for paper and paint

 

[musicmacd]

I always forget to strain paint expect when the LPH80 is out, I wilk try this though. Thank you

 

[Squishy]

Just remember by doing this you are concentrating what is left in the bottle and may end up sacrificing the last 1/8th of a bottle, depending on pigment. I was finding that happened in particular with Wicked opaque black. Other colours not so much. With the black I now strain the whole bottle first, and then make sure it is super well shaken before use (so that there is no settling, as then the paint at the top is thinner leaving a concentrated paint which is harder to use behind - for any newbies reading this), rather than the quick shake I might give other colours as I'm quite lazy .

 

[Amra]

I try to stay in the habit of shaking the paint pretty well every single time I go to squeeze some out. Not sure if that will always helps prevent a concentration of pigment from building up, but even if it doesn't I think losing 1/8th the bottle is an acceptable cost to not have the frustration of clumps in my paint! Though, the cheapskate in me wonders if I could take the filter off and add some transparent base or reducer to use up that last 8th.

Hopefully that won't be too much of an issue, I believe Wicked paints are supposed to be sheered to a binder size of around 0.5 micron, and detail paints (which is mostly what I try to use) are supposed to be cut to 0.1 micron.

The reason I am using these strainers instead of nylon panties/stockings/leggings/tights/hosiery is because these should be extremely consistent from one filter to the next as they wont stretch or deform like pantyhose. They should all be approximately 125 micron. I expect pantyhose would be good enough in most cases, I just really really like to eliminate variables!

Besides, these filters only cost me around $10USD for 100 of them, which could make enough filters for 200 bottles of paint; these should last me years! For comparison purposes, a single bottle of paint costs around $7USD! Heck, some people have thousands of dollars invested in airbrushers, compressors, paints, accessories, etc etc. Spending $10USD for quality filters seems like it would be a drop in the bucket for something that will last years and provide consistent results.