Pneumatic Paint Shaker

[Doug S]

For a year, I've had a paint shaker new in a box that I bought off of ebay.  Today I finally mounted it to a table I built.  Well to make a long story short, I took a gallon bucket that was 3/4 full of Legacy white ink and let the shaker do it's work for about 10 minutes.  This may be hard to believe but you could almost pour it out of the bucket afterwards.  It was super creamy.  The side of the bucket was luke warm due to the friction I suppose. 

I was a little skeptical when a buddy of mine told me that he uses a shaker to loosen up his white plastisol but I thought I would give it a try.  I'm sure it didn't work as well as an official ink mixer but for a little over $100 it done a fantastic job.  I just thought I would share.

[screenxpress]

Interesting.  I had seen posts suggesting this before and having used one for paint, which is liquid y to start, sure didn't think it would work for ink which generally is thick and congealed to start.

[jvieira]

Shirtshackandmore, what is the purpose of shaking the ink? Is it just to make it more liquid or would it work as a mixer?

Can you post a link to the item you bought? We've been looking at this for a while but ink mixers are too expensive

[starchild]

Or you can just "warm" the pallets/inks to bring it to it's relative viscosity..  Shaking really distributes the resin and pigments evenly into the carrier base-plastisol. If you have to shake already mixed ink to accomplish distribution it means the ink is aging.

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[Doug S]

Here is a link to the exact paint shaker I bought. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-AIR-PNEUMATIC-PAINT-SHAKER-MIXER-FOR-AUTO-SHOP-L-K-/391252714250?hash=item5b187aa30a

It just smoothed the ink and really loosened it up.  It was out of a brand new bucket of Legacy white with no previous stirring.  I was just experimenting to see what it would do.  I really won't need it too much in the summer but I can sure see using it more in the winter.  It just blew my mind at how it worked.   I agree starchild about warming the pallets but when it really gets cold in the shop with no climate control, this will really speed things up.

[jsheridan]

I had M&R's ink shaker years ago. Looked just like that large 5 gallon mixer you see at home depot, only it has an oscillatory movement, rather than just shake, it turned it in the bucket.

We took a 5 gallon bucket of HD clear gel, the stuff that is so thick you can barely stick a blade into it, let alone try and scoop the stuff out. It was the ink we used when printing the Faux leather patch with the britte base inks, blister base and whatnot..

so anyway.. we put that 5'er in the shaker, 12 minutes later is was pourable liquid 

Same with buckets of white, 5-10 mins and it would pour out.

[mk162]

how long does it stay in the pourable state?  I could see this being both great and really annoying.

[kingscreen]

Harbor Freight has them on sale right now.  http://www.harborfreight.com/pneumatic-paint-shaker-94605.html

[jvieira]

This is cool but doesn't seem like it mixes ink, only softens it

[Frog]

This is cool but doesn't seem like it mixes ink, only softens it

If this is the case, it would still  be a snap to now stir the ink in this softer state, rather than dealing with a bucket of putty.

[tonypep]

It can be used for mixing colors. Zelko has one up at JSR

[BorisB]

This is cool but doesn't seem like it mixes ink, only softens it

If this is the case, it would still  be a snap to now stir the ink in this softer state, rather than dealing with a bucket of putty.

Didn't we have a long thread on ink shakers/mixers? It turned out regular paint shakers/mixers don't work.  You need expensive one from M&R. Or from some other producer, costing also several thousand $.

[jsheridan]

yes, the shaker just 'shakes' back and forth, perfect for a liquid like paint.

The M&R unit oscillates in a circular motion to make the ink rotate inside the container for a uniform mix.

Last I heard they don't make it anymore as the cost was to high for the basic user.

[Frog]

This is cool but doesn't seem like it mixes ink, only softens it

If this is the case, it would still  be a snap to now stir the ink in this softer state, rather than dealing with a bucket of putty.

Didn't we have a long thread on ink shakers/mixers? It turned out regular paint shakers/mixers don't work.  You need expensive one from M&R. Or from some other producer, costing also several thousand $.

That's what makes ShirtShack's post and this thread interesting. Indeed, the conventional paint "shakers" have generally been eschewed in favor of stirrers, usually turntables with a fixed blade. (and of course, the more modest stirring attachments on electric drills)

[starchild]

how long does it stay in the pourable state?  I could see this being both great and really annoying.

The ink's pourable state is it's relative viscosity. This state is the ink going from just being stagnant at room temperature to the base (the liquid part of the ink) going beyond room temperature and heating the pigments and resin (the solid part of the ink) causing them to begin the fluxing stage, which cause them to move around and that is what creates it's pourable-ness. So the ink will stay pourable as long as it's above room temp like 100 degrees. Beyond that flux occur and the ink goes into it's gel stage.

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