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Electric paint stirrer/mixer/spot sander for around £3.00


TonyTiger66

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Hello fellow modellers,

I'm not sure if this little tip will be of use to anyone, but it's helped me, so I hope it's useful to someone else.

 

This is going to be quite a 'Blue Peter' style 'do it yourself' on how to make an electric paint stirrer and an electric spot sander.

 

Regarding the concept of the modeller's electric paint stirrer/mixer. These battery operated devices are available from a number of manufacturers at various prices. They aren't too expensive. There's a Badger one that I see on sale online for around $9 US plus postage (around GBP £7.00 plus postage).

 

've also seen a Trumpeter one here in my current abode in Australia for AUD $16 plus postage (around GBP 9.85).

 

I have neither, but both get quite favourable reviews

 

I'm sure the auction sites have copies for very low prices. My experience of such items is not so much 'buy cheap, buy twice' as 'why do they bother to manufacture this, when with just a little more effort, it would have worked?'. Often a case of 'buy cheap, be astonished at how useless it is, throw it in the bin, despair'. Of course, there is probably the odd decent one out there.

.

I've been away from work for some time, mainly due to long term illness, I have to watch the pennies. I just don't have as many as I used to :sad:. I try to make my own tools and recycle household items where I can, both to save a little money and for the fun of trying.

 

Around 18 months ago, I had been faffing with a 1/72 model aircraft that needed filler sanding away in a very awkward spot. A literal spot; I believe it was the FROG/NOVO/Lots of Eastern European re-pops by various companies Fairey Barracuda.

 

A difficult area at the lower wing root, where a bulging observer's window is in the way (and can be easily scratched), a seam needs smoothing and the undercarriage wells are a little unusual too.

 

I can't show you photographs due to Photomuppet; it still won't let me download some albums. Nevertheless, I think you'll get the idea, somewhere tricky to get into that needs some local sanding.

 

I had been given a rather bizarre device by my stepdaughter as a present; an electric eraser.

 

Yes, as we would call it in the UK, an electric rubber. I'm glad I'm writing this on Britmodeller as I realise the concept of an 'electric rubber' would raise eyebrows in the USA.

 

These electric erasers (let's stay on safe ground) are quite cheap and normally include around 10 eraser 'tips'. Enough for a lifetime's rubbing for me :smile:.

 

Here is an example, there are even cheaper (very breakable) ones available:

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/272343663998 

 

Make sure to get one with a metal receptacle for the individual replacement rubber tips. The ones with plastic receptacles aren't strong enough for our purposes.

 

Here's what you're looking for:

 

IMG_3324.jpg

 

I was living in Brisbane at the time and being English, wasn't faring too well with the heat and humidity. My very considerate stepdaughter  had splashed out and paid the extra 30 cents (around 18 pence), for an 'electric fan' attachment, a little like this:

 

IMG_3322.jpg

 

It worked a treat. Her reckless generosity had paid dividends .

 

I also realised that the whole thing bore more than a passing resemblance to the Fairey Barracuda I was actually building :whistle: 

 

There are rather elite versions of the electric eraser available, should you wish for some high quality imperious rubbing. Nevertheless, I'm very happy with my proletarian 'Shanghaii surprise with pink twirly fan' :thumbsup2: .

 

One day I had the notion of using the rubber to polish scratches out of the Fairey Barracuda observer window, with a bare electric rubber and a little toothpaste. It worked.

 

I then thought;

"Why not put wet and dry paper of various grades on a few different eraser heads?" :hmmm:

 

So I did, using everyday cheap generic  CA adhesive. I used a school type hole punch to punch the little disks of various grades out of cheap wet and dry sheets from my local 'Dollartree' (like 'Poundland'). Six  sheets of varyting grits for AUD $1 (around 10p a sheet).. If you have a tap and die set to punch them out, even better. You'll get hundreds per sheet.

 

Unfortunately at this time, once again I can't show the photographs. I will when I can get them from Photomuppet.

 

I shared this tip with @CedB, there are some photographs of his electric eraser/sander on some of his builds. Ced, if you know where they are and have time, please feel free to share your photographs or links to them in your threads, from here :thanks: .

 

Righto, on to the paint stirrer. I have recently tried a few different brands of paint; I used to use almost exclusively Revell and Humbrol enamels; as a child; Airfix, Gloy and Humbrol enamels.

 

Recenty I have tried Tamiya, Gunze, Hataka, Lifecolor, Agama, Vallejo, AK, MiG Revell and Humbrol (acrylicand Italeri. In many cases, acrylic paints.

 

Lifecolor, Humbrol acrylic and Revell acrylic have quite wide bottle necks compared to some of the other 'dropper' types. I found that if these were 'shaken and not stirred' they could go frothy; not good for brush painting (something for which the Lifecolor is otherwise superbly suited).

 

Also, if shaken, a skin may form on top of them during storage. Careful stirring avoids this. It can even happen to Agama to a lesser extent. The latter is a mid size neck and tricky to stir.

 

The answer? One of the new fanged electric paint stirrers/mixers. This became an issue recently when I was trying to get a pit of Humbrol rail acrylic 'Garter Blue' to cooperate in some way with my airbrush.

 

I tried mixing many lotions and potions with it. It had also been a solid lump to start with; brand new from my local supplier.

 

I was on a nine hour modelling roll and wanted to keep going. I have arthritis  and tendinitis in my hands and lots of stirring and/or sanding leads to unpleasant pain and inflammation. Time to try to make my own electric stirrer/mixer.

 

I have a couple of Tamiya model paint stirrers, like this;

 

IMG_3325.jpg

 

No extra expense there; I already had them, they're a pretty important tool to have in your  collection and very cheap.

 

Could I get them to work with the electric eraser?

 

I'll split up the posts here to try to make it an easy read. More later.

 

Best regards :bye: 

TonyT

 

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Great stuff TT.

I bought mine for £4.99 from Amazon a couple of years ago and it's great for small sanding jobs like ejector marks inside fuselages.

I stick punched circles of Micro-mesh to the erasers with latex glue (Copydex) so they're easily removed and replaced. I keep a few ready with different grades. 

I can't find the Mudder on the web now but similar products are available I'm sure (like this one, even cheaper and still metal!)

 

36571543662_4d9970026b_z.jpg

Electric eraser by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

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