How to keep Paint Fresh?

They say Coleman’s mustard made their fortune from the mustard people throw away, I suspect the manufacturers of paint have made a fortune from the paint left over from a job that ends up never getting used. I have a bin full of paint tins with varying amount of paint after clearing my mothers property, try finding somewhere to dispose of them responsibly.

Mike

Chas,

Great explanation, thanks!

Will white spirit be suitable? Can one buy methyl whatever?

Cheers, Martin

Chas, it has been my practice to leave the top off oil based paint to allow a deliberate skin to form before replacing the lid. The skin is cut out with a knife before next use. I also wipe the mouth and lid clean to avoid cured paint dropping in when the lid is next removed. This is relatively non messy, and keeps the paint uncontaminated with bits. What do you think?

This seems to me to be the best solution to the problem, unless decanting into smaller, fully filled, sealed containers. I invert the can, to seal the lid (to prevent even more oxygen gaseous exchange taking place) and deal with the skin at the next opening.

John Halfpenny - your technique would obviously work but I'm not sure why you would not put the lid on after using the paint and see if the contents skin over, rather than deliberately allowing skin to form.

NDY - Inverting the can briefly to let paint seal the lid joint is good practice. I should have mentioned this in the first place

Martin King - The solvent used needs to be the same as the solvent used in the paint formula e.g. use the thinners recommended for that product. Air-dry enamels are very likely to be compatible with white spirits but spraying "enamels" will need toluene or just as good is xylene. The recommended thinners for spraying enamels will be compatible with air-dry paints but you need to be cautious to use as little as possible, or you will cut the viscosity to that of water.

In this day and age you might find it difficult to buy Methy Ethyl Ketoxime but then again there are some pretty dangerous chemicals sold on ebay that should never be allowed to get into the hands of unqualified people

So here's a daft idea, make a polystyrene float to support a tea light above the paint, light it and put the lid on. Tea light consumes all the oxygen, then goes out.

Our local council tip (recycling centre) will accept up to five litres of paint.

I can’t help with suggestions for storing paint though!

Edited By V8Eng on 30/01/2022 13:55:11