Rescuing old paints - help needed.

[SW1]

Thanks to my lads getting hold of a good chunk of my paints and opening all the lids I've got a bunch of old paints including foundation paints I'm trying to rescue. Tried distilled water which works sort of ok and that clear medium GWS produces which works a lot better. It's even rescued almost dry sludge which surprised me.

 

What I'm wanting to know is does anyone know what the medium is and is there's an equivalent I can buy in larger quantities?

 

HELP!!!

[NovemberIX]

I've used Liquitex Flow-Aid to help revive some of my older paints to great effect.

[Gurth]

Windscreen wiper fluid (I got a litre bottle from Halfords, but probably any will do as long as it’s alcohol-based) works well. Add a little, stir it into the paint with a stick, and repeat as necessary.

[Grand Master Belial]

I've been told to try liquid dish soap to stop the sludge. I have not tried it so you might try experimenting on a small piece.

[SW1]

Sounds like I have a few different lines of attack to try. If any work wonders I'll report my findings. ;)

[Subtle Discord]

Distilled water and... Vibration! (more on that in a moment) You can use acrylic thinner if you really want to, but really the bottle has everything it should in it, it's just missing the moisture (Read: water) that has evaporated off. The paint just needs re-hydration and a mechanical action to loosen up the settled pigments. Honestly, I challenge anyone to even notice the difference if you just use tap water; I happen to have distilled for other reasons.

I re-purposed an old hand mixer (the gears had stripped from use) into a vibrator several years back to shake moulds during casting. I was trying to use it to dislodge bubbles in the mould, but the results were hit-and-miss at best. Once it was given up for that job, it quickly became my new paint shaker and forever saved my wrists from the torture of shaking paint. If you don't have an old mixer just go do a discount store and find a cheap one for $5. Trust me, it's worth the small investment.

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/2013%20WIP%20Photos/Paint_Shaker_01.jpg

I opened it up and removed all of the worn out gears, leaving a powerful motor in a housing with a handle. There's a small fan built in to draw air into the housing, and it's a perfect place to attach a weight to imbalance the motor. I used wire to secure to chunks of lead to the fan, and then liberally slathered the wire with super glue. After years of use they've never budged. Once it was closed up I added a bit of cork to the bottom for a bit a pad, and it's ready to shake. Hold the paint bottle tight to the base and the vibrations shake the crap out of the paint. This is a 5-speed mixer, and I never have to take it past 2.

This contraption is great for mixing paint for general use, and for bringing paint back to life once its settled. Add some distilled water, vibrate for a minuted or two, shake by hand for a bit, and check. Repeat until the paint is like new. I've brought paint back that I thought was so far gone that there was no way it could be saved. It takes quite a long shake, but it works. The high frequency that this can achieve literally liquifies stubborn lumps of paint. A life saver for shaking bottles of Liquid Gold, that are really bad for settling.

On a semi-related side note: The Liquitex Flow Aid product mentioned earlier is an amazing product for what it is meant to do, but a very little goes a long way and I would not recommend adding it as a thinner. Not to step on any toes, and everyone is welcome to do what works for them, but I would not use it full strength. Now, diluted to its intended 20-to-1 ratio, that's another story, if that is what was meant. So yeah, Flow Aid is great, get some, but for other reasons.

[JeffTibbetts]

Distilled water and... Vibration! (more on that in a moment) You can use acrylic thinner if you really want to, but really the bottle has everything it should in it, it's just missing the moisture (Read: water) that has evaporated off. The paint just needs re-hydration and a mechanical action to loosen up the settled pigments. Honestly, I challenge anyone to even notice the difference if you just use tap water; I happen to have distilled for other reasons.

 

I re-purposed an old hand mixer (the gears had stripped from use) into a vibrator several years back to shake moulds during casting. I was trying to use it to dislodge bubbles in the mould, but the results were hit-and-miss at best. Once it was given up for that job, it quickly became my new paint shaker and forever saved my wrists from the torture of shaking paint. If you don't have an old mixer just go do a discount store and find a cheap one for $5. Trust me, it's worth the small investment.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/2013%20WIP%20Photos/Paint_Shaker_01.jpg

 

I opened it up and removed all of the worn out gears, leaving a powerful motor in a housing with a handle. There's a small fan built in to draw air into the housing, and it's a perfect place to attach a weight to imbalance the motor. I used wire to secure to chunks of lead to the fan, and then liberally slathered the wire with super glue. After years of use they've never budged. Once it was closed up I added a bit of cork to the bottom for a bit a pad, and it's ready to shake. Hold the paint bottle tight to the base and the vibrations shake the crap out of the paint. This is a 5-speed mixer, and I never have to take it past 2.

 

This contraption is great for mixing paint for general use, and for bringing paint back to life once its settled. Add some distilled water, vibrate for a minuted or two, shake by hand for a bit, and check. Repeat until the paint is like new. I've brought paint back that I thought was so far gone that there was no way it could be saved. It takes quite a long shake, but it works. The high frequency that this can achieve literally liquifies stubborn lumps of paint. A life saver for shaking bottles of Liquid Gold, that are really bad for settling.

 

On a semi-related side note: The Liquitex Flow Aid product mentioned earlier is an amazing product for what it is meant to do, but a very little goes a long way and I would not recommend adding it as a thinner. Not to step on any toes, and everyone is welcome to do what works for them, but I would not use it full strength. Now, diluted to its intended 20-to-1 ratio, that's another story, if that is what was meant. So yeah, Flow Aid is great, get some, but for other reasons. :)

You're a madman. Where do you come up with this stuff? :D

 

I've used Windex very successfully for reviving old paint. Do it all the time, actually. Probably a lot like the windshield washer fluid.

[SW1]

Lol ... I love the how to take apart electrical equipment pics. How much weight is required to knock it off centre?

[SW1]

Right I've done a fair bit of testing out and found foundation paints seem to be restored better with the medium rather than water. I don't know why but that seems to be a fairly consistent situation with several attempts even when close to being dried up.

 

Normal paints (the old ones which are not foundation paints) that are not too far gone do fine with water. Paints that are sludge seem to not do too well with just water. However getting them back to a thick paint with medium and then continuing to mix but with water seems to work quite nicely.

 

I had a total of 57 pots of foundation paints remaining in my collection. Some were just sludge and others still near enough new. All the ones that were full or near enough full got a few drops of the GWS medium and a good mix. The partial pots and sludge ones got mixed back to reasonable consistency then I combined part pots to end up with multiple full pots and a part pot of each colour. So the 57 pots have been reduced to 44 near enough full pots. I've managed to rescue at least a single pot of each colour and ended up with little wastage.

 

I've still got a lot of paints to go through but the ones I was most concerned about are sorted now.

 

Main lesson learned was mix don't shake. No matter how hard you shake there's always stuff on the sides. Just 2 toothpicks held together seem to work nicely as any dried stuff tends to get caught between them and with a bit of practice you can remove most if not all the dry stuff from a pot without ending up with dried flakes in the paint which would just ruin it. :D