I finally broke down and purchased a paint shaker. I picked Gaahleri’s Vortex paint shaker. It can fit a variety of different size bottles. It has a timer that you set for how long to shake the paint.
4 Likes
Does it have a setting for Martinis? Asking for a slightly tipsy friend…
4 Likes
I’ve actually been looking at these.
I already have a powered paint shaker that I really like, and it works very well, but like everything it has a few limitations.
So once you’ve had a chance to really use the Gaahleri for a while, I’d be very interested to hear what you think of it — particularly what it does well, what it doesn’t, and whether there are certain bottle sizes or types of paint where it really shines.
Please report back after you’ve put it through its paces. You may end up costing me money. 
1 Like
I tried it with my Vallejo paint bottle, it worked fantastic. It has different speed settings, it’s on a timer. So far so good.
I’ve had mine for a month or so. I’ve only tested it a few times as I’ve got other projects ahead of model building but can say it seems to mix much faster than my Intllab vortex mixer. Whether that is due to it being more consistent than trying to find the sweet spot on the Intllab I can’t say but the ability to set and forget while doing something else is priceless. It’s also quieter and excites things on the workbench less than the Intllab. No more buzzing and stuff falling on the floor 
I printed a thing that makes the Intllab work in a similar fashion but it was very fiddly with three rubber bands to keep track of. I also printed a mixer that oscillated the bottles in an elliptical motion, it never really worked all that well. was noisy and often fell apart but it looked really cool.
I’ve tried Gaahleri’s paints, really old Testor’s and Tamiya acrylics. All have fit well and have mixed fairly quickly but some of the Testor’s needed a second and even third go to get fully mixed. At 30+ years old, I can’t blame them.
1 Like
What brand of paint do you use, i use Tamiya, Vallejo, MCW paint. I have yet to try Gaahleri paint.
I’m a huge fan of the Gaahleri/Kaleido Primers and Clear Varnishes. I also just ordered their metallic and transparent sets.
I worked Gaahleri’s Christmas sale and have every color that was available at the time since I wanted to move away from enamels. I have not ordered any of the new colors, I only build cars and trucks and the original colors have me covered but do kind of like that the new line is brushable. The original air brush paint version doesn’t brush well at all.
For entertainment purposes, I just tested a Tamiya 100 ml spray can. It fit and the ball rattled but I’ve no idea if it was actually mixing the paint. I also tested Hobby Lobby’s cheap air brush paint and it also fit fine.
The shaker has tiny suction cups for feet. They don’t stick to my cutting mat nor the melamine top of my workbench. I don’t remember if I played with it to keep it from drifting across the bench. I do have a 6x6 tile around somewhere I could stick it to and a glass shelf I use with a hot knife to cut webbing that would work very well.