Pardon my stupity, but when mixing paint, when one says, “one part paint, to so many parts thinner”, how is the one part, or two or three etc etc, measured? with a pippett? or what. and do you mark a line on the pippett or dropper your using to know where to fill it up to with the paint or thinner?
Thanks everyone!!
I use eye droppers from the drug store and just eyeball it.
Fill up the eyedropper to the same point each time with paint and then use another eye dropper for the thinner. It doesn’t have to be perfectly the same each time as long as it is close. [;)]
Mike
i don’t really measure, I just dump it in and then adjust the other for what I did with the first one, so far so good.
i take a pippet and count the drops as i gently squeeze. if im mixing a whole 1/2 once bottle or so, i take a tape measure and permanant marker and measure the hieght of the container to the point of where the container begins to get narrower. i then make tick marks on the side of the container according to the ratio i want. if you want 2 parts paint and 1 part thinner divide the hgt of the jar by three and make your tick marks. after a few times with the same container and ratio, just do like the dude above and just eye ball it.
Your question is exactly how I measure the paint for the ratios. I use glass eyedroppers instead of plastic pipetts, mark the amout of paint on the eye dropper with a marker…etc. You’ve already got the idea, give it a shot. To clean my glass eye droppers I simply swish them in mineral spirits or laquer thinner and your done.
For small amounts pippette and mix in a small metal bowl.
For large amounts I get the Spare bottles from Tamiya/Gunze that have the measurement markers on the side, this way I can store the paint for a long time. Just need to restir the paint and am ready to go.
For even larger amounts I use plastic measruing cups that are used to measure liquids for casting/molding.
Same here Greg, but I also remove the rubber bulb off the end and run a Q-tip down the eyedropper to clean the paint in there and sometimes I find it necessary to run a pipe cleaner soaked in thinner down through the opening to get that clean.
Mike
I use measuring spoons (liberated from the kitchen; my wife hasn’t missed them). Some are as small as 1/8 teaspoon. Metal ones are good if you can find them; they clean up with Dio-Sol. A strong thinner might melt/distort plastic ones.
Paint mixing ratios are relative proportions. Therefore, if you are mixing 2 parts reducer to 1 part paint, then your parts must be consistent. In other words 2 drops reducer to 1 drop paint, or 2 cups reducer to 1 cup paint, etc. The other guys have it right too. Just remember that the proportions must always be consistent. BT