Sealing the lids on paint tins

I remember many many years ago seeing on TV a system of lids for glass jars with a self sealing valve on top and a sort of hand operated vacuum pump. The idea being you removed any air after putting back on the lid. Rather like canning works, but without the heat.

It was short term storage of edible products - and may well have been before most had 'fridges. But like many such things on TV, never saw it again.

I still have one. Uses the same pump and same design of valve as vac-u-vin.

Some still available. Just pop "vacuvin storage" into the search engine of your choice. Bit pricey for paint though and possibly not suitable for oil based paints 'cos of the effects of "the vapours".

I simply pour gently, a small amount of turps on the paint, this in my experience stops it skimming and is easily stirred in before the next use. Another thing I have found useful is if I use a paint brush then need to continue the job the next day wiping any excess paint off then firmly wrapping the paint brush in cling film, keeps the brush usable until the morrow.

Surely the place to put the plastic sheet is lying on top of the paint. this separates it from the air.

Robert

john brook laid this down on his screen :

Once the lid is firmly back on, just turn it upside down. The what ever it is inside will seal the gaps in the lid and prevent any more air entering.

In message , Mrcheerful writes

I've got a few concertina bottles in my darkroom for storing film developer.

Wikipedia says "The permanent gases in gas we exhale are roughly 4% to

Air contains 21% oxygen so exhaled breath contains 19.95% oxygen - that probably makes no difference to the paint's shelf-life, but it does explain why the kiss-of-life works.

Ah - Robin already made this point earlier.

That would be a job to be passed to 'the boy'

Carefully. Although, if I keep a paint long enough for it to skin, the skin is usually so thick that the propblem is how to break it.

Colin Bignell

What's the deal there - I never know what to do for the best when I come across skin on paint. I usually make a judgement on whether it will actually ever stir in, and if not (eg if it's an eighth of an inch of hard dry crust!) I remove it.

What does it do to the quality of the paint itself? Would the underlying paint become more (or less?) concentrated from repeated removal of skin? Or is the skin layer identical in quality/content to the liquid?

David

Cue the "Mr Bean does decorating" clip from Youtube...

David

I find a couple of layers of Tesco bags does the trick equally well actually - at least it's a use for the bloody things.

Embarrassing confession - I employed a pro decorator a few months ago for the first time in my life. I was very intrigued that he had a new Special Box which he stored all his used brushes in; only it wasn't one of those where the bristles sit in turps, ISTR there was some form of chemical vapour in there which prevented the brushes from drying out indefinitely. He said it was the mutt's nuts and he'd pretty well given up on turps and brush cleaner. Can't remember what the stuff was though...

David

You don't need to store them upside down (which as others have pointed out means any skin is under the paint and hard to deal with) simply inverting them once so paint seals the edge of the lid seems to make a difference to me.

Andy

Tesco bags are probably the worst choice for that, especially if they're more than a few weeks old, their bags bio/photo/oxi-degrade very quickly ...

Been mentioned before, I think.

It depends how thick the skin is, if it is thin then usually the oil has not separated and you can just lift the skin off, If it is thick and sat on separated oil then this oil should be stirred back in and then strained to remove the bits of skin, this way you don't lose the integrity of the paint.

Oil paint is not resoluble so you have to remove the skin but sometimes the skin is so thick and hard the paint underneath will need that bit of medium that's still stuck to the base of the skin. Oil paint will become concentrated during use anyway as the solvents or oil evaporate.

You can however add a little boiled Linseed oil if the paint appears far too thick to be satisfactorily usable.

Stephen.

Mineral Naphtha and Linseed oil was what we used to store our paint brushes in, the oil stopped the naphtha from evaporating too quickly, the naphtha will draw out paint completely from the brush stock or bristle base.

Leaving a brush in a turpentine derivative will simply congeal the remainder of paint left in the bristles.

Stephen.

I've never had a skin form in any tin stored upside down. Skin forms because refitted lid rarely seals perfectly and you get slow air exchange, but it does seal much better if you store the tin upside down (and is noticably harder to open;-).

By the way, I noticed on the instructions on a tin it said "do not open with a screwdriver". So what are you supposed to use? I used a screwdriver...