Using Paint Stirrer with Drill in High Gear

Chips O'Toole

Chips O'Toole

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Yesterday I used a tool for stirring paint. It's like a mixer beater you insert in a drill. I used it with the drill in low gear, and it was really controllable. I thought I might as well switch to high and get the job done.

Half of the contents jumped instantly out of the can. Some went on my chest. Some in my hair. Some on my shoes. A lot went on the floor.

There was absolutely no way to control it.

Don't do what I did.

In case anyone is interested, turpentine is what you use to clean Kilz 2 off things. I tried a bunch of solvents right after the accident. Don't waste your time with soapy water, regardless of what the label says.
 
Sorry to hear of your mishap. I can't help but laugh, however, because I know it could well have been me. Killz is lousy to get off. Thanks for the turpentine tip.

I've always used a paint stick for the 1 gallon cans and under. It takes a while but it's relatively "safe". Never liked the idea of cleaning the paint mixer impeller, a stick is a few wipes and you are done. Worst case you wrap the stick in newspaper and toss it.
 
I can relate, paint stirring attachment & drill but not mixing paint. Does you drill not have a variable speed trigger? At work we use a Dewalt corded drill, single speed/no geabox but variable trigger so you can control not making a mess (that is if you are paying attention).

We needed another one so the boss bought a cheap corded drill from HF. Don't matter to me except the one he bought was a low model hammer drill with no variable speed trigger. Eventually I went back & found a regular corded drill w/ variable speed trigger for $15. Can really tell it's cheap but the thing works well for mixing & that's all that mattered. The paint stirring attachments were from HF too.
 
You can use high speed if your mixer has a screw like beater, just make sure you are beating it down into the can, and not up.
I use mine quite often for all sorts of things.

Chips o Toole got tooled by the mixer... ;)
 
My dad was a high school shop teacher. In 30 years in the shop, he had two students end up with minor injuries and one teacher. He wasn't involved with the teacher's injury, just the aftermath.

The teacher was mixing polyester resin for a fiberglass project. He was using a metal coffee can and a mixer on a drill press. He'd already done a mix and pour, and went back for round 2. Unfortunately, pour 1 started to set up in the bottom of the can. He plunged the mixer into the now tacky pour 1 which locked the can to the mixer. Now the can was spinning slinging round 2 out of the can. He reached down with his hands to try to stop the can from spinning. He ended up with some nice gashes on his hands though they were quickly filled with polyester resin. . . My dad heard the instructor yell, blood-mixed polyester resin spraying the area, and hit the master power switch. Then minutes of watching the instructor wince as dad cleaned up the former's hands with lacquer thinner before a trip to the hospital.

The two student injuries were preventable, always bugged my dad that he wasn't able to prevent them. Life as a shop teacher with 20+ students running equipment; a good day is when everyone walks out uninjured. One student was making a shift knob for his car out of aluminum. He got to the point of tapping the hole for the shifter, but drilled it out at the major diameter. My dad said he could fix it with a Heli-coil, or make a threaded bushing, or try filling the hole with lead and re-drill/tap the hole. Student opted for the last. Unfortunately, he had some water from rinsing the knob off in the hole. The lead hit the water which turned to steam and spattered the lead on the student's hand. Fortunately, it was more like solder dripping off copper than "Palmolive, you're soaking in it".

Other one was a student was turning a long length of rod stock and had a fair amount sticking out of the headstock. Dad had a crotch support for the lathes, but the student either didn't use it or had it set way too low. The rod buckled and started to whip. The student leaned to the left toward the back of the headstock to see what was going on and got whopped in the shoulder. Lucky he didn't get whopped in the head! I ended up buying that Clausing 5418 lathe when Waverly High School in Lansing, MI shut down their shop 20 years later. One of the "accessories" that came with the lathe was a sort of spider that dad made for the back of the spindle. In this case, it was solid and was screwed to the spindle with security screws. My dad had the "magic tool" to remove the spider. And he was the only one with the tool; left the spider on the lathe so students couldn't run stock out of the headstock unless they came to him first to remove the spider.

Hey, like my dad's students and the instructor, you learned something! Glad it didn't lead to stitches or worse!

Bruce
 
A buddy of mine was a gearhead, and in order to take auto shop at a public school, he had to take them a letter from my school's brass.
 
Couple months ago while I was off , one of our extruder's transition pipes went cold and polymer solidifed . The pressure inside is well over 2500 psi . One of our top mechanics of 30+ years took the call . He , as we all do , turn the band heaters up to 650 degrees from 550 and take a torch and map gas to heat the pipe up . He did , but unfortunately he was in the line of fire when the poly melted . He is black , but now has a white hand as it took all the skin off . EHS said we can't use this method any longer , but there is no other method . :rolleyes: He was most likely being rushed to get the line up and took his mind off of what he was doing .
 
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