Sealing the lids on paint tins

As the man says. If the skin is on the top you can cut it and remove it ... if underneath it will be mixed, broken and you will have to sieve the paint.

:-)

Might be a good idea if you don't clean the rim...

Air passes through plastic sheet generally less than 4mm thick, but as a gasket I don't think this applies.

I solve the "air in paint can" problem by filling the can up with glass marbles to take up the space. I used to do this in my darkroom for my photo chemicals, but thats long gone! Glass of course doesn't react with the paint, and they stay on the bottom. A bonus is as you shake the can, they stir the paint! (Hold the lid on...)

The only problem at the beginning was raiding enough toy stores to get a gallon of marbles! The dollar store was a good find!

See the pic of my cleaned marbles drying on the stove top at Alt.binaries.photos.original

Yea right - every time I do that with compresses gas it usually blows the lid off :)

Darkroom - that's on the desktop nowdays.

Fill the can with CO2 before closing - no oxygen to react with the driers in the paint. CO2 is heavier than air, so displaces the air and stays in the can. Storing the can upside down just puts the "skin" on the bottom

You don't need to visit toy stores. Search the web for "marbles wholesale"

Here's one place that sells about 500 5/8" marbles for $28 (500=half-gallon) (smaller assortments available).

Makes sense.

This is the only good advice you've gotten. The air inside the can is enough to skin over the paint. Kitchen plastic wrap pushed down into the can, touching the entire surface of the paint will keep air away from the paint... then cap the can with the lid.

Works great on ice cream, too, to keep it from crystallizing or getting freezer burn on the surface.

Ah, now, I'm hoping to move within the next few weeks. The place I intend moving to has a large, windowless area just the right size for an enlarger and the associated bits, and I do enjoy messing about with proper B&W film. Much more satisfying than manipulating bits, IMO.

The tin of emulsion from TS was so thin that a screwdriver would have opened it - like a can opener! The best tool I found for the job was an old metal tyre lever (push-bike size) that id rounded and smoothed about 40 years ago. Plenty of area and no sharp edges. Then "stir thoroughly": even a plastic kitchen thingy (overgrown spoon, metal handle) deformed the can, so a metal stirrer... )h, also about 5mm of freeboard in a 5 litre can...

Yebbut you can't escape to your desktop and lock the door for the afternoon.

Don't forget the kettle and biscuit tin.

Absolutely! Watching that image appear in the developer tray is still a magic moment. Beats clicking the "OK" button in Photoshop.

Biscuits are banned due to crumbs. I *hate* spotting prints.

I use the cling film trick when a job needs to go from one day to the next. Also a couple of supermarket bags one from each end and tucked down over paint trays and rollers.

Cleaning non-water soluable paints etc is a PITA. I'd go for the new brush everytime if I could find a source of decent brushes at a sensible price that aren't part of a various sized set.

Gawd what a faff and lots of containers all mucky with paint...

See other comments about tins stuck to shelves. Think I'll stick with cleaning lid rim and can carefully and tapping the lid fully home. With maybe an inversion to get paint around the inner edges but store the right way up.

You can get one size packs from screwfix and the like. I tend to get cheapies and throw them for all undercoats and a Harris or something like that for finishing and then immediately clean it.

Hmm! £12 per brush @ 5 minutes to clean = £144 per hour, what does he paint or does he use cr@p brushes? I have some I paid about 15p each for but they ain't for putting gloss on doors.

That's the container (a large ex-pickled cabbage glass jar works for me) you use to give your brush its first clean with white spirit. You then leave the contents for a week or two, until the paint settles into a sludge, then decant off the white spirit for re-use. Put the jar away for a few months, until the sludge solidifies, then remove the sludge, and dispose of it as a solid lump. Re-use the jar for brush cleaning etc.

Don't you line your shelves with sheets of newspaper?