how to unclog a spray paint can
In every business there are “tricks of the trade” — little tips and suggestions anesthetized forth through the ancestors to accomplish activity aloof a tad easier.
One of my favorites involves aerosol paint.
Spray acrylic cans acquaint you to about-face the can upside bottomward afterwards application and aerosol until the beck of acrylic is clear, thereby preventing the bill from clogging.
Well, as anyone who’s done added than a little spraying knows, sometimes that doesn’t do it.
You can try application the tip of a pin to ameliorate the tip, or pop off the tip and absorb it in acrylic thinner for a brace of minutes.
But if the tip fits on a can of our old acquaintance WD-40, substituting the chock-full acrylic tip for the one on the WD-40 can and giving it a eject will apple-pie a aerosol bill fast about every time.
The solutions to these two readers’ questions additionally bulk to little added than “tricks of the trade” — the accessible trade.
Q: We accept a coffee table with fold-up leaves. The spiral holes for the hinges accept gotten too big to authority the screws tight. I accept acclimated copse accompaniment in the accomplished and accept not consistently been blessed with the results. Do you accept annihilation bigger to suggest?
— Carl
Wood filler, as you’ve discovered, doesn’t absolutely assignment actual able-bodied for accepting a screw.
Too crumbly.
But I accept a suggestion:
Remove the accouterments and apple-pie out the burst accompaniment as best you can, afresh covering matchsticks or toothpicks with copse cement (ordinary Elmer’s works in a pinch) and jam as abounding as will fit into anniversary hole.
If you accept one around, a golf tee is alike better.
Go abroad until tomorrow — to let the cement set well. Afresh use a account knife to allotment the little fillers off akin with the wood, afresh assignment baby pilot holes and alter the hardware.
Q: My daughter, a BIG music fan, has taped posters and annual photos all over her walls. Now it’s time for some beginning paint, but I’m accepting agitation accepting all the old band off. Help!
The apparatus of best is a razor knife, a single-edged razor brand captivated in a careful sleeve. You can get razor knives as able-bodied as a amalgamation of advancement blades at any home center.
Holding the brand as abutting to alongside with the bank as possible, try to accelerate the bend beneath the tape. Once a bend is loose, generally the absolute allotment will bark off.
But … sometimes it won’t. Sometimes the band is years old, and sometimes it’s been broiled assimilate the bank by sun alive through a bedchamber window. Afresh it’s time for a actinic remover. The best I’ve approved is alleged Goof Off, a balmy bread-and-butter fabricated for removing old acrylic acrylic drips from woodwork.
Dab it over the tape, acquiesce it to assignment for a few minutes, afresh go at it with the razor knife again. You may accept to do that a brace of times to get all the adhering residue. Wipe apple-pie with soap and water.
One caveat: Goof Off will do absolutely what it’s advised to do on your wall, too. It will abolish acrylic paint.
But hey, you were activity to repaint anyway, right?
Send your questions to: HouseWorks, P.O. Box 81609, Lincoln, NE 68501, or e-mail: houseworks@journalstar.com.
