Interior latex house paint overstock question

[Merit]

Hello, Gang! Dumb question here. I understand the dangers of buying house paint from an overstock store. However it costs $6/gallon. Wow. And I can return any un-opened cans for full refund. I bought 10 gallons of an off-white. Apparently this paint is purchased directly from the manufacture, not sitting in a hot warehouse, and has been a huge seller over time at this overstock store. My question is this: What would you do with respect to getting the cans shook up? Assuming I choose to keep and use the paint, should I take a couple at a time to Home Depot, for example, and ask if they'd kindly shake those two? Then take the next two to Lowes? Is that rude to bring a non-store brand in? Would a home-method work? If I got a drill with one of those long attachments (sort of like what cooks use in the kitchen to blend up a big kettle of soup?) Do I have other options? I appreciate so much that I can come up with the most inane questions and you take the time to consider and address them! Thanks!

[cfabe]

I have used old paint a few times with no problems. Particularly if it's unopened I don't think you'd have any trouble. Around me some places that have used/old paint for sale (habitat restore) have a shaker machine you can use when purchasing.

Yes I think it would be rude to bring it in to a store where it was not purchased to have it shaken for free. I might consider it if you bought a reasonable amount of painting supplies there (brushes, rollers etc), say $10 or more.

One of those drill attachments would be fine, and I bet you'd probably find a use for it down the road too. You can always just stir it with a stick too, just takes a while.

[gone-a-milkin]

I have stirred it with a stick many times.

[Bearfootfarm]

Stir it with a stick.
A drill will get too many air bubbles in it

[uncle Will in In.]

You could use your Kitchen Ade on low speed. Or Not

[Stush]

Drill attachment will work just fine. Just remember that you are not trying to make whipped cream out of it. A slow gentle stirring will work. lol

FYI, I see two types of drill attachments out there. You will obviously want the smaller of the two and if I were doing what you are, I would get a clean 5 gallon bucket, pour two gallons of paint in the bucket, then stir.

[Curtis B]

Make sure you stir before you put the cans together, the paint seperates over time and if you pour them together first you will inevitably leave some important parts in the can. Mixing first will help you know the paint is still good, it does have a shelf life. Another thing to watch for is cans that look like they have been outside for a long time. One of the re-home stores here left there palets of paint outside for more than a year. Between the 100 deg summers, and the 0 deg winters it ruined the paint, and they sold it anyway to unsuspecting customers.

[7thswan]

Just stir it, it's real easy.

[Windy in Kansas]

I use an electric drill and stirring tool-----a day or two in advance of using the paint so that the air bubbles can escape, and then on the day of using it I thoroughly mix it with a paint stirring paddle. When I use the drill I also make sure all of the settled out pigment is off the bottom with a paddle so that it can get mixed in too.

Some drill stirrers are better than others. I have one that creates a vortex which mixes the paint in excellent fashion but it can also cause the paint to overflow out of the can if used on too high of a speed. It works well at getting every bit off of the bottom but the blades could punch a hole in the can if not used carefully.

Another drill stirrer has a protective ring around the blades so doesn't get everything off of the bottom and near the sides of the can but otherwise does a good job.

[Merit]

Thanks, Gang!!!

[willow_girl]

I think the paint shakers are mostly needed when the paint is tinted in-store.

If you're just using a pretinted paint right out of the can, stirring should be adequate.

[paintboy]

MY professional advice would be to use a stick or you could put one hand on the lid and one hand on the bottom and do the paint can shaking dance.

[Belfrybat]

When I'm using older paint, I up end the can for a day or two to allow the paint to mix a bit by itself, then use an extra large stir stick to mix everything up by hand. If I'm using more than 1 gallon, after an initial stir, I blend them together, making sure the bottom of the cans are wiped clean. Then stir some more. Takes a while, but works just fine.

[farminghandyman]

a shaker mixes air in the paint as well, if there is any air space in the can,

just use a drill and I have two mixers, one is a 1/2 steel tube bent at the bottom in about a 45 and then bent back under the tube flat a little longer, works well,

the other is a 3/8" rod with a 1/2 flat welded on the bottom with both having a small twist so it will have a little lift action, it currently has about 50 coats of paint on it, from stirring paint.

much of the paint I have bought over the years is mis tints and some is easily 5 years old, and I keep the paint in the cellar, much is oil paints,

one year I bought over 50 gallons of mis tints and then mixed them all together to get a nice brown and painted all the buildings with them they were exterior latex, (they were priced from $1 to $5) I painted 5 buildings with the paint, (Sherwin Williams paints) after mixing the gallons I cut the bottom out of a 55 gallon drum, and set up on blocks and put a ball valve in the 3/4" bung hole, dumped the gallons in and made a special mixer for a halve inch drill, to mix all the paint to one color, and then used the ball valve to fill the gallon cans back up, to store them until use.

[Ravenlost]

I always use a cheap wooden spoon with a long handle to stir paint.