DIY spray paint

Step 7: Spray

With your bottle pressurized all that's left is to find a surface to paint! It should go without saying that spray painting people, pets, plants and places that don't belong to you is not nice. Also, it's probably illegal. So be smart when you use this.

My pressurization lasted enough to make the dinosaur shown here and then some, a second pressurization was required to make the buildings. If you're looking to make a larger art installment you'll need to carry your bike pump with you.

Here's a video of my DIY spray paint in action!

Have fun!

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Comments

[ride on toy dude]

does it shoot the paint very far? I have always found a serious deficencie in store bought water guns and am always been looking for better solutions.
I want to fill it with water and use it as a water gun incase you couldn't tell. ;)

[aeszok]

I would highly doubt it, as the plastic bottle couldn't hold very much pressure at all. You could still modify the instructable, but use a stronger casing instead and maybe attempt to make the nozzle a bit wider or make your own, otherwise it'll just "spray" rather than fire a stream of water.

[RichardBronosky]

Actually, PET bottles can hold tremendous pressure. They have to in order to survive shipping. I carbonate my own beverages in 2 liter bottles with a cap that I put a chrome Schrader valve (rubber gives a nasty taste) into. My CO2 regulator maxes out at 60PSI. I've used all of that pressure experimenting, though now I only use about 30PSI. The more important thing is your glue joints. The PET bottle flexes. Your glue is not likely to flex at exactly the same rate. That means failure. I don't have to worry about that because I put my valve in the cap which does not flex.

[ride on toy dude]

ya it was just an idea.

[AndaleTheGreat]

I'm gonna do this for a 2 liter and then see if i can find a way to do it with a hose.

[aeszok]

That'd be awesome, keep us posted.

[lukev2]

good idea

[hurten]

I wounder if an aluminum beer bottle would make a good alternative to the pet bottle? Would you be able to get a better, higher pressure seal around the schrader valve? What about soldering the salvaged spraypaint tip to the cap?

[totszwai]

Is there a way to improve the spray pattern? It looks like a water gun spray. Would increasing the pressure help with a more even/spread-out pattern?

[AndaleTheGreat]

i would try mixing it with a little water for acrylic/latex or mineral spirits for oil base.
I have a large airless sprayer and on most paint cans there are instructions as to how to mix it for spraying. something like 1/2 a cup to a gallon for primer i think.

[pedrobedro]

I saw your artwork and came to the conclusion that you are Red John :) It looks handy for spraying lubricant and it would be handy to have an aerosol of cleaning fluid like brake cleaner which can be refilled.

[AndaleTheGreat]

agreed, especially since buying your garage lubes/sprays are MUCH cheaper in larger containers that are not compressed.

[dfuller1]

Cleverly designed and built, an interesting read. Thank you! You may also be interested to know that you can buy something similar commercially made of aluminum and rated up to 90 psi for around $20 US.

[noahhauser]

I like your idea I will have to try this

[DAG1030]

Great idea! I heard soda bottles are rated for 180 psi. I have had some up to 80 or so psi without any bottle deformation.

[GreenD]

what were you doing with 80 psi bottles ;) (i think I k now!)

And 80 psi is usually attributed to a insertion of the bike tire pump anyways - although cutting the hole in the cap will be your weak point. If you use an epoxy for the cap and then a liquid metal on the outside of that I'm sure it will hold fine at 50-80.

Would be interesting if someone came up with a mechanism to add paint to the bottle so you don't have to make omg yuou just unscrew the CAP! AMAZING.

[ilpug]

Same here, but this design requires cutting the bottle and cap, so it creates weak points in the bottle. I would say 50psi max?

[JBantha]

Perhaps you can make a double cap with a Y pvc fitting removing the hole at the bottle side.

[ilpug]

Huh... that is a really good idea. although you might want to use a tee fitting instead of a y so the spray tip is vertical instead of tilted. It would make it easier to use. I will explore the possibility.

[DAG1030]

I drilled the cap and pulled a valve stem through. I did a gas dissolving lab with my students. I took water with a universal indicator and pressurized with carbon dioxide. The students would shake the bottle to help dissolve the gas into the water. The carbon dioxide creates a weak acid. The more that dissolves, the more the color change. The students would record ph vs pressure and plot it on a graph. Of course, I wanted to make sure it was safe before hand so I tested the set up before I tried it with my students. It worked like a charm!

[kondzio29]

Nice! I made a bottle with smoth paint spray

[mikeasaurus]

That's great! Do you have a picture of your version?

[kondzio29]

my spray is very ugly and i dont have pictures of it BUT I'm makin new one and when i finish I'll post pictures and maybe a video