What's going on youtube?! My name is Sciz, and today i want to show you five ways that i stop
my graffiti spray paint cans from clogging. Now this is a video that might actually save
you quite a bit of money because after you start doing these things that i'm going to talk about,
you'll probably end up wasting a lot less paint! Some of these tips you might know but i guarantee
you at least some of them you will not know. And they will help you save money and clog your cans
less. Also if you guys do want a video on actually unclogging cans, i will have that
linked in the corner where the cards are, if it's out. If not, it's in the making. And if you guys
do enjoy these tips today, feel free to maybe subscribe. Tip number one! This has to do with
those partial cans that you don't completely use up while you're painting a piece and what
to do with them afterwards. So something you can do to stop them from clogging the next time you
start them up if it's gonna be a while between uses is turn the can upside down and just spray
until paint stops coming out. I know that sounds weird but hear me out. When the paint stops coming
out that means that the leftover paint that was still in the straw and the valve system of your
spray paint can has been emptied out, and that way any leftover pigment or spray paint formula that
was in the straw can't harden in there and mess with your valve system at all. And of course the
reason you're turning the can upside down while you spray is to stop more paint from being drawn
into the straw while you're emptying the straw out. On to tip number two now and this one is
something that i actually personally came up with. I'm sure i'm not the first to do it but it does
work very well and it has saved me a ton of time declogging cans and the tip itself is very simple:
Store your cans upside down. Yes, you did hear me right. I said store your cans upside down. This
works best if you have some sort of like slanted shelf so you can store them like this and still
see the colour rings on them but let me explain the purpose behind what i'm saying here. So the
reason these nice spray paint cans have that goopy stuff that comes out at the beginning of when
you're starting up a spray paint can is because the pigment separates from the liquid agent,
whether that be water-based or synthetic paint or acrylic or whatever you may have.
It separates from the liquid agent in a spray can and it all collects at the bottom. And of course,
what is at the bottom? The end of the straw or the straw opening of the spray can
is at the bottom of the can. So it's drawing in all of that goop first. Hence why you're supposed
to shake them lots and lots. So of course that being true, the best way to stop all that goopy
stuff getting in the spray paint tube and into the valve system when you're trying to start
your spray paint can is to have it upside down stored or at least so this is higher than this
and all the goopy stuff collects up here. That way when you're stirring up the can
the valve system isn't drawing in all that goop at the beginning. But if you are going to do this,
actually do shake your cans a lot before you store them upside down or only store recently used ones
upside down. I'm saying that specifically because if you have a can that just sits like this for
a few months and then you just decide, "okay i'm gonna turn it upside down, store it like this now"
all of that goopy pigment is still up here or down here or whatever and it's going to stick
up there because basically it won't contain any of that liquid agent in the spray paint
and it'll all have already collected at the bottom so you do want to mix it up just just enough so
that you get all that pigment able to slide down the can. Also, just a side tip, i wouldn't really
want to travel with any spray paint cans upside down, just in case it messes with the valve system
and and causes them to burst or something like that. On to tip number three. We all know that
you're supposed to shake your spray paint cans before you start using them. It says right on
them. I guess the new ones are saying shake for two minutes. I usually give it three to five.
But something easy you can do, and this sort of goes along with the last tip - you'll look
a little bit funny and your friends in the yard might make fun of you, but you can just shake
them upside down as well and that works perfectly fine. And again it's drawing that pigment and that
goopy stuff just away from the straw but also, and i'm sort of combining tips here, you don't
want to undermine all that shaking you've done by starting your can up with the wrong kind of
cap. If you go in and try and put a skinny cap on here you're creating a very harsh bottleneck
for the valve system here and what you're going to get is all that goopy stuff coming up at the start
getting squeezed into a very small space in a skinny cap and it might cause a bottleneck and
sometimes the pressure just can't break through a small cap like that. So what you do want to do
is always make sure you're starting your spray paint cans up with a very large cap. Start them
up by shaking the can while you spray with a fat cap on and then after it started up,
you can throw your skinny cap on. Since that tip is pretty simple i am going to move on to
tip number four! And that is simply just store your cans in a warm place. Honestly,
you'd be surprised at how much of a difference it makes and i guess more specifically what
i'm saying is don't store your cans in a cold place. If you let your can sit out,
say in a garage over the winter if you guys have cold winters like i do here in my part of Canada,
the paint will freeze. And although it will thaw again when the warm weather comes around,
it has sort of messed with the valve system enough that it makes those cans very hard to unclog if
you do end up clogging them and it does mess with the paint a little bit. And like i said i will
have a video coming about how to unclog your spray paint cans, at least the method i use to do that
fairly effectively i would say. But my last tip, tip number five, here is something that will
save you a lot of time when you're specifically setting up your spot to paint at whatever free
wall you're at or anything like that, and again it's a very simple one but it's something that
most people just plain wouldn't consider to do. And that tip is simply just if it is a sunny day
like it sort of usually is if you're at any kind of outdoor free wall or spot that you're gonna be
painting (it's not real fun to try and do burners in the rain if that floats your boat that's
fine i'm not hating on that) but while you're setting up the wall you know just getting the
dirt off the wall with a towel, maybe doing your roller coat if you if you have rollers with you.
Just simply take your spray paint cans out of the bag, out of whatever you brought them in and just
lay them out, let them bake in the sun a little bit. This will allow the sun to heat the cans up
a little bit and, as we all know, warmer paint is just plain easier to mix than colder paint. And
you'll just have to shake it less and that's where the time saving element comes in here: you're
gonna have to shake all of your cans less! So in case you can't count, those are the five tips!
Let everyone know in the comments if you have any tips personally that you want to share with
everyone that I missed, or that you think are better tips than mine. I'm sure there's better
ones out there, i won't be offended. Don't forget to subscribe to be part of our graffiti community
here on the channel and see videos about all aspects of graffiti! Until my next one, peace!