Pouring from a 5 Gal can. ?????

[Tony Bilello]

Today I bought pre-catalized lacquer from Sherwin Williams. It only comes in 5 gal. cans. In the not too distant past, lacquer in 5 gal. cans came with a flexible spout of sorts built into the can with a screw-on cap.
Well, not the new ones. The can has a hole in the top which is plugged with a plastic cap. Pull the cap and you have a hole. Not threaded, just a hole. If I try to pour from this, it will end up all over the place. I went to 2 different Sherwin Williams paint stores and both of them told me that they cant get the "spouts' for them any more.
Any Suggestions? Please dont suggest Home Depot, they only have the threaded type that fits paint buckets.

Help !!!!!

Tony B

[Jamie Buxton]

Turkey baster?

[Mark Rios]

You can buy a cheap little squeeze bulb siphon hose and transfer the material to a container that is more pour friendly.

Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/WILMAR-W1144-FT-SIPHON-HOSE/dp/B000N31ZNU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_7?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1220429842&sr=8-7

This model looks to have a small diameter hose. I have a siphon hose that has about a 1/2" diameter hose. It moves the material fairly well. IIRC I got it at my local auto parts store.


hth

[Jim Becker]

What Mark said.

And be careful with that pre-cat...nasty stuff. Be sure you have a proper working environment and safety gear.

[Marlin Williams]

Condom.


Yes I am serious. Get a HD/Thick condom, i.e. not the thin type, and cut a hole in the tip and attach it to the top of the can opening. If its like the 5gallon ones I did this with the opening has a recess around ti low enough to wrap onto it. You will lose some in the condom but not as much as would be lost on the side as it runs everywhere.

Not sure if the lacqer will not eat the latex up though? I did this with paint.

But the siphon above would probable do what you want as well.

[Steve Clardy]

If its satin lacquer it needs to be stirred up before removing.

Does the new bucket have a seperate top? One that has the fold over ears all the way around the bucket.
If it does, I remove the top completely, stir it up, then transfer a gallon of it to a gallon container.

[Peter Quadarella]

If this is one of those cans like BLO or Mineral Spirits comes in, there is a trick to pouring from them. You have to have the spout on the high side of the can as you tilt it. It doesn't seem to make sense at first, but it works.

[Tony Bilello]

I appreciate all of the suggestions.
I tried a small siphon pump and that didnt work. The pre-cat was too thick.
I finally bought 5 1 gal. cans at a local hardware store for $1.99 each and just poured it into them. What a PITA. Only lost less than 1/2 pint total, but it still was time consuming cleaning up.
I have never purchased any kind of lacquer from local paint stores in the past. I'm sure Sherwin Williams will be OK considering that as far as industrial paints go, they are considered so-so.
Now to see if I can sell off some of the 1 gal cans. I only needed about 2 gals.

Marlon: I haven't used a condom since I was 17 and dont intend to start now, LOL. Besides I dont have a spout. I mean, the can dont have a spout. I will keep that in mind in the future though.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

Tony B

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
Turn the can around.
The hole should be on top when you pour, not on the bottom close to the container you're pouring it into.

FWIW - that's also how you pour off material (like solvent and thiner) from square cans.
It prevents the "glug glug" as air enters the container.

Once you done few hundred - or a few thousand - your aim will get pretty good. Good enough that you can pour from a 5 into a quart can without dribbling any ;)

One of my jobs as low man on the totem pole at the paint store was the pre-Spring "pouring off of the 5 gal pails of Redwood Stain into quart cans for picnic tables" ritual.
That one was easy. Stain is light. It's also slow dry so the little splatters of thin material clean up easy.

The ritual I really despised was the "pre-Summer pouring off of the 5 gal pails of Traffic Yellow into gallons and quarts". That crap weighs a ton and it's so quick dry it gets ropey as you pour it if you aren't fast enough. Those 5's weighed close to 70# and were rock solid on the bottom from the material settling. Every year - for the first 4 years - it was the same thing. A 40' semi loaded with skids of Yellow Bead Binder, 16 - 5's to a skid, skids stacked 2 high with the first 4 skids nearest the cab stacked 3 high. Two pallets of empty gallon cans and one pallet of empty quart cans. (192 to a pallet). No loading dock so all of them had to be unloaded by hand. onto a two wheeler in the truck, rolled to the back, unloaded, jump down and take them off the back stack the three high, grab the two wheeler off the back of the truck and roll the stack into the warehouse.
Every other load had to be unloaded by hand and stacked 4 high since there wasn't enough room.
Ugg!

Oops, I see Peter already posted it.