How to make a paint can shaker?

**Felix17** · Apr 19, 2017, 07:07 AM

Hi, I enjoy repairing things around the home and making tools. I would like to make a paint shaker for that will take up to 10L cans.

Cheers
Felix17

**Moby Duck** · Apr 21, 2017, 07:39 PM

Not too many ideas on the web for large shakers, but plenty for spray cans. This one seems like a good idea to me, and could be adapted and scaled for any size can. Whatever you do, make sure that you clamp the lid on well. It is reasonably quiet too. The vibrator type tend to be very noisy. This could be much smaller if made with direct drive using an old treadmill motor with speed control. You could experiment with canting the clamp by say 45 degrees and it may stir/mix better. If you have an old bowl washing machine, and the room to keep it, this shaker could possibly be built to hold the can horizontally, and canted inside the existing machine bowl.

**Jon** · Apr 22, 2017, 10:05 AM

Nice. Washing machine; was waiting for someone to post that. Yes, spray can paint shaker builds are common, but spray cans are much easier to shake. Bonus points for mentioning a treadmill motor. Regarding free abandoned exercise equipment I recently saw a belt grinder build based on both a free treadmill motor, AND a frame made out of a free weightlifting bench.

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**Alan Haisley** · Apr 29, 2017, 06:10 AM

Rather than a shaker, try for a rocker. If built to support the can on its center of gravity, there should be much less vibration. Picture a crank on the motor shaft driving an arm connected to a larger crank. make the second crank enough larger that the paint can pivots perhaps 15 degrees as the small crank rotates.

**Diode2** · May 19, 2017, 06:06 PM

One of the places I worked at had a spray can shaker made out of an old compressed air driven windscreen wiper motor mounted to bench. It was easy to regulate the speed and would also be easy to modify for larger paint containers.