# What do you filter your paint with and into?



## Gary_S (17 Feb 2021)

I am spraying some kitchen cabinets with an electric sprayer. The first time I did this, I used paper filters but it took a very very long time for the paint to pass through. What do you guys use and also as a matter of ineterest, what do you filter the paint into?

Thanks in advance.

Gary


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## Essex Barn Workshop (17 Feb 2021)

an old professional painter/decorator told me to use a pair of women's tights when I tried to buy a mesh bag. 
I am using up the same paper type filters you refer to, and filter straight into the spray bottle.
I would like to ask, dilute before or after filtering? I was told after filtering, but don't understand why.


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## AES (17 Feb 2021)

Coffee machine paper filters (slow), and old tights for me too.

Depending on amount, into an old (but cleaned of course) plastic "can" or old jam jar. Ditto cleaned.

Haven't heard about adding thinner afterwards before. I wonder why?

And what sort of paints are we talking please?


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## Gary_S (17 Feb 2021)

I am using Little Green Eggshell Emulsion.


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## Phil Pascoe (17 Feb 2021)

Add the thinners afterwards maybe because the thinners affect the particles you're trying to filter out?


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## Spectric (17 Feb 2021)

For plastic containers for your paint try this company H&O Plastics | Plastic Bucket Manufacturer I use them to filter emulsion and water based paint into using conical paper/mesh filters.


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## Hedjmunky (17 Feb 2021)

Tights and a pyrex measuring jug, easy clean up and you can check dilution quantities.


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## TheUnicorn (17 Feb 2021)

I use old tights, into a jam jar, but this is normally for things like lumpy emulsion for small projects, not for spraying


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## deema (17 Feb 2021)

You want paint strainers, and plastic measuring paint pots. The pots are great for adding thinners etc if you need a specific ratio. You can buy them very cheaply from auction sites, American on line company, or any spray supplies company. Expect to pay say £10 ~£20 total for 50 off of each.


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## Jar944 (17 Feb 2021)

I use 190 micron filters/strainers


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## Dlyxover (17 Feb 2021)

I use strainers like above with no issues. 
If your thinning the paint do so first and strain it thinned, goes thought a lot quicker (guess how I found out)


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## JBaz (18 Feb 2021)

Paper strainers and Sainsbury's soup pots (the wife likes the soup). 

These are OK with cellulose thinners (they don't disintegrate) and can be re-sealed if you have any thinned or mixed paint/lacquer over.

The wife eats a lot of soup, so I also use these for old paint where the tin has started to rust. I stir the paint well and filter it into the pots. It does't keep forever, but it lasts until the next time we redecorate and the old colour is no longer needed.

They are also good for cleaning brushes, electro-plating fluids, water containers for cooling pieces being ground ...............


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## rafezetter (18 Feb 2021)

Jar944 said:


> I use 190 micron filters/strainers
> View attachment 103784



^^ These if I'm spraying and it matter,but for general filtering of paint or varnish that's been stored for a while, I use a "have around the house" option of tights / footsocks stretched over the mouth of a large jar like coffee - and I've even prefiltered using a small sieve such as might be used over a mug for tea, to catch the larger bits first.


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## Droogs (19 Feb 2021)

190micron filters for me too, usually into a resin/glue mixing cup and then into the guns pot or used with a foam brush.


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## Essex Barn Workshop (19 Feb 2021)

Thanks dylxover, does anyone know or has anyone else thought that you should strain before diluting, and if so why? I've been straining before diluting because I thought that was the correct way of doing it, but don't know why!
It would clearly strain quicker if diluted.


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## JoeSheffer (19 Feb 2021)

Old tights. Don't overthink it.


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## AES (19 Feb 2021)

JoeSheffer said:


> Old tights. Don't overthink it.




Yeah, agreed, but whether or not it's really simple depends on your source of old tights doesn't it? Could be that "underthinking" is rather dangerous (I would have thought - pure speculation on my part of course).


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## MARK.B. (19 Feb 2021)

My thinking on straining first is that you already know the diluting fluid will be clean so why take the risk of contaminating it with unfiltered stuff unless of course it needed the extra diluting just to get it to strain a little easier. No idea if it's right or wrong but it work's for me 
I should add that my thinking on the best thing to strain through goes along the lines of 15-20 mins of shifting stuff around to get to the filters that no matter where i put em always seem to be buried away when they are needed , or less than 1 minute to swipe a pair of tights of the washing line  the latter does however carry a significant chance of bodily injury  and or financial loss if found guilty by especially when they happen to be her best ones from a brand that shall be a Secret. Double bodily injury and hearing loss can also happen if you try to finish with the words " still they were a nice colour "


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## JoeSheffer (23 Feb 2021)

AES said:


> Yeah, agreed, but whether or not it's really simple depends on your source of old tights doesn't it? Could be that "underthinking" is rather dangerous (I would have thought - pure speculation on my part of course).



hahaha. I used a very expensive pair of some kind of stockings i found in the wash a few years ago... as a punishment i don't think I've seen fancy lingerie/stockings ever since.


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## AES (23 Feb 2021)

Joe, you have my sympathies mate. Me? I see sexy lingerie all the time ("in my dreams").


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## Snettymakes (24 Feb 2021)

cheap filters from amazon, they are awful. I do need to dilute before passing them through unless I want to wait 15 minutes, but neither of those options are a problem. You need to dilute most paints for spraying anyway.


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