Spray paint marbles

[RolleyHoleMan]

Here's something that may be of interest. I do a bit of spray painting and saw online a year or so ago how the "rattler" inside the can could possibly be a marble. As a kid I was always told they were ball bearings, which sometimes is true. 

So far I have gotten 6 very small clear marbles, 1 amber marble, and 1 blue marble. Somewhere I should have more of these but they may be mixed in with other marbles.

What I have found is certain brands will use different agitators in their cans. Kyrlon I have found with marbles (paint) but ball bearings (primer). Brands like "VHT" very high temperature paint always seems to have ball bearings, same with Krylon high temp grill paint. 

Rustolium paint always has a marble. 

 

Getting the marble out is easy, however I cheat. When I have a can ready to be opened up, I take it out into the yard and I shoot it with an old Crosman 140 .22 air rifle. Sometimes I use it as target practice until I hit it one, other times I shoot it from maybe 10 feet away, and I shoot it through the bottom of the can. Once the can is punctured, I widen the hole and shake the marble out into a dish of kerosene to get the paint off. 

That's all there is to it. I'll try to knock off a can tomorrow of appliance epoxy. 

[Steph]

Now that my husband realizes that spray cans can have marbles, he has procured me a small collection.   I have never seen or asked how he gets the can opened.  

 

[RolleyHoleMan]

I've been curious how other people get them open. After giving myself a nasty cut the first time I tried this with a nail, I started shooting the can instead. 

Someone online was finding cats eye marbles in their cans which I haven't seen yet. At some point I have some cans of paint from the late 1990s that need to be finished off, so it'll be cool to see what they have in them. Most old cans of paint seem to be alright, but there's a few around here which either failed, or the nozzle broke off. Shooting those seems like a bad idea unless the neighbors wouldn't mind seeing a painted yard. 

[Steph]

This is so weird.  My husband is home now so I asked him how he got the cans open.  But he is unable to remember how he got the marbles out.   Hammer?  Hacksaw?  Those are the two possibilities he came up with.  How could he do something so physical and not remember it?   It's been several marbles over the past few years.  How can he not know which tool he used to wrestle the marble out? Too weird.  

 

[RolleyHoleMan]

That sure is odd. 

I just opened another can using my air rifle, and sure enough it has a ball bearing in it instead. This was Krylon brand appliance epoxy.

 

Anyone else out there have any spray-can marbles? 

[Jeff54]

2 hours ago, RolleyHoleMan said:

That sure is odd. 

I just opened another can using my air rifle, and sure enough it has a ball bearing in it instead. This was Krylon brand appliance epoxy.

 

Anyone else out there have any spray-can marbles? 

Yep, there's a surprise inside every one. IDK back in the 60's, bust em open with a hammer and screwdriver or? BB or pellets are fine. However, Then what? after a few 'free' marbles, unless you have a slingshot the 'fun' runs out. 

Oh, I forgot. With clear no, color , you can look closely through it and see the surface of the moon. Yea!

The only downside here, providing you didn't get caught shooting the Cleary at ?? would be getting the paint off the floor or living room. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

2 hours ago, Jeff54 said:

Yep, there's a surprise inside every one. IDK back in the 60's, bust em open with a hammer and screwdriver or? BB or pellets are fine. However, Then what? after a few 'free' marbles, unless you have a slingshot the 'fun' runs out. 

Oh, I forgot. With clear no, color , you can look closely through it and see the surface of the moon. Yea!

The only downside here, providing you didn't get caught shooting the Cleary at ?? would be getting the paint off the floor or living room. 

Mostly I figure might as well pull a marble out of something I'm about to toss, plus its best for the guys picking up the trash that the cans have no pressure.

It's also fun to show them to people when I'm talking about marbles. People sure are excited to see what the agitator in the can really is. I don't know why it seems to be a common thing around here, but when I was a kid I sure wanted to know what was in there. 

[I'llhavethat1]

I did some months ago, similar results.   Air rifle to relieve pressure, then axe to bust open cans.  Still got paint splatter everywhere.

[hdesousa]

I remember visiting Jabo, soon after they had moved to Reno, Ohio in the late 1980's or very early 1990's and their main product was clear industrial marbles, destined for spray paint cans.

[RolleyHoleMan]

I was working on repainting and restoring a vintage fan today, so I've got another can to shoot in the morning. It's another Krylon can so I'm expecting a steel ball instead of a marble...

Also I don't know how many folks here paint things, but does anyone have experience with Krylon always discontinuing colors? I might not be able to finish my project because of this, and I've had to repaint vintage lanterns in the past due to this. Weird stuff. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

Shot open two cans today. Krylon had a smaller clear marble, and the Rusto had a larger green marble.