Typically, spray paint cans are associated with graffiti. But in fact, you can use them, turning everyday items into a real exclusive that will delight the eye and surprise guests. This review provides examples of how you can transform your home using spray paint.
1. Glass candlesticks
Usually, when you invite guests over for dinner, the last thing you want to do after spending a lot of time and energy preparing the food is worry about setting and decorating the table. It's worth considering creating a set of colorful accessories from glass vases and vessels that are in stock. And it will take no more than fifteen minutes.
2. Jewelry
Many people have a pair of earrings or a necklace that has lost its former shine. To quickly make your decoration attractive again, you can use paint. Just remember to wrap the fasteners with tape before spraying.
3. Gift bags
Often, when you go on a visit, the best option is a flower pot. To make a green gift beautiful and unique (whether it's a flower or a plant), you can paint the paper bag in which the pot is packaged in a metallic shade.
4. Flowers
These flowers are inexpensive and can be found almost anywhere. But hardly anyone imagined that fresh flowers could be painted in all the colors of the rainbow.
5. Stationery
Yes, you can splatter paint on paper to create beautiful cards. This idea is perfect for various trips, when you can make all sorts of postcards and souvenirs and send them to friends.
6. Accessories
Those heading to the beach should also consider a paint can. Why not make a straw hat, flip-flops and beach bag in silver.
7. Easter eggs
Everyone paints eggs for Easter. This is usually done with a bow, but why not create a real work of art using a paint sprayer. You just have to imagine how it will look in a basket on the table.
8. Decorative wreaths and artificial flowers
Of course, such decorations are not found very often, and those who use them never think that wreaths and flowers can be periodically repainted according to at will. All you need is a can of spray paint.
9. Decorative pumpkin
Pumpkins can be used as home decorations for more than just Halloween. In autumn, a pumpkin can become a stylish accessory and, perhaps, a real work of art. Moreover, the pumpkin will not need to be cut out at all - you will only need a stencil (by the way, old stockings are quite suitable) and paint.
10. Christmas tree
The New Year is still far away, but the idea is worth remembering. Such a unique Christmas tree will be remembered for long years their bright colors and unique appearance.
11. Antique candlesticks
It turns out that you can take absolutely new candlestick and give it an antique look. This can be achieved by spraying mirror and bronze paint.
12. Table lamp
Many people would like to change or redesign their workspace. This can be done with minimal effort in many ways. For example, you can paint your table lamp in a “cheerful” color.
13. Bookends
A herbal wreath in all its glory.
This thing will look very cool in the country house. You can collect ordinary burdocks and dried herbs from the yard, then weave them into a wreath and paint it with a can of spray paint in an unusual color.
And at one of the motor shows, museum visitors were given cans of paint and...
Many of us often have gas cylinders in our homes. They are made of fairly high-quality metal, which sometimes it’s just a shame to throw away. In order to get started, you will need a similar container of 50 liters. It is often left over from propane.
A little about security measures
You may not even realize it, but there will be residual gas inside. Of course, you can’t start working with them; you need to get rid of them. To do this, simply open the container and leave it for several hours. Just make sure there is no fire nearby. Also, after all this, rinse the container with water. It will completely rid the cylinder of gas residues. You can also use chlorine or lime for cleaning. The truth may remain after this bad smell. But it's easy to remove. Simply hold the product over the fire for a while. Wait until the paint burns.
Work process
From the resulting cylinder you can easily make a portable compressor station. Surely you have on your farm a large number of wheels They need to be pumped up from time to time. So such a homemade invention will come in handy. Small wheels will make such a station as mobile as possible; you won’t have to carry heavy tires with you.
In order to get started, you must first find a reducer whose maximum pressure will be 2 atmospheres. With it, even children will be able to inflate tires without any problems.
Then you can build a stove without any problems. It will do an excellent job of heating the workshop. To create it, you only need one burner, which can heat up to 140 degrees and a small chimney. By the way, with such a device it is possible to easily dry nuts and perform many other manipulations. Look at the photos below to see what it all looks like.
One interesting thing to note is the vegetable garden skating rink. It can also be used as a track leveler. To do this, it is enough to simply prepare a special iron base that you can easily hold on to. You can make such a skating rink in just an hour, or even less. It all depends on how quickly you find the iron handle.
Lovers of outdoor recreation can also be satisfied. In particular, you can make a high-quality barbecue. To do this, simply cut out the top. By the way, it is possible to make a smokehouse without any problems by combining several cylinders at once. Look at the photo below. Looks quite attractive.
By the way, if you have any parts from the cylinder, do not throw them away under any circumstances. It is possible to make a stand for the burner from half. You just need to attach a few small legs. You can also use part of the side panel. It should be used as a protection for the sharpener.
As you can see, there are quite a lot of options. If you don’t have the desire to do anything complicated, then you can, for example, make an ordinary trash can out of a balloon and decorate it. In general, it’s enough just to show your imagination. Do you have piglets? Then just make a trough for them to feed. This a great opportunity to save money.
If you have a gas-cylinder pneumatic gun, then there are probably a lot of empty cans. The author of the article suggests not throwing them away, but making a durable case for the flash drive.
Attention!!! Before cutting the canister, make sure that there is no gas left in it! The canister is under high pressure and disassembling it can lead to the canister exploding!
So it's in our hands empty a can (or better yet, two) imported from under carbon dioxide(CO?). You can also use domestic cylinders - their wall thickness is even a little thicker (although these are quite thick), but, unfortunately, they are shorter, so long flash drives run the risk of not fitting into them.
Next, we need to cut the can into two parts, of which one will become the body, and the second will become the lid. Although I personally didn’t like the option of a lid in the form of a standard neck, so the lid was made from the semicircular bottom of the second cylinder. I draw your attention to the need for a very precise cut perpendicular to the axis! Even minor errors can lead to the fact that when connecting the body and the cap, the wall will acquire a quite noticeable “break”. Naturally, the ends of the sawn parts must be sanded evenly with sandpaper on a flat surface, for example, glass. In principle, we can end here - the flash drive will turn out to be laconic and brutal, but I decided to slightly embellish the body and made three oblique cuts on both sides using two folded together, hacksaw blades. After which I again leveled the cuts with a file and “sandpaper” (but not very fine - we will benefit from micro-scratches on the walls of the slot) wrapped around a plastic card.
Naturally, it was impossible to just leave holes in the case, so I started thinking about how to cover them. After trying several solutions, I came up with a rather tricky option. To do this, buy a ruler of the desired color from an office supply store - I chose UV-active (fluorescent) orange as it goes well with brushed metal. It is also necessary to check that the thickness of the plastic approximately matches the thickness of the slot, or rather slightly exceeds it.
A small piece of colored plastic is cut out of a ruler so that it can be inserted into this slot with a margin of length and height. Just in case, I remind you that its thickness should be slightly larger than the slot and not fit into it. The end is ground to a semicircular profile - to fit tightly to the “bottom” of the slots.
We will need dichloroethane, which is widely known to modders who love to work with plexiglass, and is usually sold on radio markets. Using a brush or cotton swab, you need to quickly and generously moisten the side surfaces and the end of a piece of the ruler, wait a few seconds until the dichloroethane softens the surface of the plastic and forcefully insert it into the slot until it stops (you can help yourself with a hammer). Check that there are no gaps anywhere.
Now we put this aside and go have tea (not forgetting wash your hands well after dichloroethane). We need to wait until the dichloroethane has completely evaporated and the plastic has regained its original hardness - do not touch it for at least a few hours, otherwise you risk loosening the tight fit. When everything is dry, you can cut off the excess plastic from the outside, being careful not to touch the metal, and sand it flush with the body.
You can also sand the plastic flush with the metal body from the inside, although this is not necessary. Perhaps without this operation the plastic will even stay more securely in the groove, but most likely this will slightly interfere with the installation of the flash drive board.
The plastic adhered surprisingly well and was not going to fly out, despite its small thickness. Since the technology turned out to be successful, I did the same with all the other slots, naturally this time “in bulk.” Of course, after this the body was finally sanded.
Next, it was necessary to think over the technology for mounting the flash drive board in its new case. To do this, three washers were cut from the same ruler to fit the inner diameter of the case, after which slots were made in them for the flash drive connector. Two of them will be glued together and will firmly hold the board in the case, and the third will become a counterpart in the cover.
After this, the question of organizing the lighting arose. It was a sin not to take advantage of the UV activity property of the plastic, and therefore a 3 mm ultraviolet LED was chosen for the role of illumination. When I tried to connect it directly instead of the standard LED indicator on the board, it turned out that there was not enough power for it and it barely glowed. The only power source is 5 volts from the USB connector, but in this case we will lose the read/write indication function.
Memories of the basics of electrical engineering suggested a solution in the form of a transistor. The first element that came across was found on an old hard drive board and soldered out from there. I admit, I didn’t make any selection based on the parameters and didn’t even see the markings, but surprisingly the circuit worked! In short, the power is directly taken from those same 5 volts through a resistor, and the “ground” is connected to the transistor, and it appears precisely when the transistor detects the voltage at the contacts of the LED indicator. A simple diagram is attached.
An interesting solution for coating is paints produced in spray cans. With their help you can evenly paint the surface. Thanks to aerosol spraying, the consumption of paint and varnish material is not very large, and markings on the product help facilitate the selection of the required tone. You can even refill the paint into a spray can yourself. The presence of marking codes is very important when, for example, a car body is partially repaired or restored.
But such a factory-made form of release is much more expensive than conventional dyes, and the desired tone is among finished products It’s not always possible to choose. What to do in this case? You can fill the can with something you purchased or tinted with your own hands. the right paint yourself, or you can turn to the services of specialists, and then enjoy all the benefits of fine spraying.
Advantages of aerosol application of dyes
Usage paint and varnish materials, released in finished containers with a spray, provides a number of advantages:
- Saving material. All the paint released from the can will fall directly onto the surface being painted, and will not remain on the roller, brush or other painting tool.
- Quick preparation for use. This paint does not need to be diluted before use and poured into a container for convenient use. It is enough to shake the dye container for 5 seconds so that the balls in it ensure mixing of the solution, and you can spray the coating onto the surface.
- Possibility of dosed use due to the difference in the force of pressing the sprayer. When painting small scratches and cracks, just lightly press the spray button.
- The ability to carry out partial restoration repairs by spraying a coloring composition onto damaged areas. With the right color scheme, after drying the surface will appear evenly painted.
- Even the most difficult to reach places can be easily painted.
- No special painting skills are required; even an amateur can handle the job.
- The remaining paint in the can does not require quick use; in such a container, it will retain its original qualities for a long time.
- Convenient for storage and transportation: the container is sealed, dyes will not spill out of it and will not stain the floor.
In such containers, dyes of various compositions and qualities are produced; they can be used on wood, metal, glass, and concrete; apply for external or interior work. Selection desired color won't be difficult.
When is it necessary to fill the dye into the container?
This must be done in the following cases:
- tinted paint remains, and it must be preserved for a long time;
- color selection among finished aerosol products is impossible (for example, a complex color or such a dye simply does not exist).
You can pump paint into a spray bottle by contacting a specialized company, where they will quickly fill the required container using a vacuum unit. But such refilling is quite expensive, and if immediate use is intended, then you can pump the paint into the container yourself.
How to refill a cylinder yourself
Filling paint solutions into a spray can can easily be done with your own hands.
Of course, it will not provide such complete filling as with vacuum pumping with a special installation, but it is simple and cheap.
The cylinder can be used repeatedly.
Required tools:
- An empty can of deodorant or paint. If a container is used after dyes, then you need to fill in a solution of the same quality (for example, after acrylics - acrylic, after alkyds - alkyd). Incorrect selection of paint and varnish components can lead to a “chemical conflict” that will affect the quality of the coating.
- Paint for refilling. Any one will do - purchased in a store or tinted yourself with necessary selection shade.
- A large medical syringe without a needle: with its help the paint will be pumped into the container. For more efficient squeezing safety valve you can put a broken needle on it.
- Bicycle nipple (can be cut from a worn-out inner tube).
- Pump (car or bicycle).
- Pressure gauge.
Operating procedure:
- Remove the cap and spray nozzle from the can.
- Draw the coloring solution into the syringe, insert it into the container until it stops, pressing the safety valve.
- Pour the dye into a container.
- Repeat the filling procedure until the container is approximately 2/3 full.
- If you used a deodorant container, you need to add 3-5 metal balls there. Balls from worn-out bicycle bearings are quite suitable for this purpose.
- The remainder of the container must be filled with air under pressure, otherwise the sprayer will not work. To do this, insert the bicycle nipple tightly, squeezing the safety balloon valve.
- Connect the pump to the nipple and, while pumping, create a pressure of up to 3-5 atmospheres. If you do less, you won’t get a full spray; if you do more, the container may not be able to withstand the load.
- After inflating, remove the nipple and replace the cap with the sprayer.
- Now you need to shake the can a little, stirring the coloring solution, and check its operation. For this purpose, release a small portion of the dispersed mixture onto an unnecessary board or other surface.
Application
With paint filled in this way you can:
- paint a decorative composition;
- evenly paint surfaces that have a complex configuration;
- carry out cosmetic or complete renovation automobile body;
- draw graffiti on walls or airbrush a car;
- restore furniture and much more.
Self-filled dye, when creating the necessary pressure in the container, is evenly sprayed over the surface, ensuring material savings and quality of finishing.
The balloon form of release is convenient to use, ensures material savings and long-term preservation of the quality of residues unused during repair and decorative work.
But really, what can you make from a gas cylinder with your own hands? This has been the case since the days Soviet Union that many products can be fundamentally recycled and new designs can be obtained from them that will perform completely different functions. As it turns out, you can do a lot from a gas cylinder and, mind you, everything will be done with your own hands.
Stove from a cylinder
The first thing that comes to mind when looking for an answer to the question of what you can make from a gas cylinder with your own hands is a potbelly stove. Such a unit has many advantages, as well as the installation principle itself. Firstly, the thickness of the walls of the gas cylinder is 3 mm and this is quite enough to prevent a potbelly stove from burning out already in the first season of operation. Secondly, improve gas cylinder You will need very little - the oven can be made in one day with your own hands. The third advantage is the huge choice of designs: you can make a stove from one cylinder or from two, vertical or horizontal. Use your own imagination or tips from the Internet - and you can make a product out of a gas cylinder that will help you out in the cold winter.
There are also disadvantages. Or rather, these are not even shortcomings, but features that must be taken into account so that they do not turn into shortcomings. For example, before burning wood for the first time, it is necessary to remove paint from outside parts from the cylinder. Otherwise, the paint will begin to fade and fill the room with acrid smoke. It is also necessary to take care of fire safety. The walls of a stove made from a gas cylinder can become red hot and this is fraught with many troubles. It may seem to you that such heating is only a plus, because it will be warm inside the room. But anything that can flare up from such strong heating will certainly flare up if it is too close to the potbelly stove. And you need to take care of the walls of the room itself: our workshop’s cinder block wall cracked vertically along its entire height after just a few evenings of use. What can be done to protect the wall: install the stove at a distance from it, protect it with a galvanized screen mounted on the wall at a short distance from it, or heat the potbelly stove in moderation. The latter, by the way, is not the best - it will be difficult to “guess” the optimal amount of firewood. And most importantly: a stove made from a gas cylinder with your own hands (or even someone else’s) will cool down very quickly. As long as the fire is burning inside, as long as firewood is being added, it will be warm. But as soon as the wood burns out, the stove instantly cools down. Insulating the walls of the room where such a potbelly stove will be used will help, as will the elimination of even minimal cracks in the area of the windows, doors or gates of the room.
Feeders for animals and birds
This is another option that you can make from a gas cylinder with your own hands and still get excellent quality. Such feeders seem to be, if not eternal, then 100% durable. The gas cylinder is cut along its axis and you get two halves, each of which will become an excellent feeder for pigs, sheep or a drinking bowl for poultry. All that remains is to weld the stand, since the lower part of each of the halves will be semicircular and, of course, will not stand on the ground. You can also cut off the top and bottom of the cylinder along the line of the backing rings and get small round feeders. They are suitable for small animals and provided that we are talking about one or two individuals. Or maybe it will be drinking bowls for chickens - it's up to you. 
Here you also need to take into account some features so as not to be upset later. Since food will be poured inside such feeders, you should especially carefully clean the inside of gasoline. If the cylinder has been refilled multiple times and has not been cleaned, gasoline will accumulate inside and have a very strong odor. A strong smell plus oiliness over the entire surface - this must be removed so as not to poison poultry and animals. How to do it yourself: a set of actions helps, including washing in boiling water using various cleaning agents, burning with a blowtorch and cleaning using attachments on a drill or angle grinder.
Manual roller for compaction
And also from a gas cylinder, and also with your own hands. A roller is a rarely used thing, but if you really need it, it’s difficult to find. Compact the asphalt surface if you have to do it yourself and don’t have to rely on a roller; tamping the base under paving slabs, soil compaction – there can be many situations. The main thing is that making a manual roller from a gas cylinder with your own hands is even easier than the previous crafts that we mentioned above. A U-shaped pipe about an inch in diameter, the ends of which will be attached to the center of the top and lower parts cylinder by means of bearings and a handle of a shape and length convenient for your hands - that’s the whole design. Water or sand is used as filler. Water is lighter, sand is heavier, so the choice depends on the purpose of the skating rink. 
The main thing is safety. Since parts will be welded to the gas cylinder, you should take care to clean it from gasoline to prevent troubles. At the end of the article we will talk about this in more detail.
Other crafts from balloons
If you thought that a stove, a feeder and a roller are the entire list of what you can make from a gas cylinder with your own hands, then you are mistaken. There is no limit to ingenuity: various containers for storing something, a smokehouse, a grill, a feed cutter, an autoclave, a compressor and even a boiler - this is a relatively complete list of crafts. Another thing is that some of these designs are not always justified and it will be easier to purchase (purchase) a ready-made unit for safety reasons. If the master knows what he is doing with his own hands and it is so safe for use, then the issue is removed. But if you don’t have enough intelligence, then you can either kill yourself or your loved ones. We don’t want to offend anyone, but cases are different. 
How to disassemble a gas cylinder
We promised above that we will teach you how to disassemble the cylinder safely and we keep our word. First of all, don’t think that everything is so simple and safe - if you act incorrectly, you can get burned in the literal and figurative sense of the word. Let's give an example from our youth. This is precisely the period when there was little experience, there was no Internet, but there was a burning desire to use the gas cylinder for other purposes. Logic dictated that we should be wary of even that insignificant amount of gasoline inside, but we didn’t want to get too dirty. Therefore, having knocked down the valve with a sledgehammer, we began to fill the container with water, shake it off and drain the liquid. After repeating this five times, we decided that there was no longer a threat. We started sawing the cylinder along the axis with a grinder and were already 90% done with the work. And only then (!) the remains of the gasoline flared up and the master was engulfed in a cloud of flame. Nothing terrible - just burnt eyebrows and hair all over the exposed body - but it’s unpleasant.
The instructions will help you disassemble the cylinder (cut it) without consequences:
- Even if you are sure that the cylinder is empty, you must open the valve. By venting even that small amount of gas, you will once again protect yourself.
- The valve must be removed. Here everyone tries according to their capabilities and imagination. Some knock it down with a sledgehammer, others cut it off with a grinder or a hand hacksaw, and still others twist it out. Last option the safest, but difficult to do at home. Clamping the cylinder so that it does not rotate under the force of the key is difficult. If you use cutting the valve at the very base of the cylinder, then ONLY using hand hacksaw! No cutters or angle grinders!
- The hole that appeared after removing the valve is small in diameter, but it is enough to pour water inside. Why is this necessary? The water will displace the remaining gas and nothing will flare up when cutting. Here there is a slight difficulty, or rather inconvenience: you need to cut the bottle with water inside and water will definitely flow out of the resulting cut. There is nothing you can do about it - this is a feature that you need to be able to adapt to. For example, the area where you will be working with your hands should be such that spilled water does not collect and you will not have to kick the dirt with your feet. Naturally, this operation must take place on outdoors, and not indoors.
- If an abundance of water cannot be avoided, then you can risk rinsing the cylinder several times, washing off the remaining gasoline. Just note: we specifically wrote the word “risk”, since we cannot give guarantees of safety. in our case, as you remember, there was almost no gasoline, but it flared up at the end of the cutting.
- Cutting with a grinder is the most in a fast way. Mark the line with a marker (the pencil graphite will quickly fly off the surface due to vibration) and start cutting. Since the gas cylinder is round, it is better to place something under it on the sides so that it does not roll during operation.
- Cleaning the internal surface is necessary even if the cylinder structure will not be used for poultry or animal feed. The smell is strong and persistent, so you need to remove it. To begin with, you can wash it with boiling water using various types of cleaning products. This will help partially, so burning follows. Blowtorch or a fire - decide for yourself. Both options will help 100% and all you have to do is complete the cleaning with a metal brush. It is better to use the appropriate attachment on a drill or grinder to make things go faster.
Instead of a conclusion
As you can see, the question “what can you make from a gas cylinder with your own hands” has many possible answers. The main thing is your safety, because you are going to work with your own hands, which means you are risking them. Any design you make from a cylinder will serve you for a long time. Reason: high quality steel, which is rare now. But we also advise you to think through everything thoroughly - is it worth doing the thing yourself if the store-bought option is more reliable. For example, we would not risk working homemade compressor from a cylinder or a boiler - life is more expensive.