doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Opinions on Pro Custom finish

Any inert gas will work as long as it removes the oxygen from the can. The old school tried & true marble trick work pretty darn good and is much cheaper than specialty cans of inert gas, plus they are reuseable.

I use the marbles as well. Cheap and easy.

Different strokes for different folks. 👍


You don't have to remove all the oxygen as long as the inert gas you're using is heavier than air. A layer of argon, with a little air on top of it, seems to be no problem. Besides, there's no way to know if you've eliminated all of the air in the container, anyway.

The marble trick is OK, but still leaves a small bit of air in the can or bottle of finish.

I was going to buy a can of the inert gas product BloxO2. At the time it was over $17.00 per can. Then I realized I had a 220 cu.ft. cylinder of inert gas on the back of one MIG welder, and a 120 cu. ft. bottle on the other MIG welder. I use Ultramix 80-20 Argon/ CO2

Just open the valve and regulator, lift the wire feed wheels, put the nozzle of the gun in the open can... ready to quickly close the lid, and pull the trigger for a few seconds. Even if a bit of air is not purged out, it cannot contact the finish because the heavier than air gas displaces it.

Now I also have a 75 cu. ft. cylinder of straight Argon for my TIG welder. In a pinch, I have used propane from a Bernz-O-Matic torch, as propane is also heavier than air. A little extra caution is needed as propane is flammable. I could see someone like the Nutty Professor pulling the trigger on a self-igniting torch, and blowing himself up... again.

I'm not messing with marbles. I make up my finish in very small batches and house it in very small bottles. As long as I can use a gas to accomplish the same thing I intend to do so.

After my can of argon is gone I will try propane.

Thanks for all the responses.

One would have to make sure the marbles had absolutely no contamination on them. The biggest problem in my world would be silicone, or, synthetic grease or oil, that get used on every project around the place.

Keith, I know guys that subbed propane for R12 in automotive air conditioning compressors. That went on for decades, and, I always figured they were flirting with disaster, but, I never heard of anybody having a fire or explosion while doing that. I figured out, long ago, that the typical Pepsi generation basement 110 volt dehumidifier had about 15lbs of R12 in it, (they didn’t want them to freeze up, and refrigerant was cheap) and I bought about a dozen of them when I went to garage sales, and recovered the R12 out of them.

Flash forward to today. Most cars AC units are charged with propane.

Best,
Ted

https://stoplossbags.com/
I've been using these with great success for years

I wouldn't want to have to clean up a mess using marbles. I have always used a layer of wax paper. Or just put a layer of plastic wrap under the lid before you put it on the can to seal the air out. It has always worked great for me. Simple and easy.

Jimmy, the problem is not keeping air out. The problem is the air that is trapped inside when you put the lid on. Any heavier than air gas descends to the surface of the finish and causes any remaining air to stay at the very top of the empty space above the liquid.

Just put a layer of wax paper right on top of the liquid. That keeps the air out. Or if I am going to use it again, soon, I'll just put a layer of plastic wrap under the lid for a short period of time. I have never had problems doing either. Putting marbles in a half empty can of any liquid would take a lot of marbles. And a mess to clean up if you wanted to save the marbles. I remember Russ saying all of this years ago. But, people have their own ways, I guess. Good luck.