Paint Pot Agitator

[IdofEntity]

If you're going to burn through the paint and use it all within a few months, then using a stainless steel ball probably won't be an issue. A lot of us though have paints from five or six years ago that we pull out every so often for a highlight or some such. Those paints I wouldn't use anything metallic, and those ceramic beads sound ideal.

 

[QuietiManes]

Sorry, by the time I got to posting I forgot the main part of my point.

Wouldn't the higher grade stainless steels be pretty much immune? They have listings with chemical resistance where the suggested use is for highly corrosive chemical pumps and industrial machinery etc.

For example, the 316's, NIT50 or 904L below? Would they also rust?

http://www.abbottball.com/materials/stainless-steel-balls.php

 

[airhead]

Wouldn't the higher grade stainless steels be pretty much immune? They have listings with chemical resistance where the suggested use is for highly corrosive chemical pumps and industrial machinery etc.

For example, the 316's, NIT50 or 904L below? Would they also rust?

http://www.abbottball.com/materials/stainless-steel-balls.php

Probably be ok, (I'm no metallurgist) but I will say that I regularly rust medical grade stainless steel forceps on my boat. Warm salt water is evil to anything that will corrode. Lots of our pigments are supposed to be inert, but I'd bet there are a lot of salts in their makeup.

 

[IdofEntity]

Okay, looked at the corrosive properties of 904L Stainless Steel. I doubt you'd have any issue using this in your paint. It comes down to cost and ease of access then.

Corrosion resistant stainless steels, or Ceramics.

 

[Sister_Lucy]

I've also heard people using lava rock beads
http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H208904GS

I also don't see why you can't use obsidian as well or any other natural rock.
http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H209291GS

You should be able to find something similar in most bead stores.

 

[QuietiManes]

Well I'm glad I never got around to putting in an order for the surgical stainless steel balls like I've been wanting to do for years now. I almost ended up buying SS nuts from the hardware store to use last summer, but they only had a few clamshells and I needed a couple more than they had so I was planning to go back some day. Probably on the low end of resistance...