Question: How to get thinner and cleaner out of their containers?

Yes, you read it right, I might be dense but I don't know how get lacquer thinner and mineral spirit out of their bulky, large 1 gallon metal containers and into small, more manageable jars. :rolleyes:

When the containers were new and full, I used a pipette/eye dropper to suck the solvent up and fill it in a reserve glass jar, as used for airbrushing.

Now the level has gone so low, that I cannot reach with the dropper. I tried pouring (even bought a funnel) but the rectangular shape of the container and the location of the opening made it impossible to control the flow. I do not want my work area and/or floor covered in solvents. This is a health and safety issue for me. What can I do?

As an additonal question: Can I use plastic containers to fill with lacquer thinner/mineral spirit? I have some nice bottles (e.g. from nail polish remover) that held solvents before and are much easier to handle than the bulky thinner containers.

Any help is appreciated
Jens

Go into your local R/C hobby shop, and get one of the squeeze bulb 'fuel pump' thingies that R/C plane guys use to transfer fuel. It won't last forever with laquer thinner- eventually the solvants will attack it- but you should be able to use one for a year or two. It's the best solution I've found....

As for smaller containers, I'd be careful with plastics. Some solvants are safe with some plastics- but I certainly couldn't tell you which and which. You really don't want to guess wrong. I have some smallish glass jars that I decant thinner into. I expect something like a glass mayo jar would work fine.

I use plastic straws to get cleaner/thinner out of there containers. cheap and expandable.

I believe I've seen a 'pump' type dispensor for the large metal containers for thinner. I think it was on Micro Mark's website.

i'm fairly new at modeling, so i don't know that much about solvents, but how about a siphon tube, like the kind used to clean fish tanks?

Carefully pouring it into a jar through a funnel is not an option here for some reason? :confused:

Try tipping the can to the point where you can reach the fluid with the eye dropper ;-) .

Cheers, Rick

Thanks for the tips. I will try the bulb pump. On some of the other questions, pouring is not really a solution as the solvent really splashes around the opening and a lot gets lost (and evaporates in my workspace). I tried the tipping to reach but now it's low and is very hard to reach

Cheers
Jens

I got lucky at the bulk food/club store a few years ago. Gallon cans of soy sauce, same style as lacquer thinner cans, each with a little snap on pouring cap. A few caps were laying around the palettes from damaged cans. I grabbed one, works awesome. There must be a place to buy them cheap, but even at a couple bucks, it would be worth it for the cleanliness, convenience and no more spillage! It snaps on and off very easily, here it is leaning on the cap of a can... - Mark
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/Scale-Master/DSC00740.jpg
Before this dealy came along I used funnels and basters to extract the thinner...