Tamiya TS Spray Paint Shelf Life

[LewisDubya]

Hello,

I'm a newb and I'm just wondering what kind of shelf life a can of Tamiya TS spray has after it's been opened. I got some from a friend that's half full and it could be as old as two years.

THx

[freakray]

TS spray cans have a long shelf life.

What do you mean by 'it's opened'?

[Veyron]

I have some cans of TS that are 13 years old and still spray perfectly.

[RallyRaider]

As long as the can has pressure and paint, I'll be good. I've never found a bad one yet, and plenty have been sitting about for years both on the store shelves and in my stash before use.

Even when decanted the paint lasts for ages. I've several jars of decanted TS paint I use for small jobs. One was decanted about five years ago and is still as good as it ever was.

[Raikkobin]

and god said..let there be laquer!!

I haven't had any trouble decanting and using tamiya paints. Some of my old acrylics are getting a bit thick though...

[SteveK2003]

I just mixed some metallic Testors acrylics that were maybe a couple of years old and the pigments were a little sludgy (Gold and silver). I mixed them pretty well with my battery-powered mixer and it worked pretty well, but there was a fair amount of crud left in the bottom. I probably should have scraped the sides with some sprue before I poured them out, but oh well. I mixed two whole bottles so that should last a while.

I have read about guys still being able to get paint out of spray cans from the 60s and 70s just fine. I imagine if you can get the paint out, it should be OK.

Anybody know if it is OK to 'mechanically' open an aerosol can that has been emptied of all of it's propellant? On an old episode of David Letterman he was putting stuff in a hydrolic press, and one of the items was a can of shaving cream: There was no explosion or anything, but it looked like about a gallon of shaving cream flowed all over the place.