Tried a cheap paint mixing cup that melted on me mid-job

I was in my shop off Route 22 last Tuesday spraying a silver Toyota Camry hood and using one of those off-brand graduated cups I got in a bundle pack. About half through mixing my clear coat, I felt the cup get soft in my hand and it just buckled, dumped clear all over my mixing station and the floor. Cost me about $40 in wasted material and 30 minutes to clean up, then had to remix from scratch. Has anyone else had a bad experience with cheap mixing cups or do you stick to the name brand ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan_mason20d ago

I had nearly the exact same thing happen with a batch of those cheap graduated cups I ordered off Amazon back in February. I was mixing urethane clear for a BMW 3 series bumper and the cup just got soft and started leaking from the bottom seam before it failed completely. The thing is, the name brand ones like the Dura-Cups from FinishLine have that thicker plastic and a molded seam that just holds up way better under solvents. Your mileage may vary but I've found that saving a buck on mixing cups just means you're gambling with your material and cleanup time. I've switched to only using the heavy duty ones from my local paint jobber even if they cost a little more per cup.

faith_carter20d ago

Walked right into that one @ivan_mason. I grabbed a pack of those cheap cups from a hardware store last month for some epoxy primer on a truck bed liner job. About halfway through mixing, the bottom started bowing outward like a balloon. Had to dump the whole mess into a clean bucket and finish mixing in that before it let go completely. Lost maybe 8 bucks of material but the cleanup was the real headache. Learned my lesson the hard way just like you did.