Minatures Paint Shaker

thingiverse

Needed a quick paint shaker for my miniatures paints, this will shake anything from 17ml dropper bottles right up to the 200ml air brush bottles from Vallejo. I haven't tried it on anything bigger than that. The paints are held in the cradle by elastic bands around the cradle and the paint. The 5 Bearing recesses are for 4mm x 9mm x 4mm Double Shielded 684-2Z bearings. The motor is a super cheap 12v (dimensions in the images). The crank is push fitted onto the spindle with a dab of CA glue. It's made to have M4 screws through all the linkages, countersunk sit better in the centre of the bearings. (the motor to link screw and the link to rocker screw are approximately 20mm in length, the cradle screw which goes right through the main bush can be up to 60mm, depending on if you use thrust bearings or washers between the printed parts, I found threaded rod applicable here with two nuts). Where two surfaces meet, for example between the linkage and the rocker I would suggest at minimum a couple of M4 washers to reduce friction and wear, to really reduce noise a small 4mm ID thrust bearing between the surfaces sandwiched between a couple of spring crinkle washers would be better. The spacers are provided to keep everything in line after you decide what bearings to use. The whole thing was placed on some 5mm ply wood drilled for the motor spindle end and the main bush. I have found that 5V will run it adequately (unless there is too much friction) so it can be USB powered but I would suggest if you do that to put a flyback diode on. I put two switches in the circuit in parallel with each other, a toggle and a momentary for that quick shake. Customisations. More agitation, lengthen the crank or shorten the rocker arm (or both) they obviously still have to reach. The cradle could be enlarged to take two pots of paint, the speed of the motor obviously determines the RPM of the unit.