Reusable stirring sticks?

I've used a lot of bamboo skewers, which eventually have to be thrown away. I've been looking for reusable stirring stick options - something that won't absorb liquid resins, paint, or lacquer thinner. I decided not to use metal rods because they can scratch the cups I use, which are made of polypropylene, which resists every chemical I use. So I figured the stirring sticks should also be made of polypropylene, but finding such sticks has proven difficult, until I theorized maybe those cheap watercolor brushes are made of the same material. I bought a pack today, dunked one brush (the butt, not the bristles) into a cup of lacquer thinner for several minutes, swishing it around to make sure it was sufficiently soaked. Then I dug a fingernail into it to see if it was softening, or turning gummy, but it remained completely intact. Other common plastics like ABS and vinyl will be noticeably affected by lacquer thinner. But this showed no surface property changes whatsoever. That means I can clean paint, resin, and other residues off of it with lacquer thinner (it's what I use to clean my polypropylene mixing cups).

I'll be stirring paint, and small batches of resin with these from now on (hopefully).

30 brushes/stirring sticks for $1.

I can now confirm the plastic is not affected by the resin. A thin film of resin cures around the plastic, and it peels off easily.

I'm using cocktail straw.

Tamiya makes a nice set of metal paint stirring sticks that are really inexpensive. They are smooth metal, so they’re really easy to clean. I love em

Glass chemistry stir rods?

darth_myeek said:

Glass chemistry stir rods?

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But are they strong? Can I scrape the sides of a cup really fast without breaking the glass? My stirring technique is a bit like whipping eggs in a bowl.

Back to the paint brushes: I've discovered that I'm getting less unmixed liquid residue in my mixing cups now. I think it's due to the stirring sticks being made of plastic, which lets it slide around inside the cup faster and more smoothly than the bamboo sticks I used before. The reason I need to stir so quickly is because I use 1-minute resin. It starts to get really hot inside the cup in under a minute, so I have to make sure it's as thoroughly mixed as possible before pouring into the mold.

Yeah, I really don't think you can find anything better for $1. Great idea.

-Rog

station said:

Tamiya makes a nice set of metal paint stirring sticks that are really inexpensive. They are smooth metal, so they’re really easy to clean. I love em

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Can concur.