Decanting a damaged rattle can..

I have a can with the 'nipple' broken off,it is a can of chrome silver which is a handy colour so.....What is the best remedy bearing in mind that the can is full and therefore pressurised,can I just drill a small hole to depressurise it and drill a larger hole to remove the contents?
What do you think?

Any hole no matter how small and you will have paint all over the place.

Yo might be able to press down on what is left of the nipple with something. You just want to push lightly to let the gas out. To much pressure and you will look like you robbed a bank.

Promodmerc wrote:Any hole no matter how small and you will have paint all over the place.

Yo might be able to press down on what is left of the nipple with something. You just want to push lightly to let the gas out. To much pressure and you will look like you robbed a bank.

That made me laugh.
Tried that and no go,so what about putting the can in a baggy and drilling through that?

Piercing any aerosol can is dodgy at best Nige.

If it were me, I'd play safe and bin it!!

I think I would throw it away and get another. Drilling any size hole will be an experience for sure.

For what it's worth I saw Geoff slowly press a dart into the top of a full can at the seam, no problem.

It just gasses out.

And no, I haven't tried it myself...

We use rattle cans for painting at work and the safest way to decant one with a missing nozzle is to find stiff tube that will fit in the top hole and use that, a short length of it for stability. It also helps if you can get a large, transparent plastic garbage bag sort of thing to work in, that way you can do the decanting in the bag and not worry about spray-over or splattering or any of the other thousand things that can and usually do happen when doing this.

Another option to play it safe is to up-end the can (like you do when clearing the nozzle after use) and just release as much of the propellant as possible before decanting - this way you don't have as much internal pressure in the can if you want to try drilling a hole.

Best of luck with this and play it safe - nothing stings like aerosol paint in the eyes.

Got it sorted thanks,took the bull by the horns and got the dremel out (drill bit!)

Good stuff, Nigel! but I want to see the pics before this one, ground zero as it were. 

Plastic Freak wrote:Good stuff, Nigel! but I want to see the pics before this one, ground zero as it were. 

Second word being OFF!

You're a braver crazier man than I thought Nigel!
I know exactly what would have happened had I tried this. Glad it worked out for you.

I would have gone with Al and Buck's suggestions Nige but good result. 

When I had to get rid of a lot of old aerosol paint cans, I used an awl. Pressed orgently punched a hole in the side of the can laying down on the ground and s-l-o-w-l-y drew back the tapered awl until the gas slowly released. Rarely had any paint spray out of the many cans I did. Glad your system worked too.

Not quite H..
Found a second can of chrome silver today,bunged it in a bag and drilled - there was a lot of pressure in the can.....
It went ok though and I now have 300ml of chrome silver plus other chrome paints!

Ha, you bagged some silver! I wore goggles and long sleeves when doing cans outdoors...just in case!

harron68 wrote:Ha, you bagged some silver!  I wore goggles and long sleeves when doing cans outdoors...just in case!

I wish....
It was a spaceman.

How's that sweet corn filler working out for you, I bet's lumpy.