Paint Matching System

[Thomas]

Hello,
A friend of mine works for someone else as an exterior house painter. In many conversations I have asked him why he doesn't work on his own since he has so much of the equipment himself. He says he doesn't have a paint color matching and mixing system like his boss does.

I would like to research making the investment myself and am having difficulty finding exactly what he is talking about. I imagine it is a system similar to what you see at Home Depot or Lowes in the paint section.

Can someone help me with the following:

1. What equipment, exactly, should I be looking into?
2. Who are the manufacturer's of this equipment?
3. What is the ballpark initial investment for this kind of equipment?

I appreciate any input you may have for me.
Thomas

[jrhode]

I'm not sure why your friend feels he needs paint mixing & matching systems. It would be a huge investment to buy a professional tinting system for personal/small company use. And you'd very likely have to invest in several different ones or stick with only one brand of paint since many paint mfgs have their own tinting systems for their paint.

It is much simpler and more accurate to have the paint store perform any matching for you. All the stores I use match colors from any brand to theirs, and they can match physical samples, too. (All for free!) Also, they can keep track of specific formulas for you so if you need more paint later, you can have it made with the exact same formula. They all put the formula right on a label on the can and also on the invoice. If you're mixing & matching paint at the job site, it's easy to forget exactly how you came up with a certain color and then you have to re-invent the wheel each time you need more of that color.

That said, I do have a tint rack, which is simply a small, portable metal rack with 10-12 different bottles of universal tints for making slight changes or custom colors for specialty finishes. It's nothing at all like the professional rack the paint stores have. Those are in no way portable. I very rarely need to use it, mainly for faux finishing projects. I've had it for over three years and have yet to refill a tint color. I think I spent $300 on the whole set-up.

If you're going to mix your own colors, I suggest learning color theory as it applies to paints, so you don't waste a lot of paint/tint trying to come up with a specific color. It can be much harder than it looks, and there are limits to how much tint paint can hold and still be usable.

A paint shaker can be handy, though, if you have a shop. They're really not portable either, and also not necessary, as any paint store will shake your paint before you walk out the door. You can get them on eBay for ~$100 for your basic 1 gal air powered model all the way up to $3000+ for a professional store 5g-1g-qt shaker model.

Hope this helps (and makes sense! I tend to ramble sometimes,,,)