Cheapest paint (or resin!) mixer around

Lets face it, we all love gadgets.  Hell, this hobby is riddled with specialty tools and doo-dads that allow us to create the wonderful things we love so much.  That is one of the reasons I bought one of those Badger cordless paint mixers with the tiny paddle end.  And it's awesome, don't get me wrong.  It can stir the thickest sludge!! I have used it most successfully to stir up those Tamiya paint jars and transfer them into little eye dropper bottles like the ones Vallejo paints come in. (I like consistency, its a 5S thing...)

But I digress, so as some of you know, I do some resin casting and mold making.  Well, I am still a rookie and have had mixed success (no pun intended). Back to the drawing board...I went back to the folks I got my supplies from, Reynolds Advanced Materials (www.reynoldsam.com) as they are very helpful.  The issues I have been having stem from improper mixing (read: user error) so I thought I need a little mixer to get this resin stuff stirred properly. Another chance to get a gadget, right? Only problem is...all the little paint mixers I could find are single speed, on/off.  Well, 25k RPM is NOT going to work, stuff would be everywhere. I needed a variable speed one and could not find a cheap solution.



So here is what I worked out:

I went to Ace hardware and bought a #6 screw, 3 inches long (fully threaded) for 19 cents and 2 wing-nuts (6/32) which were 2x20 cents.

Put one wing-nut on backwards and run it to the bottom, and put the next one one normal, tighten it down fully and for a total of 59 cents and my Dremel (which all good hobbyists have...) I now have a variable speed resin mixer, which I tested out tonight to cast some casualty counters.  The castings set up perfectly and I am very happy with my Yankee ingenuity!