Paint can key mystery

[RedShirtGuy]

:upset:Alright. I've had it. The torment has been far too great for far too long...

What the heck is the looped end of a paint can key for!?!?!
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Paint_can_key_001.jpg/640px-Paint_can_key_001.jpg)

Yeh, sure...a bottle opener...but what are painters using that comes in capped bottles (besides the obvious home brews that defy the Geneva Convention)?

Put me out of my misery :C

[rwbuild]

Easy to hang up so you can easily find it to open a bottle :rolleyes:

um.... put on a key ring

Real reason is to provide a decent grip and leverage by hand when in use. Try and use one without and you will soon find out :( its a PITA

[RedShirtGuy]

I figured leverage was probably the key (*boom-tish*) to the loop itself, but it seems like unnecessary processing to pinch out the tabs inside it just so you can sink a sly one (or twenty) on the job.

[rwbuild]

I figured leverage was probably the key (*boom-tish*) to the loop itself, but it seems like unnecessary processing to pinch out the tabs inside it just so you can sink a sly one (or twenty) on the job.

Maybe the industrial designer had an ulterior motive and the paint tin application was an after thought :D

[A Duke]

May be the home brew has to be opened to use as paint stripper.

[rsser]

FWIW if you have pushbikes in the house and do the tyres, you prob have a lever with a cupped end. Just as good.

[Master Splinter]

My paint can opener (one of them, at least) lives in the kitchen drawer for both opening milo lids as well as bottle opening functions.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I was using one the other day after reading this post. I hadn't previously noticed the bottle opener on the end but I was thinking it would have been handy if they didn't fully close the loop so you could store the opener on the paint tin handle.

I tend to open the tin and then loose the opener before I need to use it again on the same tin.

[Chesand]

FWIW if you have pushbikes in the house and do the tyres, you prob have a lever with a cupped end. Just as good.

Exactly what I have used for many years. It lives on the magnetic bar on the end of the bench.

[Sturdee]

Exactly what I have used for many years.

I think I've been missing out and feel deprived. Never knew that there was a special tool for opening paint cans. :C

All my life I've been making do with old screwdrivers. :U


Peter.

[Chesand]

I think I've been missing out and feel deprived. Never knew that there was a special tool for opening paint cans. :C

All my life I've been making do with old screwdrivers. :U


Peter.

At least screwdrivers are better than using chisels. You now have an excuse for an extra tool in the shed.:D

[Cliff Rogers]

There is only one way you could get me interested in painting.... that is it. :D

[chambezio]

Here is my take on the subject;
The scoopy bit that does the actual "Opening" of the can is shaped to put the end of the scoop *right under the corner of the lip pressed into the lid. Repeated use of a screwdriver instead of the opener, will make resealing the lid very hard due to bending out shape of the lid.
*the round loop at the other end is there to make it easier to find in the confusion mess that goes with a painting job
*painters are known for their large appetites for the amber stuff so why not make your paint tin lid opener have a "duel" function

I had never figured that you could hang it on the wire handle of the can. I like that idea.
I have a few kicking around that you can never locate when you want to use it, so I put a piece of string on it to leave a trail to locate the sucker

[NCArcher]

Many years ago, before they invented those new fangled, plastic, screw top bottles, paint additives came in a small glass bottle that needed a bottle opener.








































OK, I totally made that up but it's might be true. :B :U

[RedShirtGuy]

Hah. While NCA's theory is entirely plausible, I'm going to stick with the "painters are giant lushes" one. It's much more likely :q

[shedbound]

The way I use mine is in a twisting motion as opposed to levering as it does less damage to the lid, the shape of the handle is ideal for this motion

[Berlin]

I think they were possibly originally conceived for kitchen use and have just found an ongoing niche in the shed but the production process hasn't changed.

Think of it as a useful vestigial tail.

[Cliff Rogers]

A painter in the kitchen? :oo:

[SAISAY]

A painter in the kitchen? :oo:

Milo Tins :U

[Berlin]

A painter in the kitchen? :oo:

Here's the scenario - our painter, wrestling to open a paint tin with a screwdriver has worked up a punishing thirst. He takes a beverage from his under-bench bar fridge to take the edge off. Frustratingly, he can't find the novelty denture bottle opener he normally uses and is forced to walk all the way to the kitchen to rummage in a draw of cooking implements. Eventually he finds a likely implement, whips the cap off and dispatches his beer. Feeling a little better but still a touch dry, he decides one more beer may be necessary if he is going to overpower the paint can. So he returns to the shed with the bottle opener in hand. It is at this serendipitous juncture that he finally notices the nicely splayed and flattened end of the bottle opener... History is altered.

Being steeped in 50's sexist stereotypes as this story is, the painter's aproned wife, returning from the laundry leans over his shoulder as he triumphantly liberates lid from can and says 'I always wondered what the flat end on the bottle opener was for...'

;)
Matt

[Bushmiller]

Here's the scenario - our painter, wrestling to open a paint tin with a screwdriver has worked up a punishing thirst. He takes a beverage from his under-bench bar fridge to take the edge off. Frustratingly, he can't find the novelty denture bottle opener he normally uses and is forced to walk all the way to the kitchen to rummage in a draw of cooking implements. Eventually he finds a likely implement, whips the cap off and dispatches his beer. Feeling a little better but still a touch dry, he decides one more beer may be necessary if he is going to overpower the paint can. So he returns to the shed with the bottle opener in hand. It is at this serendipitous juncture that he finally notices the nicely splayed and flattened end of the bottle opener... History is altered.

Being steeped in 50's sexist stereotypes as this story is, the painter's aproned wife, returning from the laundry leans over his shoulder as he triumphantly liberates lid from can and says 'I always wondered what the flat end on the bottle opener was for...'

;)
Matt

Matt

I can visualise a very saucy wife leaning demurely over the painter saying just that. Could you whip up a quick 50s non PC poster for us ? :wink:

BTW, for those that don't know, Matt would have to be one of the most accomplished and renowned painters on the Forum, although I doubt his paint normally comes in tins the size we are talking about :cool: .

Regards
Paul

[Berlin]

Shucks, Paul - too kind I'm sure. :)