You've probably all seen the posters - "It could be your key purpose in life is to be an example to someone else." with a picture of someone doing something really stupid...
I urge you to learn from my mistake. I don't possess a compressor or spray equipment so my spray painting is with aerosol cans. For years I have been warming my cans in a bucket of hot water as the paint goes on easier and is less likely to run. Not any more. On Monday I warmed up a new can of gray etch-primer with a couple of kettles of water in a bucket. Left the bucket at the bottom of my yard for ten minutes (in case the can went bang) to warm things up.
Went into my garage to paint, wrapped the can in kitchen paper, (still too warm to touch) gave it a final shake and was greeted with the loudest pop it has ever been my misfortune to witness. (My garage is brick-built, 20 yards from the house and with all the windows in both buildings shut it was loud enough to bring my son running from his bedroom to see what had happened.)
The pain in my right hand was such that I had to prod and poke it with my other hand to see if everything was still there and no bones broken. I was gray from head to toe and even though I was wearing a heavy cotton hoody it went right up to my elbows.
I was really, really lucky. If the top of the can had blown I would almost certainly lost my sight. If the side had blown out then there was easily enough force there to sever my hand. The base of the can had let go and the injury to my hand was purely from the explosion, no skin broken. The remainder of the can went upwards and was stopped by planks of wood stored in the rafters. This completely flattened the can, turned the aerosol button on top into red plastic shrapnel and brought down a 2 foot splinter from one of the planks it had hit. The kitchen paper had turned into what looked like wisps of cotton wool and everything seemed to be gray.
Twenty percent of my hand is bruise and I cannot use my thumb to grip anything. It will be a few weeks before I can ride a motorcycle again (couldn't even manage the twist-grip at present, never mind the front brake).
In future when I get the paint from a cold garage I will use tepid water to bring it to room temperature. My kettling days are done.
John
Amateur Audiophile and Backstreet Boffin.
Original Foreplay with C4S + Sweet Whispers
ParaSEX amps with MQ nickel-cored outputs
Factory-built Lowther Acousta 115s with silver-coiled DX3s, wired in DNM solid-core
KEF active sub (help for the last couple of octaves).
Bottlehead DAC on batteries.